Tonight's Las Vegas Bowl features a compelling matchup between BYU and Oregon State. You have two of the most underrated coaching staffs in the country -- and one program that has redefined itself so much in just the last year and a half.
To see what this Oregon State program has become is pretty remarkable. Beavers football hasn't quite elevated itself to the level that the Virginia Tech Hokies (or even the Boise State Broncos) have reached in the past decade, but I think there are some parallels here. Coach Mike Riley deserves a lot of credit. Among his peers, he's one of the most respected coaches in the country.
Riley is 5-0 in bowl games while at Oregon State; his teams traditionally show great improvement over the course of a season as new starters get settled into their roles. Here are some points about the Beavers that I think are worth noting as you watch them face BYU tonight:
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Bruce Feldman | email
College FootballABOUT THIS BLOG
Bruce Feldman
Bruce Feldman is a senior writer at ESPN The Magazine. He started at ESPN in 1994. He spent a good portion of two years in the South working on his book, "Meat Market: Inside the Smash-Mouth World of College Football Recruiting."
His first book, "Cane Mutiny: How the Miami Hurricanes Overturned the Football Establishment," made it to No. 1 among sports titles in the fall of 2004.
Bruce can be reached via Twitter at @BFeldmanESPN. and his full ESPN.Com archives are located here.
