Dear Mr. Football: Is that a halo over Gary Andersen’s head?
A: In the first week of December 2008, Oregon State’s football coach was the working definition of a career assistant. At 44, he had been a good soldier at NAU, Ricks College, Idaho State and Utah. He applied to be the head coach at Utah State, but that wasn’t going to happen unless “someone up there,” the football gods, intervened.
Utah State wooed former Arizona offensive coordinator Mike Canales, who had resurrected his career in a similar position at then-emerging power South Florida. Canales had been a star quarterback at USU, coached in Utah for 10 years and was almost certainly going to be the next Aggies head coach.
On the drive to the Salt Lake City airport that weekend, USU officials told Canales the job was his. They told him to return to Florida, get his wife, and they would arrange for him to return to his alma mater for a midweek press conference. Homeboy. Good story.
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But once Canales left Salt Lake City, he never heard another word from USU. His calls weren’t answered. USU athletic director Scott Barnes changed his mind over the weekend and hired Andersen, then Utah’s defensive coordinator.
Canales has told me the story several times, each with an incredulous tone. South Florida soon imploded, the coaching staff was fired, and Canales is now the offensive coordinator at North Texas. Andersen made the most of his backdoor opportunity, thoroughly rebuilding USU, leaving after an 11-2 season in 2012.
Andersen now earns about $2.5 million a year, drives a souped-up Jeep a few miles to the Oregon State campus, and given the beauty and lack of congestion and crime in Corvallis, probably leads the Pac-12 in quality of life.
It’s football’s version of “It’s a Wonderful Life.”
Dear Mr. Football: Is the heat going to bother the Beavers?
A: Since Oregon State’s players returned to campus for training camp on July 28, it has been 90 degrees or more 13 times in Corvallis. It was 108 degrees there on July 30 and 99 on August 18. They’ll survive, especially because OSU’s west-side bench will be in the shade by halftime.
The hottest day game of Arizona’s Pac-10/12 years was an October 14, 1989, game against No. 22 UCLA. It was 91 at kickoff. Arizona won 42-7.
Dear Mr. Football: What’s the biggest difference between OSU and Arizona?
A: At practice, the Beavers are awarded applesauce for refreshment. The Wildcats get popsicles. The differences diminish during recruiting.
On paper, you’d think Oregon State should finish last in the league every year. The Beavers didn’t have a single four-star recruit in the Class of 2014 or 2015 (according to Rivals.com). Its lone 4-star recruit of 2013, defensive back Dashon Hunt, had to retire from football because of a back injury.
In fact, OSU will deploy just one four-star recruit at Arizona Stadium: junior offensive tackle Isaac Seumalo.
Not that Arizona’s lineup is littered with big-name recruits. In a continuing attempt to replace Two-Star Scooby Wright, the Wildcats seem poised to move Ironwood Ridge High School’s Jake Matthews into Scooby’s old middle linebacker position against Oregon State.
Matthews is a survivor, a former walk-on, a smart guy (neuroscience major) who has started 10 career games at outside linebacker. Now he’s The Guy. Matthews was basically a “no star” football recruit at the Pac-12 level. He eschewed a chance to sign with the Kansas City Royals as a standout shortstop and has since earned a scholarship and has become a leader.
Inasmuch as 16 of Rich Rodriguez’s defensive recruits have departed the program, there isn’t much maneuverability or star-power. It’s likely that RichRod will move safety/athlete Paul Magloire into the starting lineup at outside linebacker. Magloire has made eight tackles and is a three-star recruit from Arizona Western College. Not that he was highly coveted. Magloire was offered scholarships by Buffalo, James Madison, Georgia Southern and South Alabama.
Dear Mr. Football: Does RichRod deserve a break?
A: After losing 56-30 and 55-17 in consecutive weeks, the only thing more welcome than seeing Oregon State on the schedule would have been a bye.
One previous UA coach lost back-to-back 50-point games: In 1991, Dick Tomey was beaten 54-0 at Washington and 54-14 at UCLA. When the Wildcats returned home, after a bye, they faced the No. 2 Miami Hurricanes. It almost wasn’t fair; the 1991 national champions won 36-9 on a night Arizona started walk-on quarterback Billy Prickett of Rincon High School.
Prickett’s emergency backup QB was Billy Owens, a UA baseball player who is now the Oakland A’s director of player personnel.
That wasn’t fair.
Dear Mr. Football: Is there any revenge in college football?
A: Oregon State offensive coordinator Dave Baldwin was the head coach at San Jose State from 1997 to 2000. He did well (7-5 with a victory over Stanford) in his final season and began to negotiate a new contract.
Baldwin was being paid a below-market sum of $160,000. He asked for $185,000 and awaited the school’s answer. Instead of an answer, the school issued a release saying Baldwin was no longer SJSU’s coach. Boom. Gone. He has since coached at seven schools in 14 years.
When Andersen became OSU’s head coach last winter, he hired Baldwin from the Colorado State staff. One of Baldwin’s first moves was to recruit quarterback Seth Collins of San Diego’s Granite Hills High School. The only problem was that Collins planned to enter San Jose State in the middle of his senior season and become the Spartans’ QB-of-the-future.
He had already completed the paperwork to do so.
Baldwin flipped Collins from his ex-employer. Collins is now OSU’s starting QB and possibly the fastest quarterback in the league since Arizona’s Keith Smith was healthy in 1996 and 1997. (Collins has run the 100 in 10.8 seconds).
Payback? Revenge? Baldwin, 60, has gone through too much for that. He was part of Jack Elway’s doomed coaching staff at Stanford in the mid-’80s when a Cardinal team that would finish 1-10 shocked Arizona 28-17, in effect knocking the 8-3-1 Wildcats out of the Rose Bowl.
So maybe it’s Arizona that owes Baldwin; he was also the offensive coordinator at New Mexico in 2007 and 2008 when the mediocre Lobos upset Mike Stoops’ teams in consecutive seasons.
Dear Mr. Football: Has any team ever finished 0-9 in the Pac-12?
A: Cal and Colorado both have run the table in reverse, 0-9. It doesn’t take much imagination to realize that this is Arizona’s most winnable remaining game. If the Wildcats lose, 0-9 is in play. Arizona’s once-anticipated stretch of four middlin’ midseason games — OSU, Colorado, Wazzu and Washington — now looks like Murderer’s Row.
It’s up to Anu Solomon to carry a heavy load.
Wildcats 34, Beavers 30.
