Meet the Beavers

They play on the other side of the country. They get very little exposure. And much of the time, their conference's games are televised in the dead of night.

So without a little research, the Pac-10's Oregon State Beavers are relatively anonymous to Terps fans living in the Maryland area.

Here's a quick guide to the Beavers, who will play the Terps in the Emerald Bowl on Dec. 28 in San Francisco.

n Program 180

Much like the Terrapins with Ralph Friedgen, Oregon State has turned its program around with head coach Mike Riley at the helm. The Beavers missed out on a bowl game for 34 straight seasons. Then Mike Riley took over in 1997 and recruited the team (before leaving for the NFL) that went 11-1 and trounced Notre Dame in the 2001 Fiesta Bowl with Dennis Erickson on the sideline.

After stints as a head coach for the Chargers and as an assistant with the Saints, Riley returned to Oregon State in 2003 and has led the Beavers to three straight bowl victories. Oregon State has had big wins this season, beating Cal when the Golden Bears were still ranked No. 2 and beating Oregon when the Ducks were ranked No. 18.

n QB controversy

The Terps should be pretty familiar with the whole quarterback controversy routine by now. First Jordan Steffy and Josh Portis competed before the season for the starting job. Then Friedgen had to choose between Steffy and Chris Turner after Steffy got injured against Rutgers.

Now the Terps are pretty set with Turner.

Oregon State's Riley thinks he's set with his young quarterback, too.

Early in the season, the Beavers' head coach rotated sophomore Sean Canfield and redshirt sophomore Lyle Moevao, with Canfield getting most of the snaps. After ineffective play by and an injury to Canfield, Oregon State turned to Moevao, who went 3-0 while starting the final three games of the season.

Riley announced this week that Moevao would be his guy in the Emerald Bowl.

n Steven Jackson redux

With his dreadlocks and helmet visor, running back Yvenson Bernard is a (former Beaver running back) Steven Jackson look-alike on the field. To some extent, he's a Jackson play-alike too.

Although smaller than the Rams' running back, Bernard is similar in that he can catch passes out of the backfield and is a shifty-but-tough runner who has accumulated some great career numbers at Oregon State.

Bernard missed two games this season but still managed to rack up 12 rushing touchdowns and over 1,000 yards on the ground.

Jackson scored five total touchdowns in his final collegiate bowl game; can Bernard do the same?

n Second crack at Wake Forest?

When asked what he saw from the tapes of Oregon State's offense, Friedgen compared the Beavers to a previous Terp foe.

"They are a lot like Wake Forest," Friedgen said. "Run a lot of misdirection plays, a lot of flanker sweeps. They do a good job with the counter game. They got a real good dimension of running the football."

Stopping Wake Forest wasn't much of a problem for the Terps for three quarters, but the team melted down in the fourth for its most heartbreaking loss of the season. We'll see if the Terps react the same way in the bowl game as they did in September against the Demon Deacons.

n No running!

Oregon State's run defense is second best in the nation, as the Beavers allow just 75 yards per game from opposing rushers.

The number one run defense in America? Boston College, whom the Terps ran on for 135 yards, as part of the Terps' best offensive performance of the season.

Friedgen is aware of how stout the Beavers front seven is, so expect a whole lot of passing plays. After all, the Terps were most successful this season when they opened things up through the air.

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