2008 Football - Pocket Schedule Game

Its time to start the old pocket schedule game. I ran a poll a few weeks back before fall camp had started and I found that people are very optimistic about this season. Of course, its easy to pick a number. Harder is predicting how the Beavers get there.

Here's a review what Beavers fans think the football team will do this year:

Wins - % of Votes
  11 - 10%
  10 - 15%
   9 - 32%
   8 - 27%
   7 - 7%
   6 - 2%
   5 - <1%
   4 - 2%
   3 - 5%

About 10% think we will have a losing season. However, 25% of fans think we're headed for a BCS game. I voted 9 wins. So yea, either we have a serious case of Orange Crush or we know a lot more than the pundits. Other than Sports Illustrated, it seems we are averaging about a 6th place finish in the Pac-10 among pre-season magazines/polls. Of course, we are always low in those just like we are always low in the recruiting rankings.

Lets look at the schedule:

2008 Schedule - OSUBeavers.com

at Stanford
at Penn st
Hawaii
USC
at Utah
WSU
at UW
ASU
at UCLA
Cal
at UA
UO

At first glance, its clearly very tough. I wish the Stanford game was at home, because that's a tough one to start with. We cannot look past them towards PSU. That said, I'm calling the game at Stanford a win. We have to have that one to get off on the right foot.

W - at Stanford

Penn State is tough. I think we have a shot, but we haven't actually won a huge game out of conference early in the season. Will this be the year we finally start off strong? This could be our Michigan. It would be HUGE! That said, even though I think we can win, I'm putting this down as an L.

L - at Penn st

Hawaii has a new coach and lost some good seniors. W.

W - Hawaii

USC should have Sanchez back. I'm not sure I believe in Sanchez, but the rest of their team is so good. If we are going to beat them, this might be the year. But I have to be realistic and call an L here. But how huge would this game be if we're 3-0 going into it? Reser would be ROCKIN! If god is a Beaver fan, he will make this happen.

L - USC

At Utah. Tough call here. Typically this is when we start hitting cruise control on the season. But playing at Utah will be tough. Revenge factor. Hmmm. I say we pull it out and our defense wins it for us. W.

W - at Utah

WSU: new coach. W.

W - WSU

Washington will be tougher this year. But I think our D just knows how to play against the run. We will be swarming and the Beavs will win in Seattle once again.

W - at UW

Big game with ASU. Erickson returns again. They have a target on their back. We tend to play poorly vs. ASU, but I call a win. This will be our first in a few years and will set up a great stretch run.

W - ASU

Yea. We ALWAYS seem to lose bad at UCLA. So this will be a loss, but it will inspire us down the stretch for our traditional final run.

L - at UCLA

And during that run we will beat Cal again, Arizona away, and the Ducks for a 3rd consecutive time and on to a bowl game!

W - Cal
W - at UA
W - UO


To recap, here's the predictions:

W - at Stan
L - at Penn st
W - Hawaii
L - USC
W - at Utah
W - WSU
W - at UW
W - ASU
L - at UCLA
W - Cal
W - at UA
W - UO

9-3, 7-2 Pac-10

Holiday Bowl anyone?


Go Beavs!