2000: The Win Over San Diego State

This fall marks the 20th anniversary of one of the greatest football seasons in Oregon State history. The 2000 Beavers tied for the Pacific 10 conference championship and defeated Notre Dame in the 2001 Fiesta Bowl, finishing with an 11-1 record and ranked in the top five in the country. That OSU team is among the 2020 inductees into the Oregon State Sports Hall of Fame, and osubeavers.com is recapping that season with a series of stories this fall.

By Kip Carlson

For a Sunday, it wasn't exactly a slow news day.

The afternoon of September 10, 2000, Indiana fired Bobby Knight as its men's basketball head coach after 28 seasons. The action came days after Knight had a confrontation with an IU student, the latest in a long line of controversial incidents for the coach.

Tiger Woods won the Canadian Open, adding that title to the British Open and U.S. Open titles he'd already won that year. It was Woods' ninth victory of the year.

That evening, the television drama "The West Wing" captured eight Emmy Awards in its first season. Michael J. Fox won for Best Actor in a Comedy for his role in "Spin City" and, after 18 nominations, "The Sopranos" finally earned a trophy as James Gandolfini was named Best Actor.

"I can't really explain this, except the academy maybe had an affinity for slightly overweight bald men," Gandolfini said.

For Oregon State's football team, the Sunday meant arriving home at 4:30 a.m. after a 28-20 non-conference win at New Mexico. The Beavers' departure from Albuquerque after the evening game had been delayed because of a deflated tire.

For OSU, it was the start of a bye week, as the Beavers wouldn't play again until hosting San Diego State on September 23. After a pair of close wins – they'd opened the season edging Eastern Washington 21-19 – it would be a week spent trying to sort things out before the final non-conference contest of the season.

"I don't know when the timing of a bye is good," OSU head coach Dennis Erickson told reporters in his weekly meeting with the media on Tuesday. "Obviously, we don't have a lot of injuries, so it's not that we have to heal anybody up. I don't think it comes at a bad time for us, only because we need to work on some things offensively that we've got to get better at, so it's not all that bad a time."

Carrying the load – literally – for the Beavers thus far had been tailback Ken Simonton, the nation's third-leading scorer with 15 points per game and fourth-leading rusher at 192 yards per game; he also led the Pacific-10 in both categories.

"Kenny is an outstanding running back and he has been getting some good blocking," Erickson said. "But he is a great running back and he has proven that over and over and over. He's not big and not fast but has great vision and great feet. He has special abilities. You don't do what he does for three straight seasons without some God-given ability."

The Beavers' difficulty advancing the ball thus far had been through the air. Oregon State averaged 105 yards per game passing through the first two games, good for ninth in the Pac-10 and 101st nationally.

"We're not where we need to be," Erickson said.

Oregon State's defense, meanwhile, was allowing just 184.5 total yards per game and 50 rushing yards per game, both tops in the Pac-10. Erickson, though, noted the Beavers hadn't yet played a high-powered offense.

"We've got to continue to improve on both sides," Erickson said. "I mean, we're not where we need to be on defense, either. We haven't played two very good offensive teams, so we really haven't been tested. And we are going to get tested."

Oregon State defensive tackle Ryan Atkinson felt the Beavers were stopping the run well but needed improvement against the pass.

"We've got to get our pass rush a little better," Atkinson said. "The D-tackles need to get a better pass rush up the middle. But we're working hard and getting better."

If that meant some harsh words to a teammate during practice, Corvallis Gazette-Times sportswriter Kevin Hampton observed that shouldn't be a problem. "The black shirts (defense) are constantly jabbering during drills, telling the white-shirted offensive players that they can't run on them or throw a pass over the middle," Hampton wrote.

Said safety Terrence Carroll: "We talk. We just try to get the guys fired up. We'll get out there and give them a little lip, try go get them to make a play. That's all in fun and competitiveness."

That Friday, September 15, the G-T reported the Holiday Inn Express under construction overlooking the Willamette River just north of downtown Corvallis was on track for a May opening. The Sunday paper, with no game to report on during the bye week, featured a lengthy story outlining the long working relationships on Erickson's OSU staff:

Offensive line coach Gregg Smith and offensive coordinator Tim Lappano joined Erickson at Idaho in 1982; running backs coach Dan Cozzetto was a holdover that season from the previous Vandal staff. Defensive coordinator Craig Bray joined them in 1984.

Director of football operations Ron Davis, special teams coach Jim Michalczik and wide receivers coach Eric Yarber had similar lengthy connections to Erickson through his later stops at Wyoming, Washington State, Miami and with the Seattle Seahawks.

"We know each other," Erickson said. "We know what we expect from each other, we know what we expect from our players.

"We've won every place we've went, so we know what we need to get out of people. We know what we want offensively and defensively. I trust those guys, so I don't have to worry about what's going on on the field or off the field or anything like that. I know that being winners that they are that things are going to get done the right way, so it puts me in a real good comfort zone as far as a head coach is concerned.

"You trust people and you have success, it makes a big difference."

As the Beavers began preparation for San Diego State, Gregg Smith said the offense would be better than what it showed in the first two games.

"I think you're going to see us play better, be a more consistent offensive football team," Smith said. "You'll see us get things done. But the bottom line is, we're 2-0."

Polls that week showed the presidential race was leaning slightly toward Al Gore over George W. Bush and the Beavers were leading in a poll of their own. For the first time, ESPN was giving fans a say in the location of its GameDay broadcast and leading the way for October 7 was OSU's game at Washington with 66 percent of the vote, well ahead of Florida State vs. Miami's 17.6 percent.

At midweek, Gazette-Times columnist Brooks Hatch offered that the Beavers' approach during the bye week had been a positive one. "There was no false sense of security, no gloating or out-of-the-ordinary displays of arrogance at Prothro Field last week in OSU's three bye-week workouts," Hatch wrote. "The Beavers haven't played well, and they know it."

Wednesday's front-page headline in the Daily Barometer read "OSU enrollment numbers near record mark." The story below said OSU officials expected 17,000 or more students, approaching the 17,689 on campus in the fall of the 1980-81 academic year. By 1996, enrollment had sunk to a 29-year low of 13,860.

"Four years ago, this was an entirely different place – in both appearance and character," Barometer editor Troy Foster wrote in his "Editor's Notebook" column. "If you are new to Oregon State, you are new to a university on the move. But not too long ago, this place was like a drowsy hangover in desperate need of a Vivarin … everywhere you turn and everywhere you look, things are only getting better."

That same issue of the Barometer noted an anonymous $20 million gift to OSU would help the university toward its stated goal of becoming one of the top 25 engineering programs in the United States by 2010. Another story inside outlined how Oregon State was strengthening its bid to be the school selected by the state to open a four-year campus in Bend.

In the Sports section, Scott Johnson noted San Diego State was entering Saturday's game with an 0-3 record, having scored only 23 points, but its losses had been to Arizona State, Arizona and Illinois. OSU, while having edged Eastern Washington and New Mexico, was on a 12-game winning streak in regular season non-conference games.

"If Oregon State is able to extend both of those streaks, the Beavers get a chance to really prove themselves against USC," Johnson wrote. "A loss to SDSU could deflate any chances of defeating the Trojans for the first time since the legendary 1967 contest."

San Diego State would come into the game missing four starters due to injury, including quarterback Jack Hawley. Tailback Larry Ned had returned the previous week, however, and rushed for 85 yards against Arizona.

"Offensively they have some talent and skill outside to make things happen," Erickson said.

By Friday, Oregon State had sold over 32,000 tickets, making it likely OSU would draw over 30,000 fans for back-to-back non-conference home games for the first time ever. The actual crowd ended up being 32,027 when the game kicked off under clear skies on a 70-degree afternoon.

That crowd got what it wanted – eventually.

The Beavers' first three drives fizzled and the Aztecs went up 3-0 on Nat Tandeberg's 49-yard field goal late in the first quarter. Finally, Oregon State's offense came to life and it didn't require a steady diet of Simonton runs.

Smith hit tight end Marty Maurer for seven yards, Shawn Kintner for nine, T.J. Houshmandzadeh for 22 and Maurer for 13 more before capping the drive with a 26-yard touchdown pass to Chad Johnson for a 7-3 lead.

"It was a relief to get that touchdown pass," the highly touted Johnson said of finally getting his first score in an OSU uniform.

Now it was the Beaver defense's turn. Linebacker Richard Siegler sacked SDSU quarterback Lon Sherriff at the Aztec 5-yard line; on the next play defensive end DeLawrence Grant thumped Ned and the ball came loose, with linebacker Nick Barnett recovering the fumble in the end zone to make it 14-3.

"The defense always comes out on fire," Siegler said. "It's a race to the ball and we knew that sooner or later the offense was going to get it together, start moving the ball and put points on the board."

That came again late in the half. After another Seigler sack, Houshmandzadeh returned a punt 48 yards to the San Diego State 20. This time it was back to Simonton, who carried three times for the touchdown and a 21-3 halftime lead.

Seigler continued his big day in the second half, coming up with an interception that set OSU up at the SDSU 23, leading to another Simonton touchdown to make it 28-3. Patrick McCall's 10-yard run later in the third quarter bumped that to 35-3, and that's how it stayed as the Beavers ended the game finding playing time for those down the depth chart.

"I thought it was a tremendous improvement as a football team from two weeks ago," Erickson said. "Defensively, obviously, by looking at the stats, the sacks and turnovers, was a key and that's how our football team is. That's how we are going to be all year and when we play like that on defense, we can play against anybody."

Oregon State had recovered two fumbles, picked off four passes, had 17 tackles for lost yardage (including five quarterback sacks) and allowed only 71 yards rushing and 227 yards total offense. Grant had two sacks, four tackles for lost yardage, three forced fumbles and one fumble recovery; Seigler had two sacks, three tackles for lost yardage and an interception; and Carroll a pair of interceptions.

"They played far better today than we thought they would," San Diego State head coach Ted Tollner said of the Beavers. "We thought we could play competitively, but we didn't. They absolutely dominated us."

Offensively, Simonton finished with 91 yards rushing and two touchdowns while Antonio Battle picked up 54 yards and McCall 34 and a score. Smith completed 14 of 27 passes for 172 yards and a touchdown without an interception and Johnson led the Beavers with four catches for 57 yards and Maurer caught four passes for 49 yards.

"I thought offensively we executed extremely well, for the most part," Erickson said. "I thought Jonathan probably played his best football game. He threw the football real well, had some drops which were things that hurt us, but other than that I thought we mixed it up real well as far as running play-action pass."

The victory gave OSU a 3-0 start for the second straight season, and the rout made it a feel-good game after the two squeakers to start the campaign.

"We're satisfied with a win, any time you win handily like we did," Smith said. "But it's going to be a lot tougher next week."

"Next week" meant not just the start of Pacific-10 play. In these seasons in which the Beavers were ending so many negative streaks, it was a chance to terminate another: the foe would be Southern California, which OSU hadn't beaten since the fabled "Giant Killers" game of 1967.

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