I used to pray for times like this to write like this. JP, please play five seconds of ‘Dreams and Nightmares’ by Meek Mill. 

For the second late summer Saturday in a row, the 2022 Oregon State football team notched a fairly historic first during the wee hours of the night/early hours of the morning for members of the Beaver Fam watching from east of Yellowstone National Park. After opening their new campaign with the first season-opening victory since 2015, Beaver football kept the positive vibes rolling with a thrilling victory in Fresno, marking the first time the Beavs have ever tasted victory in the San Joaquin Valley.

It did not come easy. 

It was never going to. Not against a Fresno State team that protects their home field as well as anyone in the cream of the FBS crop. Not against Jake Haener, the hyper talented quarterback and former Washington Husky always ready to punish any Power 5 program. And definitely not in a building that has been a house of horrors not only for the Beavers, but also for head coach Jonathan Smith, who has been subject to several more recent heartbreaks at the hands of the Bulldogs since the last time Oregon State played there in 2003. 

“Oregon State has never won in Fresno,” surely you heard this narrative several hundred times over the course of the week leading up to the Beavers doing exactly that last Saturday night. It was a piece of information easy to scoff at. How can a game that happened well before the current kids OSU’s recruiting were even alive have any effect on a game today? It doesn’t, but where’s the fun in ignoring narratives? 

I have to admit, the lack of success for both Oregon State and Jonathan Smith in Fresno played into my expectations and nerves last weekend. The last time Smith coached in that building it was with Boise State in 2013. The Broncos nearly pulled out a thrilling W, but future NFLers Derek Carr and Davante Adams were too much to handle and the Bulldogs won 41-40. 

Could Smith check those ghosts—as well as the ones stemming from two beatdowns in ‘06 and ‘08 while on Idaho’s staff—at the door? 

He could and then some. Smith looked every bit as unflappable on the sidelines as he did as a quarterback and captain for the best team in Oregon State history. Whether he was going for it on fourth down in the first quarter, or sending Jack Colletto and the offense out there to go for the win and not the tie with three seconds on the clock, his demeanor never changed. 

The Beavers earned their first ever win in Fresno and their first 2-0 start since 2012. Now they try to go 3-0 for the first time since that magical season a decade ago against the Montana State Bobcats at Providence Park in Portland. 

Unlike last week, the Beavs are the heavy favorites, but you can expect Smith to exude the exact same quiet, respectful confidence as always. Smith’s unflappable nature is a big part of what’s taken the Beavers this far. Now Beaver Nation gets to see how far it can take them. Like the man said after one of last year’s historic moments.

“We ain’t done yet.”