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The Mack Brown personal fulfillment narrative (aka Texas football since mid-January 2009) will face Mike Riley and the Beavers in San Antonio on December 29th in the Alamo Bowl.
The Beavers are well-coached, have uneven talent, but they'll show up ready to play.
Some quick Beaver facts:
- They're 9-3 against a SOS rated #1 in college football. Lost by 3 to Washington, 4 to Stanford, 24 to Oregon. Best wins are Wisconsin and UCLA.
- The Beavers have a very good passing offense and tend to struggle running the ball. 3rd and short can be an adventure for them.
- OSU has two excellent WRs and two effective QBs (more on that later). WR Markus Wheaton draws favorable comps to the Pittsburgh Steeler's Mike Wallace.
- Their defense surrenders less than 20 ppg (19.5) and they really only struggled to defend Oregon and Arizona. There's not a lot either one of those teams does that we can duplicate easily. Their D forces a lot of turnovers, too.
As with most minor bowl games, when the teams are fairly comparable, the team that's genuinely excited to be there generally wins.
Will we see a 2003 Washington State Holiday Bowl redux or 2007 Arizona State?