FanPost

What are the expectations for OSU Football in the Gary Andersen era?

What should we expect the Beavers to accomplish, and when?

I ask this, as at the present time, quite a few OSU recruits have decommitted or flipped to other programs, including a few high-profile ones. This morning, Shalom Luani, a 4-star JUCO safety prospect, announced that he was flipping to Washington State. So far, Andersen hasn't flipped anyone from Wisconsin (though Austin Kafentzis did pay OSU an official visit), though given that it's finals/winter break, and the staff is not yet complete, I wouldn't expect to see much action on the recruiting front until after the first of the year.

And given the Beavers are rebuilding, I wouldn't expect junior college players to play a big role in Andersen's plans--it may well have been that Andersen wished Luani good luck next year, except for OSU's visit to Pullman.

But this post isn't intended to talk about recruiting, but about the longer-term goals for the Oregon State Beavers football team. At the present time, Oregon State has:

  • Just finished a season 5-7, last in the North (and going 0-5 in the North), and second-last in the Pac 12.
  • Is losing its best player to graduation, along with most of its starting defense. (Not that this defense was all that good, but whether the underclassmen backups will be better than this years' seniors with an additional year of experience is an open question).
  • Will be having a new coach and new coordinators, likely bringing in (to some extent) a different system than Mike Riley coached and has recruited for
  • Has seen the strength of its incoming recruiting class diluted somewhat, though again--this is a question that really can't be analyzed until February, when letters of intent are signed.

Longer-term, the new construction of athletic facilities, and the hope that Andersen is an effective coach, could make OSU competitive again in football. But it could easily be the case that OSU posts the sort of record next year that hasn't been seen since the Jerry Pettibone era. The Beavers should beat SJSU and Weber State, but league wins will be hard to come by. A victory in Ann Arbor is probably out of the question.

Given all of that, a few questions:

  • How do you expect the Beavers to fare next season?
  • How many losing/non-bowl seasons would you be willing to tolerate? When do you expect OSU to once again reach a bowl game and/or post a winning season?
  • Would you rather see Andersen go for wins next year (playing upperclassmen, recruiting and giving scholarships to JUCOs) or should he bench his seniors and focus on bringing in, training, and playing players who might make the Beavers competitive in 2016 or beyond?
  • When do you expect OSU to contend for a league title and/or make it to an upper-tier bowl (8+ wins)?
  • Do you have any expectation that 2000 will repeat itself anytime soon (OSU winning or tying for the league title, and going to a BCS bowl), let alone making the college football playoffs?
  • Do you have any expectation that Oregon State will be able to reproduce the success seen in Eugene, or does our lack of a Phil Knight utterly preclude that possibility? (And might the Ducks Dynasty be ending, as Chip Kelly's recruits graduate and other coaches adapt to and imitate his tactics--or do Helfrich and his staff have the coaching and recruiting chops to keep the Oregon football factory humming, even with Kelly becoming a distant memory in Eugene)?
  • Would a 2-10 season (betting Weber and SJSU, losing the rest) be an acceptable outcome? If it's obvious that OSU is playing youngsters and implementing a new system, and not worrying about being competitive? Or are such campaigns the potential kiss of death for a program?
  • What events (outside of misconduct) would result in you calling for Andersen's job early?
  • Does Andersen, being an experienced D1 coach leading a team that got 9 wins two years ago, get a shorter leash than Mike Riley or Jerry Pettibone got when they first joined a then-moribund OSU program?

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of SB Nation or the Building the Dam staff. FanPost opinions are valued expressions of opinion by passionate and knowledgeable Oregon State fans.

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