Oregon State Preview

For Arizona State, Saturday’s contest is simply about sending its seniors out with a win in their last-ever game at Sun Devil Stadium. The probability of that task naturally correlates with the quality of its opponent, and the 2022 version of Oregon State is certainly a formidable foe awaiting ASU.

Oregon State Offense

After earning Honorable Mention All-Pac-12 accolades last season, Chance Nolan predictably opened the season as QB1 for Oregon State, but a neck injury suffered at the beginning of October – also, potentially combined with the seven interceptions Nolan threw in just five games – created a shift to Ben Gulbranson as the starter for the Beavers.

Gulbranson has started the past five games, and as a starter this year, he averages 163.4 passing yards per game. On the year, he has 1,042 total passing yards and completes 62.0 percent of his passes with seven touchdowns and three interceptions. He’s rushed for a net total of minus-6 yards with one score as well.

The third-year redshirt freshman had a career-high 250 passing yards against Stanford and also had 202 passing yards versus Colorado but has thrown for under 150 yards in three of the past four games.

The hallmark of the OSU offense is its run game, which has seen three different players start games this year, with an emerging star in freshman Damien Martinez as the most recent starter.

Though he’s only started the past two games, Martinez has appeared in all ten contests this year and leads the team with 121 carries for 729 yards (6.0 avg.) with five touchdowns. He also has four catches for 61 yards.

He enters this contest on the heels of four consecutive 100-yards games, including a 178-yard, three-touchdown effort against Colorado State.

Deshaun Fenwick started the first seven games of the season but has only made one appearance in the past month and did not play last week. He has 85 carries for 393 yards with six touchdowns, as well as four catches for 15 yards. The fifth-year senior and former South Carolina transfer posted his fourth career 100-yard game earlier this season with 102 yards on 19 carries versus Fresno State.

Jam Griffin has appeared in nine games with one start this year and has 74 carries for 416 yards with three touchdowns, along with four receptions for 25 yards. He offers a formidable complementary presence to the bigger backs in Martinez, and Fenwick and Griffin have five games with at least 40 rushing yards, including a career-high 84 yards on 12 carries with a touchdown against USC.

No Oregon State preview would be complete without mentioning the Beavers’ (literal) jack-of-all-trades, Jack Colletto, who contributes in virtually all facets of the game for OSU.

On offense, Colletto has 24 carries for 85 yards and shares the team-high of six rushing touchdowns, while he’s also completed both of his pass attempts for 53 yards while adding 19 tackles on defense with one forced fumble and one fumble recovery.

The 6-3, 239-pounder has been an impact player against ASU during his Beaver career, as he had 57 rushing yards, including a touchdown last season, and 44 rushing yards with two scores versus the Sun Devils in 2020.

At wide receiver, fifth-year senior Treshaun Harrison is having a career year with 47 catches for 571 yards and four touchdowns – all of which are career-highs for him, even though OSU has at least three games left to play. He recorded his first two career 100-yard receiving games earlier this season and last week tied his career high with eight receptions against California.

Anthony Gould, an elite punt returner, has 27 catches for 457 yards with three scores. He had a hot streak earlier this year that constituted more than half his receptions for the year, as he had 14 catches across a three-game span in September and early October.

Sixth-year senior Tyjon Lindsey has 22 receptions for 246 yards and a touchdown and Silas Bolden ties for second on the team with three touchdown catches as part of his ten receptions for 129 yards.

Oregon State has recently made notable use of its tight ends, and this year the leader at the position is Jack Velling, who has posted 11 receptions for 186 yards and two scores. Luke Musgrave caught 11 passes in the first two games of the year but has not played since.

Four of the five Beaver offensive linemen have started all ten games thus far – left tackle Joshua Gray, center Jake Levengood, right guard Brandon Kipper, and right tackle Talise Fuaga. Heneli Bloomfield has started five games at left guard, including the past two, while Marco Brewer has five starts at the position as well.

Gray and Kipper were Honorable Mention All-Pac-12 picks last season, while Gray also was a second-team honoree for the shortened 2020 campaign.

Collectively, the offensive line has been outstanding as OSU has allowed only nine sacks – eighth-best nationally – while helping the Beavers rush for 190 yards per game at 4.75 yards per carry with 25 rushing touchdowns, which itself also ranks within the nation’s top 20.

Oregon State Offense Summary

At quarterback, OSU simply needs Gulbranson not to be a liability. As a starter, he has a 7-to-1 touchdown-to-interception ratio, and with the run game and defense possessed by the Beavers, he does not need to be a major difference maker – especially given the glaring issues ASU’s defense has had against the run in recent weeks.

Though Oregon State may not be fully staffed in terms of the personnel it uses on the ground, ASU needs to take a massive step up on defense to avoid yet another occurrence of an opponent dictating the flow and outcome of the game by way of its rushing attack.

Thanks largely to their prominent run game, the Beavers rank second in the Pac-12 and 17th nationally in time of possession.

Oregon State Defense

Up front defensively for the Beavers, Simon Sandberg has started all ten games, while James Rawls has started nine. At the third defensive line position, Sione Lolohea and Isaac Hodgins have shared starting responsibilities.

Rawls is the statistical leader of the group with 24 tackles, including a team-high 7.5 for loss with 1.0 sacks. Lolohea has 21 tackles, including 3.0 for loss, while Hodgins has 16 tackles and Sandberg has 14 tackles.

At linebacker, Omar Speights and Kyrei Fisher-Morris start all ten games, while John McCartan has started eight. Riley Sharp has two starts this year when the Beavers open games with a four-linebacker look.

Speights, one of the top defenders in the conference and an honorable mention all-conference pick the past two seasons, leads the team with 57 tackles and ranks second with 5.5 for loss. Fisher-Morris adds 49 tackles, including 4.5 for loss with an interception, while McCartan has 30 tackles, including 4.5 for loss with 1.0 sacks.

In the secondary, safety Jaydon Grant, cornerback Alex Austin and safety Kitan Oladapo have each started all ten games, while cornerback Rejzohn Wright has nine starts. Ryan Cooper, Jr. also has seven starts this season.

Oladapo ranks second on the team with 54 tackles, including 3.0 for loss with 2.5 sacks and six pass breakups, while Grant has 52 tackles, including 3.0 for loss with six pass breakups, and Cooper has 31 tackles, including 2.0 for loss with a share of the team-high with eight pass breakups. Cooper and Grant split the team lead with three interceptions.

Austin has 46 tackles and two interceptions, while Wright has 34 tackles with two picks on the year. Austin and Wright tie with Cooper for the team-high of eight pass breakups.

Austin, Grant, Oladapo, and Wright all earned Honorable Mention All-Pac-12 recognition in 2021.

Oregon State Defense Summary

The casual fan may not know it, but the Oregon State defense has been a major problem this season as the Beavers boast one of the top defenses in the conference and, in some categories, rank among the nation’s elite.

Oregon State currently leads the Pac-12 and ranks 15th nationally in rush defense (107.1) while ranking second in the league and 28th in the nation in total defense (336.1). The Beavers also place second in the Pac-12 and tie for 15th nationally with 12 interceptions and rank third in the conference in both scoring defense (21.6) and pass defense (229.0).

Oregon State Special Teams

The Beavers have split action at kicker with mixed results, as Atticus Sappington is 5-of-7 on the year with a long of 40, while Everett Hayes is 3-of-7 this season with a long of 49.

Collectively, OSU kickers are just 2-7 from 40 yards and beyond.

However, other facets of OSU’s special teams have been incredible, as punter Luke Loecher averages 45.72 yards on 29 punts this year. He is not listed in the NCAA’s leaders in the category – likely for not having enough punts to qualify – but his average would rank 11th in the nation, coincidentally just slightly ahead of ASU’s Eddie Czaplicki (45.61).

In the return game, Anthony Gould has been a sensational punt returner and is on his way to First-Team All-Pac-12 – and likely All-America – honors in that area as he averages 18.57 yards on 14 punt returns with two touchdowns. Gould leads the nation in punt return average and is one of only four FBS players with two punt return touchdowns on the year.

Silas Bolden averages 27.5 yards on 18 kickoff returns to rank eighth in the nation.

Overall Summary

A coach with a passion for his alma mater, excellent run game, and defense and dynamic special teams have been the recipe for Oregon State to quickly rise from conference doormat to back-to-back bowl-eligible seasons and potentially the program’s best season in nearly a decade.

Ranked 23rd in the College Football Playoff rankings and 25th in the current Associated Press poll, Oregon State represents yet another – but surely the final – nationally ranked team Arizona State will face in 2022.

Though Sun Devil fans cringe at the very thought of playing in Corvallis – especially late in the season – Oregon State historically has faced similarly miserable fates in Tempe as the Beavers haven’t won in Tempe since 2009, and prior to that, the most recent Oregon State win at ASU was in 1969 as the Sun Devils at one point held a 40-year, 16-game win streak at home against the Beavers.

Though their odds are low and would require borderline miraculous outcomes among the teams ahead of them, the Beavers technically are not out of the race for a berth in the Pac-12 Conference title game if they are to win their last two contests.

At 7-3 – with two of the three losses coming by just three points each – the Beavers are bowl eligible for the second straight season, an incredible accomplishment for fifth-year head coach and former OSU quarterback Jonathan Smith, who inherited one of the bottom-feeding programs of the Power-5 when he returned to Corvallis in 2018.

On the other hand, ASU officially closed the book on its slight postseason chances with its seventh loss of the year last week and in this game will play mainly for pride and to send the senior class off in style.

To return to the win column, ASU will have to drastically improve what has of late become a porous defense – especially against the run – while the Sun Devil offense will have to get off to a massively better start than each of the past two weeks against what is one of the top-tier defenses in the Pac-12 Conference.

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