Why Oregon State football is embracing ‘violent’ offensive identity

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CORVALLIS — Near the end of Oregon State’s dominant season-opening win over Idaho State on Saturday, Gerad Christian-Lichtenhan and Van Wells came to a realization.

Christian-Lichtenhan, the Beavers’ starting left tackle, and Wells, their starting center, both spent last season at Colorado, which featured one of the more pass-heavy attacks in all of college football. The Buffs’ star quarterback, Shedeur Sanders, held the ball longer in passing scenarios than the majority of quarterbacks in the country, which often put Colorado’s offensive linemen in difficult situations.

As the clock wound down on OSU’s Week 1 drubbing of the Bengals, the pair of former Buffs reflected on how different life is with their new program.

Oregon State Beavers running back Anthony Hankerson (0) fight off Idaho State defense during the second half on Aug. 31 at Reser Stadium in Corvallis.

“It’s funny, we were sitting down and we looked at each other and were like, ‘I think we’ll take the 95% run instead of the 95% pass any day of the week,'” Christian-Lichtenhan said with a laugh. “It’s just a lot more fun for football, you know? We know what we’re doing. It’s violent. It’s what we signed up to be.”

Oregon State leaned on a smash-mouth offensive philosophy to kick off the year with a win and made it abundantly clear that running the ball will be a strength this season.

The Beavers ran for 362 yards on 58 attempts, averaging 6.1 yards per carry. Jam Griffin (160 yards) and Anthony Hankerson (155 yards) became the first OSU duo since 1994 to run for more than 150 yards apiece in the same game.

At one point, Oregon State orchestrated a 75-yard scoring drive that featured 11 consecutive running plays and chewed up more than nine minutes of game clock.

Ironically, running the ball down their opponent’s throats wasn’t necessarily the game plan that…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/why-oregon-state-football-embracing-001334362.html

Author : Statesman Journal

Publish date : 2024-09-04 00:13:34

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