Olzeke’s post “Don't Blame Lame Refs. Things are looking up” got me thinking again about something that I’ve thought a lot about over the years.  That is the expectations we now have for OSU football to be a successful program.

I think this is a big reason the Utah loss really hurt.  We see those signs of greatness but the team is not able to completely break through (yet).  I also think it really is highlighted with a team like the Beavers who for years we had no expectations besides beating some Portland or Idaho school and losing the rest.  I sat through many of those games and then 1998 happened and the signs of a new team became evident (Civil War victory memories anyone?).  Then of course came 2000, and watching that season was a bit surreal for me.  It was probably the greatest year of our program, but you know what my favorite year was?  It actually was 2006 and wow were fans on the team and Riley early on that year.  And I’m sorry to say olzeke that I think we did have some booing going on then. 

I went to the Idaho game that year and we won pretty easily and showed brief signs of excellence, but I was saying oh boy is California going to cream us next week, and they did.  Then we lost to WSU and it looked all gone to hell.  But then Moore was pulled in the UW game and he came back in to win the game, and the season went into the history books as one of OSU’s best (and again my personal favorite).

But, I have digressed into memory lane a bit here.  My point is that many fans and I are now in a wonderful but challenging position with the OSU football program.  Success has spoiled us for better and for worse, and you know I wouldn’t trade it for anything and especially wouldn’t trade it for having no expectations!

The Utah game was tough, but strangely enough it was rewarding in that I could seriously expect a Beavers football team to win against a ranked team at their stadium.

Thank you olzeke for reminding me again of all of this!