2000: The Win Over Arizona

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

All through the fall of 2000, Oregon State's football team had been surprising college football observers across the country. After winning at California 38-32 in November 4, the Beavers – only two years removed from their 28th straight losing season – were 8-1 overall and 5-1 in the Pacific-10, in the running for the conference's Rose Bowl berth.

The day after that win, it was OSU head coach Dennis Erickson's turn to be surprised. It came after finding out the Beavers were ranked No. 10 in both the Associated Press media poll and the ESPN/USA Today coaches poll, then being told it was Oregon State's first top-10 ranking since 1968.

"Is that right?" Erickson said. "I didn't even know they had polls then."

It was the Beavers first appearance in the top 10 since September 28, 1968, to be exact, when OSU was ranked eighth.

"We've just had a lot of good opportunities as a team and we've taken a lot of strides and it's exciting," Beaver linebacker Noah Happe said. "It's an exciting time around here. The community's behind us and our team's pumped up every game. Every time we get a chance to go out and do our best.

"People around town, they've been waiting for this a long time. Corvallis as a community, they've been waiting for success and it came with (former OSU head coach Mike) Riley two years ago and last year we had the success of Dennis Erickson's first year and we've just been pumped lately. A lot of people didn't expect us to do this well around the nation; as a football team we expected the best of ourselves."

Oregon State's win at Cal also gave the Beavers a first-ever accomplishment: beating all four of the conference's California schools – Cal, Stanford, Southern California and UCLA – in the same season.

The day after the Beavers' breaking into the top 10 was announced, OSU students could begin picking up a Civil War ticket if they had vouchers numbered 14,872 through 19,630. The Daily Barometer editorialized that the lottery system worked well for allocating student tickets for the game; after addressing some of the concerns that had come up about the plan, the editorial board wrote, "Like it or not, though, this system is fair, despite the fact that not everyone will be satisfied. After 28 dismal seasons, OSU students have to get used to the price of winning. At least we're all not getting used to paying the price of a ticket every week."

The next set of Bowl Championship Series rankings was issued later Monday and the Beavers were in another top 10 – even higher, in fact, at No. 9, up from their No. 11 spot the week before.

Simonton continued to lead the Pac-10 in rushing (143.1 yards per game) and scoring (10.9 points per game), and when Sports Illustrated magazine's issue hit the mailboxes that week it contained a three-page feature on Simonton headlined, "Eager Beaver: A skull session with Ken Simonton of Oregon State, the top runner in the Pac-10, can swing from Tupac to the Bard."

Reporter Austin Murphy wrote: "A 5'7", 194-pound junior running back who hides behind his linemen until he sees an opening and then bursts through it, Simonton is many things, but bashful isn't one of them. He's equally at ease among teammates and professors. He's determined not to be stereotyped. Do a little homework, Simonton pleads, and recognize me for what I am: a strong student who happens to excel in his other role as a collegian, which he describes as carrying a football for the financial betterment of Oregon State."

Murphy asked Simonton whether he might enter the National Football League draft after his junior season. "As a businessman, I'll weigh my options," Simonton told him. "I have every intention of coming back, but if [the NFL] is speaking my language...." Murphy continued: "Simonton's garden-variety speed, 4.42 in the 40 and garden-gnome height make him an improbable early-round selection. 'If you put him through those tests the NFL scouts do,' Erickson concedes, 'maybe he doesn't do so well. But when you see him on video and coach him live, he fascinates you more every time you see him.'"

After Simonton sat out most of the second half at Cal with nagging hamstring and groin problems there were questions about his status against Arizona.

"These muscles tighten up some during the week so he practices some but not a lot, and he gets into the game and he's pretty darn good through the first half," Erickson said. "Then at halftime he goes back in and he's a little tight and he doesn't feel like he's at 100 percent."

The Rose Bowl situation hadn't changed: Oregon State needed to win its final two games and have Washington lose to either UCLA or Washington State in the final two weeks to get the return trip to Pasadena. But with three Pac-10 teams in the top 10, speculation was mounting as to what it would take for the conference to get two teams into the Bowl Championship Series – particularly into the Fiesta Bowl.

"Looking at this right now, it makes me feel better about our chances," Pac-10 Commissioner Tom Hansen told the Seattle Times. But, he noted, the Fiesta Bowl hadn't looked favorably on the Pac-10 since the BCS format began.

"The Fiesta Bowl never seemed to have the same geographical bias that the Southeastern teams have (in the Orange and Sugar bowls), which is puzzling to us," Hansen said.

In the closing weeks of the season, so many things could happen. Eugene Register-Guard columnist Ron Bellamy noted that USC – tied for last in the conference – could still be a bowl team; WSU, the other team tied for last place, had lost in overtime three of the past four weeks. None of the Pac-10's games the previous week had been decided by more than six points.

"I keep coming back to the parity in the conference," Oregon coach Mike Bellotti told Bellamy. "It is amazing. There is such talent and good coaching across the board in this conference that you have to be prepared every week to play well, and to play inspired. You have to have a great plan, and your kids have to execute the plan, or you're not going to win."

Arizona entered the game with a 5-4 record, 3-3 in the Pac-10, but had lost its last three games. However, those losses had demonstrated the parity in the conference; they included a 14-10 loss at No. 7 Oregon and, last week, a 35-32 defeat at No. 8 Washington.

"We will have our day," UA head coach Dick Tomey said. "I don't know when that will be … we'll just have to make it this week."

At Arizona, Oregon State had a chance at another first-ever victory: a win in Tucson. Oregon State was 0-10 at Arizona Stadium and just 3-19-1 all-time against the Wildcats.

The Beavers would also be going after more "not since" entries: OSU hadn't won five straight games since a nine-game winning streak over the 1966 and 1967 seasons and hadn't won three in a row on the road since a four-game streak over the 1969 and 1970 seasons.

The contest was Arizona's homecoming game, which didn't sit well with Maurer.

"What? Are you serious?" Maurer said. "We were homecoming games for teams my freshman year, but I can't believe we're still someone's homecoming game. If I were them I would not have picked us to go down there for homecoming. Get serious."

The game matched the Pac-10's top defenses: OSU topped the conference in total defense at 314 yards per game with Arizona second at 325 yards per game, and the Wildcats were first in scoring defense at 19.3 points per game – but the Beavers hadn't scored fewer than 21 points in a game so far during the season. OSU also led the conference in total offense at 424.8 yards per game.

Much of denting that UA defense would fall to Oregon State's offensive line: Vincent Sandoval, Robert Sykes, Chris Gibson, Jared Cornell and Mitch White. That group was featured in stories in both the OSU Daily Barometer and Eugene Register-Guard during the week.

"The runs are coming from great blocking," Simonton told the R-G. Gibson, appreciating the appreciation while noting the spiritual aspect of some Beaver ballcarriers, said, "We've never heard anything but good things from them. When they're talking, right behind God comes the offensive line."

More seriously, Gibson praised the Oregon State backs.

"They all run hard," Gibson said. "Ken can make things happen, and once we get him through the defensive front, he makes it look easy. But he hits the hole hard. It's the same for Patrick (McCall) and Antonio (Battle). When two backs rush for 100 or more yards (which Simonton and McCall had done twice already in 2000), you know you've had a lot to do with that and you take a lot of pride in it."

If the homecoming date meant Arizona's powers-that-be underestimated the Beavers, Tomey didn't.

"They may be the best team that we've played," UA's 14th-year head coach said. "I'm not sure that Oregon State isn't the best team in the league. They've certainly had fewer nail-biters than anyone."

By game time in the desert, the Beavers knew their Rose Bowl rivals had been in battles that day but both had won: Oregon beat California 25-17 and Washington defeated UCLA 35-28.

Kickoff in Tucson arrived with cloudy skies and a calm, 52-degree night; Arizona's homecoming crowd showed up 44,109 strong. Their hopes for an upset were buoyed early as the Wildcats opened the game with a drive resulting in Sean Keel's 42-yard field goal and a 3-0 lead.

The Beavers quickly dashed those dreams, scoring on their first five possessions. They evened the score at 3-3 on Ryan Cesca's 23-yard field goal and took a 6-3 advantage when Cesca added a 44-yarder with 2:03 left in the first quarter.

A 16-yard punt then set OSU up at the Wildcat 41-yard line and McCall scored on a one-yard run to make it 13-3. By the end of the second quarter, the Beavers added a 26-yard pass from Smith to Chad Johnson and another Cesca field goal, a 31-yarder, to lead 23-3.

At halftime, Oregon State had rushed for just two yards as Arizona stacked the box with eight and nine players, determined to keep Simonton, McCall and Battle from beating them with the run. That opened things up for the passing game; Smith was 12-for-21 passing for 188 yards in the first half and Johnson had six catches for 103 yards.

"He is spectacular," Smith said of Johnson. "They played some zone defense and started to roll him, so he was able to get open and make some things happen. He presents a lot of problems for people. He has been great this year, and he was again tonight."

The Beaver defense had done its part, limiting Arizona to 93 yards total offense in the half, including just 29 on the ground. OSU sacked the Wildcats' Ortege Jenkins four times by intermission, two of those by defensive end LaDairis Jackson.

"We knew it was a big game and we came out and executed," linebacker Richard Seigler said.

Oregon State's offense sputtered through a scoreless third quarter and Arizona rallied with field goals of 31 and 37 yards by Keel to crawl within two touchdowns at 23-9 by the end of the quarter. The Wildcats had a chance to get even closer after picking off Smith and driving to the OSU 27 but a fourth-down play failed and the ball went back to the Beavers.

Then came a 73-yard, eight-play drive capped by Simonton's 21-yard touchdown run and Oregon State was again firmly in control, leading 30-9 with 13:44 to go. Cesca tacked on his fourth field goal of the night, a 30-yarder with 6:40 to play, and the final score was on the board: 33-9. By the time the Beavers wrapped up their first-ever win in Tucson, all but a few thousand of the homecoming crowd had exited the stadium.

Covering the game for the Corvallis Gazette-Times, Kevin Hampton wrote, "The Oregon State defense looked at the words 'Bear Down' painted on the Arizona Stadium turf and took them to heart Saturday night."

By the end, Arizona had managed just 158 yards total offense, only 69 on the ground, and had been sacked six times. The Wildcats were held without a touchdown for the first time since 1994.

"That was the key to the win, how well we played on defense," Erickson said. "I felt going into the game all week that we had to dominate on defense because you're going to have to pick and choose to get your plays against them on offense because they're so good on defense."

Jackson finished with three sacks while linebacker James Allen, defensive tackle Eric Manning and defensive end Sefa O'Reilly each had one and Seigler had an interception.

"LaDairis was outstanding," Erickson said. "Our two ends, LaDairis and DeLawrence (Grant) together are about as good as there are in our league and they both played well, but LaDairis had an outstanding game. Three sacks – I mean, what can you say? That's a tremendous effort by him."

Oregon State finished with 304 yards total offense as Arizona's defense held the Beavers 120 yards below their season average. Smith finished 17-for-31 passing for 231 yards and a touchdown; Johnson had seven catches for 109 yards and a touchdown, Robert Prescott three catches for 55 yards and Maurer three catchers for 49 yards. Simonton carried 19 times for 73 yards and McCall 14 times for 36 yards and each had a touchdown.

"Obviously, we didn't play well … but they deserve the accolades," Tomey said of the Beavers. "They are a terrific team … the best team we have played all year."

Now at 9-1 overall and 6-1 in the conference, Oregon State had its first nine-win season since going 9-1-1 in 1939. The Beavers' six conference wins were their most since 1957, and they were on a five-game win streak in a single season for the first time since 1966.

And there was still one game to go, the one much of the state had been anticipating for more than a month: Oregon, at Reser Stadium on November 19, with both teams having a chance at the Rose Bowl.

"We've been working for that game," Smith said of the Civil War. "It's been our whole mindset. We took care of business and now we get Oregon. To be 9-1 in the league is great, but we are still not satisfied. We still have one more game left to take care of.

"If we win that game we win at least a share of the Pac-10 championship."

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