Photo by: Oregon State Athletics
The 1999 Season Part IV -- Wow. Just...Wow
October 14, 2019 | Football
OREGON STATE FOOTBALL HISTORY STORIES 2019 / THE 1999 SEASON
This fall marks 20 years since the 1999 season – a campaign that saw Oregon State football move in a new direction and Beaver Nation celebrate a series of gridiron milestones. A six-part series of stories reliving that season will be published on www.osubeavers.com, with a new story appearing the week of each home game.
By Kip Carlson
Oregon State started the 1999 season as one of college football's feel-good stories: the team with the 28-year string of losing seasons getting off to a 3-0 start for the first time since 1967 under its new head coach, who had two national championships on his resume before taking on the Beaver job.
The next three weeks, though, had shown the days of futility weren't entirely in the past. Frustrating losses at Southern California and Stanford had been sandwiched around a thrashing by Washington at home, putting OSU's record at 3-3.
Five games remained on the schedule. The Beavers needed to win three to break through and post the long-awaited winning season and possibly a bowl game.
"We have five games left," OSU head coach Dennis Erickson said the Monday after a disappointing 21-17 loss at Stanford, one in which the Beavers fumbled away several scoring chances near the Cardinal goal line. "We have an opportunity still to accomplish some of the things we want to accomplish, but we've got to start coming out and playing.
"Talk is cheap, but we've got to start doing the things we're capable of. If I didn't think we were capable of beating (USC, Washington and Stanford), I wouldn't say that. We've got to come out and play. We're capable of winning games, but until we start making plays at the end of the game when we have to to win, we're going to struggle. It's a mindset we have to get over. We've got to start doing it this week."
Erickson was asked whether he might call on a sports psychologist to help put the Beavers in a better frame of mind, as former OSU head coach Jerry Pettibone had done in the early 1990s.
"I've thought about a psychologist for myself, but Dee can't do that anymore because he's 75," Erickson joked, referring to Dee Andros, whose ability to motivate his Oregon State teams in the late 1960s and early 1970s was legendary.
OCTOBER 23: VS UCLA
For the Beavers to end their three-game losing streak and pick up their first Pacific-10 win would mean defeating the two-time defending conference champion, UCLA. But the Bruins were having difficulties of their own, owning a 3-4 record and 1-2 conference mark after a 17-0 home loss to California the previous week; the week before that, they'd beaten Oregon 34-29.
"UCLA has tremendous athletes, but like everybody else in the Pac-10 they're on a roller coaster. You don't know what's going to happen from one week to the next," Erickson said.
Even in the recent losses, the Beavers had moved the ball. Their average of 488.83 yards per game ranked second nationally in total offense, trailing only Georgia Tech. OSU was no longer being outclassed on a talent level; now the difference between losing and winning was eliminating mistakes.
"It's different from last year because that was a 'Can we do it?'" running back Ken Simonton said. "This year is, 'We know we can do it,' so it's a little more frustrating. We've just got to find ways to put the ball in the end zone. We're still not winning the games we should be winning. We're tired of losing and just have to find a way to win it."
Added linebacker Darnell Robinson: "We go out each game doing everything we can to win. Losing is not in our mind. All you can do is watch film, try to correct the mistakes and just build as a team, come together as a team. The most important thing we can do is just be a team, try to overcome what we're going through. A win would bring a lot of spirit, more confidence, let the fans know we are out here trying to do the best we can do. A win would be a great thing for us; being 0-3, it's what we need to accomplish the goals we set."
The fans apparently still believed, as a crowd of about 32,000 was expected for OSU's Homecoming game. That would be the Beavers' third home crowd of 30,000 or more, matching the most such gatherings in a season, previously occurring in 1968 and 1994.
Student tickets in particular had become a hot item, with all 5,100 seats snatched up before school was in session. For the UCLA game, another 750 tickets were being made available to students.
The week's Homecoming activities included a fundraiser for children's cancer research at Good Samaritan Hospital. Members of the Delta Upsilon fraternity and Delta Delta Delta sorority were staging a hot-tub-a-thon, spending 48 hours from Monday until Wednesday in the tub set up in the Memorial Union quad. They gathered donations from businesses and sold hour-long dips in the tub for $15, with a goal of raising $2,000. Said Mario Roberti, a junior from Portland: "If we can just sit in a hot tub and help kids – it's pretty amazing."
The previous year's game against UCLA had been a heartbreaker for OSU. The Beavers had pulled even with the third-ranked Bruins in the closing moments, but a long scoring pass handed UCLA a 41-34 win in Corvallis. It added to a long list of torments Oregon State had suffered in the series. The Beavers had won in 1994 and 1989, but prior to that you had to go back to 1978 to find an OSU win and, before that, 1971. Since 1969, OSU had gone 4-20 against UCLA and among the scores of those losses were 56-14, 45-14, 48-18, 34-3, 41-0, 49-0, 52-17, 44-7 … you get the idea.
"Beating a team like UCLA would be a tremendous deal for us right now, where we are in this program," Erickson said. "It's a big game for us. They all are, right now, to try and accomplish what we want to accomplish."
OSU Daily Barometer columnist Andrew Hinkelman, who had predicted a Beaver win over Washington two weeks before and then offered a mea culpa, went out on a limb again in Friday's edition predicting a 42-24 Oregon State victory. Wrote Hinkelman: "This is the game OSU rights the ship, gets back on track, whatever cliché you wish to use. But the Beavers will win, and they will win convincingly."
As it turned out, Hinkelman missed the mark again – but only in the final score.
On a clear, 60-degree afternoon, the crowd of 33,427 had just settled into its seats when the Beavers won the coin toss, took the ball and marched 80 yards in 12 plays, Simonton scoring on a four-yard run. Later in the quarter, quarterback Jonathan Smith guided the Beavers 75 yards in eight plays, connecting with Roddy Tompkins on a 23-yard touchdown pass for a 14-0 lead.
OSU had a 166-10 edge in total offense at that point, and it was just getting started. Because then came the second quarter – the bewilderingly blissful second quarter that announced the Beavers had truly arrived.
Linebacker Jonathan Jackson picked off a pass and returned it to the end zone, but a clip against the Beavers on the return brought the ball back to the 39-yard line. It took five plays to score, Smith running 10 yards for the touchdown, and it was 21-0.
UCLA responded with a touchdown on its next possession to get within 21-7, then the fun really began.
Robert Prescott returned the ensuing kickoff to midfield. Simonton had left the game with a rib injury suffered in warmups and aggravated during the first quarter, so the rushing game was now on the shoulders of Antonio Battle, who had just one carry for four yards prior to this game. On the first play from scrimmage, Battle scampered 50 yards for a score and a 28-7 lead.
The Beaver defense forced a punt and OSU took over at the Bruin 47. It was another one-play drive, Smith hooking up with Tompkins down the middle of the field to make it 35-7 with 3:31 to go in the half. OSU wasn't finished; there was still time for OSU to get the ball back and Smith to find Imani Percoats for 10 yards and a touchdown.
After that 28-pount second quarter, the halftime score was 42-7. Oregon State had scored on six of its seven first-half possessions and outgained the Bruins 355-113 in total yards.
"See what happens when we don't turn the ball over?" guard Aaron Koch would tell reporters after the game. "We have a high-potency offense, and we can take it to them right off the bat if we don't turn the ball over. That's what happened today. We took it to them right off the bat, played four quarters of ball and shoved it right down their throats. Like we needed to to get the rest of the season rolling."
The second half was almost anticlimactic, the Beavers scoring twice more in the fourth quarter on a 38-yard pass from Terrance Bryant to Shawn Kintner and finally Hashim Hall's three-yard run. Beaver backups played a good portion of the second half.
"It's nice when you can get into that situation where you can play a number of players," Erickson said. "It's really fun to see them play because they practice just as hard during the week."
When it ended, the scoreboard above the south bleachers read Beavers 55, Bruins 7. It was the most points Oregon State had ever scored against not only the Bruins, but any Pac-10 or, reaching back further, Pac-8 opponent. The last time the Beavers had scored more against a conference opponent was 1949, when it beat Montana 63-14 in Pacific Coast Conference play. The 48 points was the largest margin of victory for OSU in a Pac-10 or Pac-8 game.
Reflecting on the Beavers and Bruins swapping their usual roles in this series, columnist Dwight Jaynes wrote in The Oregonian: "Madonna has entered a convent. Bill Walton has taken a vow of silence. Alfred E. Neuman is worrying. Water is running uphill and the sky is falling. What you think is truth is fiction. What you thought was folly is fact."
It was UCLA's biggest loss in almost 70 years, dating back to a 52-0 loss to USC in 1930.
"It's embarrassing," UCLA wide receiver Freddie Mitchell said. "I don't even want to fly back to LA, you know. I want to stay here and chill until everything dies down. But you just got to take it like a man – take this butt-kicking like a man."
Battle, a walkon from Jones County College in Mississippi who at one time had spent time between schools delivering packages for UPS, finished with 105 yards on 16 carries as Simonton's string of 100-yard games was broken at seven. Smith was 15-for-34 passing for 261 yards and three touchdowns, Prescott had four catches for 46 yards and Percoats three for 57 while Tompkins' two catches went for 70 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
Defensive ends LaDairis Jackson and DeLawrence Grant had two sacks each as OSU outgained UCLA 559-210.
"I'm not going to say it was a must-win, but it was," Smith said afterward. "We enjoyed this one, and we're going to try to continue this momentum. To have such a big win in a big way, I think it brings back the confidence. Hopefully it can carry us through the rest of the year."
OCTOBER 30: AT WASHINGTON STATE
Having made a statement against one of its longtime oppressors, Oregon State now faced another opponent that had bullied it for decades: Washington State.
Since 1978, the Beavers could count just one win and one tie in 17 games against the Cougars. WSU's Martin Stadium was a particular house of horrors for OSU, which hadn't won there since eeking out a 32-31 win in 1978; in the ensuing years they'd gone 0-8-1 in Pullman including losses by scores of 41-3, 55-7, 51-6 and, on the most recent trip to the Palouse in 1995, 40-14.
"We used to talk about the Cougar jinx," former OSU offensive lineman Adam Albaugh told The Oregonian the week of the game. "It just seemed to follow us."
But Oregon State and Washington State hadn't met the previous two seasons and the 1996 game had been in Corvallis, so almost none of the current Beavers had experienced that run of misfortune and misery in Pullman.
"I've heard the rumors," Smith said. "I heard it's pretty crazy. I've heard it's been tough on Oregon State. Besides that, I really don't know."
For Erickson, it would be a trip to his former stomping grounds: he'd been the Cougars' head coach in 1987-88. After guiding WSU to a 9-3 record and its first bowl win since 1916, Erickson took the job at Miami. This would be his first game back in Pullman since his two-year coaching stint.
"Going back now, it's a job and it's business," Erickson said. "We're just going back to play the football game, so it's going back in a different way. As far as going back and playing in Martin Stadium, had I left there two or three years ago, it might be a big deal. But that's been 11 years ago since I left, so I don't think that it's a big deal now."
There was another twist. Following Erickson at WSU was its current head coach, Mike Price. Price had been one year ahead of Erickson at Everett High School but Erickson beat him out for the starting quarterback job when he was a junior and Price was a senior.
Asked for stories about those years, both men demurred.
"I don't want to get into personal stories with him, because he's got a good reputation," Erickson said. Commented Price: "I have a lot of Dennis Erickson stories, but you're never going to hear any of them."
"We're very good friends," Erickson said. "We've exchanged ideas over the years, our families are very close and he's a guy I respect very much. But when you compete, you compete harder against brothers and friends than you do against other people. It will be a competitive game."
By Friday night, it was still uncertain whether Simonton would be able to play despite going through the Beavers' workout in Pullman. OSU would definitely be without another standout, however, as wide receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh didn't make the trip – he'd been suffering back spasms the past month.
The gameday temperature was in the mid-60s, but a steady wind blew down the field. That proved to the Beavers' early advantage.
Oregon State kicked off and forced a Washington State punt, then drove 80 yards in seven plays. The key was a 59-yard pass from Smith to Percoats to the Cougar 7; a few plays later Battle, who started in place of Simonton, carried one yard for the touchdown and a 7-0 lead.
On their next possession, the Beavers got a 22-yard field goal from Ryan Cesca to make it 10-0 but the Cougars responded with a field goal of their own to get within 10-3. Cesca booted a 25-yarder in the second quarter before WSU added another field goal of its own and at the half it was 13-6, Oregon State.
OSU's offense stalled through much of the second and third quarters, then Simonton – wearing a custom-made rib pad - entered the game midway through the third quarter when the Beavers took possession at their own 12. He ran for first downs on his first two carries, took a screen pass 23 yards and scored on a 2-yard run to give Oregon State a 20-6 lead with 2:48 left in the quarter.
"Having Kenny in there, seeing him run so well even though he's a little banged up, put a little fire into us," Koch said. Added Erickson: "Simonton gave us a spark, without question. I was trying to keep him out."
Simonton clinched the game with another score late in the fourth quarter, diving one yard into the end zone to cap a 71-yard drive and put OSU up 27-6 with 2:43 to play. WSU added a late touchdown, making the final score 27-13 in the Beavers' fifth win of the season.
The Beavers outgained the Cougars 408-303, coming up with four sacks and limiting Washington State to 109 yards rushing. Robinson had one of the sacks, three tackles for lost yardage and a fumble recovery for OSU.
"Defense is what won the game," Erickson said. "We played great defense all the time."
The Beavers head coach hadn't received a warm welcome in his return to Pullman.
"Listening to some people in the stands, I think they're glad I'm gone," Erickson said. "It was pretty ugly out there, and not what I was expecting, but that's the way it goes."
Simonton finished with 41 yards on nine carries after Battle had gone for 86 yards on 26 carries. Smith completed 17 of 27 passes for 245 yards without being intercepted, with Percoats catching four passes for 111 yards and tight end Martin Maurer four passes for 55 yards.
Another of OSU's many football demons had been exorcised.
"All that bad history is gone!" Percoats shouted as the Beavers left the field. Added Simonton, "We're the new-age Beavers. Now you guys can stop asking us about that stuff."
Speaking to reporters afterward, Percoats elaborated: "It seems like we're part of this past that none of us had anything to do with. We're just searching for respect. Hopefully we get it now but if not, we've got another week to go prove ourselves."
The next week – at home against California – would give Oregon State the chance to throw off the biggest historical burden of all: that streak of 28 straight losing seasons. A sixth victory would assure the Beavers a winning regular season for the first time since 1970 and likely their first bowl berth since the 1964 season.
"All we talked about was getting win number five and winning a conference game on the road," Erickson said of preparing for the WSU trip. "Now we have a chance to get six at home, and that's all we're going to talk about. Nothing more, nothing less. Just try to get number six, that's how we have to take it now."
NEXT: Finally.
This fall marks 20 years since the 1999 season – a campaign that saw Oregon State football move in a new direction and Beaver Nation celebrate a series of gridiron milestones. A six-part series of stories reliving that season will be published on www.osubeavers.com, with a new story appearing the week of each home game.
By Kip Carlson
Oregon State started the 1999 season as one of college football's feel-good stories: the team with the 28-year string of losing seasons getting off to a 3-0 start for the first time since 1967 under its new head coach, who had two national championships on his resume before taking on the Beaver job.
The next three weeks, though, had shown the days of futility weren't entirely in the past. Frustrating losses at Southern California and Stanford had been sandwiched around a thrashing by Washington at home, putting OSU's record at 3-3.
Five games remained on the schedule. The Beavers needed to win three to break through and post the long-awaited winning season and possibly a bowl game.
"We have five games left," OSU head coach Dennis Erickson said the Monday after a disappointing 21-17 loss at Stanford, one in which the Beavers fumbled away several scoring chances near the Cardinal goal line. "We have an opportunity still to accomplish some of the things we want to accomplish, but we've got to start coming out and playing.
"Talk is cheap, but we've got to start doing the things we're capable of. If I didn't think we were capable of beating (USC, Washington and Stanford), I wouldn't say that. We've got to come out and play. We're capable of winning games, but until we start making plays at the end of the game when we have to to win, we're going to struggle. It's a mindset we have to get over. We've got to start doing it this week."
Erickson was asked whether he might call on a sports psychologist to help put the Beavers in a better frame of mind, as former OSU head coach Jerry Pettibone had done in the early 1990s.
"I've thought about a psychologist for myself, but Dee can't do that anymore because he's 75," Erickson joked, referring to Dee Andros, whose ability to motivate his Oregon State teams in the late 1960s and early 1970s was legendary.
OCTOBER 23: VS UCLA
For the Beavers to end their three-game losing streak and pick up their first Pacific-10 win would mean defeating the two-time defending conference champion, UCLA. But the Bruins were having difficulties of their own, owning a 3-4 record and 1-2 conference mark after a 17-0 home loss to California the previous week; the week before that, they'd beaten Oregon 34-29.
"UCLA has tremendous athletes, but like everybody else in the Pac-10 they're on a roller coaster. You don't know what's going to happen from one week to the next," Erickson said.
Even in the recent losses, the Beavers had moved the ball. Their average of 488.83 yards per game ranked second nationally in total offense, trailing only Georgia Tech. OSU was no longer being outclassed on a talent level; now the difference between losing and winning was eliminating mistakes.
"It's different from last year because that was a 'Can we do it?'" running back Ken Simonton said. "This year is, 'We know we can do it,' so it's a little more frustrating. We've just got to find ways to put the ball in the end zone. We're still not winning the games we should be winning. We're tired of losing and just have to find a way to win it."
Added linebacker Darnell Robinson: "We go out each game doing everything we can to win. Losing is not in our mind. All you can do is watch film, try to correct the mistakes and just build as a team, come together as a team. The most important thing we can do is just be a team, try to overcome what we're going through. A win would bring a lot of spirit, more confidence, let the fans know we are out here trying to do the best we can do. A win would be a great thing for us; being 0-3, it's what we need to accomplish the goals we set."
The fans apparently still believed, as a crowd of about 32,000 was expected for OSU's Homecoming game. That would be the Beavers' third home crowd of 30,000 or more, matching the most such gatherings in a season, previously occurring in 1968 and 1994.
Student tickets in particular had become a hot item, with all 5,100 seats snatched up before school was in session. For the UCLA game, another 750 tickets were being made available to students.
The week's Homecoming activities included a fundraiser for children's cancer research at Good Samaritan Hospital. Members of the Delta Upsilon fraternity and Delta Delta Delta sorority were staging a hot-tub-a-thon, spending 48 hours from Monday until Wednesday in the tub set up in the Memorial Union quad. They gathered donations from businesses and sold hour-long dips in the tub for $15, with a goal of raising $2,000. Said Mario Roberti, a junior from Portland: "If we can just sit in a hot tub and help kids – it's pretty amazing."
The previous year's game against UCLA had been a heartbreaker for OSU. The Beavers had pulled even with the third-ranked Bruins in the closing moments, but a long scoring pass handed UCLA a 41-34 win in Corvallis. It added to a long list of torments Oregon State had suffered in the series. The Beavers had won in 1994 and 1989, but prior to that you had to go back to 1978 to find an OSU win and, before that, 1971. Since 1969, OSU had gone 4-20 against UCLA and among the scores of those losses were 56-14, 45-14, 48-18, 34-3, 41-0, 49-0, 52-17, 44-7 … you get the idea.
"Beating a team like UCLA would be a tremendous deal for us right now, where we are in this program," Erickson said. "It's a big game for us. They all are, right now, to try and accomplish what we want to accomplish."
OSU Daily Barometer columnist Andrew Hinkelman, who had predicted a Beaver win over Washington two weeks before and then offered a mea culpa, went out on a limb again in Friday's edition predicting a 42-24 Oregon State victory. Wrote Hinkelman: "This is the game OSU rights the ship, gets back on track, whatever cliché you wish to use. But the Beavers will win, and they will win convincingly."
As it turned out, Hinkelman missed the mark again – but only in the final score.
On a clear, 60-degree afternoon, the crowd of 33,427 had just settled into its seats when the Beavers won the coin toss, took the ball and marched 80 yards in 12 plays, Simonton scoring on a four-yard run. Later in the quarter, quarterback Jonathan Smith guided the Beavers 75 yards in eight plays, connecting with Roddy Tompkins on a 23-yard touchdown pass for a 14-0 lead.
OSU had a 166-10 edge in total offense at that point, and it was just getting started. Because then came the second quarter – the bewilderingly blissful second quarter that announced the Beavers had truly arrived.
Linebacker Jonathan Jackson picked off a pass and returned it to the end zone, but a clip against the Beavers on the return brought the ball back to the 39-yard line. It took five plays to score, Smith running 10 yards for the touchdown, and it was 21-0.
UCLA responded with a touchdown on its next possession to get within 21-7, then the fun really began.
Robert Prescott returned the ensuing kickoff to midfield. Simonton had left the game with a rib injury suffered in warmups and aggravated during the first quarter, so the rushing game was now on the shoulders of Antonio Battle, who had just one carry for four yards prior to this game. On the first play from scrimmage, Battle scampered 50 yards for a score and a 28-7 lead.
The Beaver defense forced a punt and OSU took over at the Bruin 47. It was another one-play drive, Smith hooking up with Tompkins down the middle of the field to make it 35-7 with 3:31 to go in the half. OSU wasn't finished; there was still time for OSU to get the ball back and Smith to find Imani Percoats for 10 yards and a touchdown.
After that 28-pount second quarter, the halftime score was 42-7. Oregon State had scored on six of its seven first-half possessions and outgained the Bruins 355-113 in total yards.
"See what happens when we don't turn the ball over?" guard Aaron Koch would tell reporters after the game. "We have a high-potency offense, and we can take it to them right off the bat if we don't turn the ball over. That's what happened today. We took it to them right off the bat, played four quarters of ball and shoved it right down their throats. Like we needed to to get the rest of the season rolling."
The second half was almost anticlimactic, the Beavers scoring twice more in the fourth quarter on a 38-yard pass from Terrance Bryant to Shawn Kintner and finally Hashim Hall's three-yard run. Beaver backups played a good portion of the second half.
"It's nice when you can get into that situation where you can play a number of players," Erickson said. "It's really fun to see them play because they practice just as hard during the week."
When it ended, the scoreboard above the south bleachers read Beavers 55, Bruins 7. It was the most points Oregon State had ever scored against not only the Bruins, but any Pac-10 or, reaching back further, Pac-8 opponent. The last time the Beavers had scored more against a conference opponent was 1949, when it beat Montana 63-14 in Pacific Coast Conference play. The 48 points was the largest margin of victory for OSU in a Pac-10 or Pac-8 game.
Reflecting on the Beavers and Bruins swapping their usual roles in this series, columnist Dwight Jaynes wrote in The Oregonian: "Madonna has entered a convent. Bill Walton has taken a vow of silence. Alfred E. Neuman is worrying. Water is running uphill and the sky is falling. What you think is truth is fiction. What you thought was folly is fact."
It was UCLA's biggest loss in almost 70 years, dating back to a 52-0 loss to USC in 1930.
"It's embarrassing," UCLA wide receiver Freddie Mitchell said. "I don't even want to fly back to LA, you know. I want to stay here and chill until everything dies down. But you just got to take it like a man – take this butt-kicking like a man."
Battle, a walkon from Jones County College in Mississippi who at one time had spent time between schools delivering packages for UPS, finished with 105 yards on 16 carries as Simonton's string of 100-yard games was broken at seven. Smith was 15-for-34 passing for 261 yards and three touchdowns, Prescott had four catches for 46 yards and Percoats three for 57 while Tompkins' two catches went for 70 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
Defensive ends LaDairis Jackson and DeLawrence Grant had two sacks each as OSU outgained UCLA 559-210.
"I'm not going to say it was a must-win, but it was," Smith said afterward. "We enjoyed this one, and we're going to try to continue this momentum. To have such a big win in a big way, I think it brings back the confidence. Hopefully it can carry us through the rest of the year."
OCTOBER 30: AT WASHINGTON STATE
Having made a statement against one of its longtime oppressors, Oregon State now faced another opponent that had bullied it for decades: Washington State.
Since 1978, the Beavers could count just one win and one tie in 17 games against the Cougars. WSU's Martin Stadium was a particular house of horrors for OSU, which hadn't won there since eeking out a 32-31 win in 1978; in the ensuing years they'd gone 0-8-1 in Pullman including losses by scores of 41-3, 55-7, 51-6 and, on the most recent trip to the Palouse in 1995, 40-14.
"We used to talk about the Cougar jinx," former OSU offensive lineman Adam Albaugh told The Oregonian the week of the game. "It just seemed to follow us."
But Oregon State and Washington State hadn't met the previous two seasons and the 1996 game had been in Corvallis, so almost none of the current Beavers had experienced that run of misfortune and misery in Pullman.
"I've heard the rumors," Smith said. "I heard it's pretty crazy. I've heard it's been tough on Oregon State. Besides that, I really don't know."
For Erickson, it would be a trip to his former stomping grounds: he'd been the Cougars' head coach in 1987-88. After guiding WSU to a 9-3 record and its first bowl win since 1916, Erickson took the job at Miami. This would be his first game back in Pullman since his two-year coaching stint.
"Going back now, it's a job and it's business," Erickson said. "We're just going back to play the football game, so it's going back in a different way. As far as going back and playing in Martin Stadium, had I left there two or three years ago, it might be a big deal. But that's been 11 years ago since I left, so I don't think that it's a big deal now."
There was another twist. Following Erickson at WSU was its current head coach, Mike Price. Price had been one year ahead of Erickson at Everett High School but Erickson beat him out for the starting quarterback job when he was a junior and Price was a senior.
Asked for stories about those years, both men demurred.
"I don't want to get into personal stories with him, because he's got a good reputation," Erickson said. Commented Price: "I have a lot of Dennis Erickson stories, but you're never going to hear any of them."
"We're very good friends," Erickson said. "We've exchanged ideas over the years, our families are very close and he's a guy I respect very much. But when you compete, you compete harder against brothers and friends than you do against other people. It will be a competitive game."
By Friday night, it was still uncertain whether Simonton would be able to play despite going through the Beavers' workout in Pullman. OSU would definitely be without another standout, however, as wide receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh didn't make the trip – he'd been suffering back spasms the past month.
The gameday temperature was in the mid-60s, but a steady wind blew down the field. That proved to the Beavers' early advantage.
Oregon State kicked off and forced a Washington State punt, then drove 80 yards in seven plays. The key was a 59-yard pass from Smith to Percoats to the Cougar 7; a few plays later Battle, who started in place of Simonton, carried one yard for the touchdown and a 7-0 lead.
On their next possession, the Beavers got a 22-yard field goal from Ryan Cesca to make it 10-0 but the Cougars responded with a field goal of their own to get within 10-3. Cesca booted a 25-yarder in the second quarter before WSU added another field goal of its own and at the half it was 13-6, Oregon State.
OSU's offense stalled through much of the second and third quarters, then Simonton – wearing a custom-made rib pad - entered the game midway through the third quarter when the Beavers took possession at their own 12. He ran for first downs on his first two carries, took a screen pass 23 yards and scored on a 2-yard run to give Oregon State a 20-6 lead with 2:48 left in the quarter.
"Having Kenny in there, seeing him run so well even though he's a little banged up, put a little fire into us," Koch said. Added Erickson: "Simonton gave us a spark, without question. I was trying to keep him out."
Simonton clinched the game with another score late in the fourth quarter, diving one yard into the end zone to cap a 71-yard drive and put OSU up 27-6 with 2:43 to play. WSU added a late touchdown, making the final score 27-13 in the Beavers' fifth win of the season.
The Beavers outgained the Cougars 408-303, coming up with four sacks and limiting Washington State to 109 yards rushing. Robinson had one of the sacks, three tackles for lost yardage and a fumble recovery for OSU.
"Defense is what won the game," Erickson said. "We played great defense all the time."
The Beavers head coach hadn't received a warm welcome in his return to Pullman.
"Listening to some people in the stands, I think they're glad I'm gone," Erickson said. "It was pretty ugly out there, and not what I was expecting, but that's the way it goes."
Simonton finished with 41 yards on nine carries after Battle had gone for 86 yards on 26 carries. Smith completed 17 of 27 passes for 245 yards without being intercepted, with Percoats catching four passes for 111 yards and tight end Martin Maurer four passes for 55 yards.
Another of OSU's many football demons had been exorcised.
"All that bad history is gone!" Percoats shouted as the Beavers left the field. Added Simonton, "We're the new-age Beavers. Now you guys can stop asking us about that stuff."
Speaking to reporters afterward, Percoats elaborated: "It seems like we're part of this past that none of us had anything to do with. We're just searching for respect. Hopefully we get it now but if not, we've got another week to go prove ourselves."
The next week – at home against California – would give Oregon State the chance to throw off the biggest historical burden of all: that streak of 28 straight losing seasons. A sixth victory would assure the Beavers a winning regular season for the first time since 1970 and likely their first bowl berth since the 1964 season.
"All we talked about was getting win number five and winning a conference game on the road," Erickson said of preparing for the WSU trip. "Now we have a chance to get six at home, and that's all we're going to talk about. Nothing more, nothing less. Just try to get number six, that's how we have to take it now."
NEXT: Finally.
