A little trash talking never hurts, right?
"I think we can go down there and kick their butts again," Oregon State sophomore cornerback Brandon Browner told The Register-Guard earlier this week when asked about his team's chances against No. 22 ASU.
Browner's renewed confidence comes on the heels of a lackluster 17-7 win over New Mexico in which Oregon State hardly looked like the team that pushed then-No. 3 Louisiana State to overtime in the season opener.
The Beavers are winless in their last 14 trips to Tempe. In fact, they haven't beaten ASU at Sun Devil Stadium since 1969.
Oregon State head coach Mike Riley wouldn't make any bold predictions like Browner, but he discounted notions that thoughts of the 14-game skid will come into play Saturday.
"It's not a part of these kids' lives and it's not a part of this coaching staff's life," Riley said. "I'm the biggest link to that. I'm probably the only guy here who was around in 1969. But I don't think it's a factor."
Oregon State will attempt to mirror the balance that it established last week against New Mexico. Senior quarterback Derek Anderson threw 50 times for 274 yards and two touchdowns and senior tailback Dwight Wright rushed 30 times for 108 yards.
The previous week, Anderson attempted 42 passes in Oregon State's 53-34 loss at Boise State and Wright had just eight rushes. That caused Riley to take the brunt of his team's 0-2 start for not having enough balance.
"I think it was huge for us to kind of establish our true identity of what we want to be," Riley said. "I don't think we found that in the first two games, but I felt the capability was there. I was a little worried because New Mexico historically is hard to run against, but we found our yards and did some very good things running the football."
If the running game stalls Saturday, Anderson is more than capable of putting his teammates on his shoulders and taking control himself. Anderson has thrown at least one touchdown in 21 consecutive games and he ranks second among active Division I quarterbacks with 8,550 yards passing, just 235 yards ahead of ASU senior Andrew Walter. His 59 career touchdown passes are a school record.
Having an explosive receiver like junior split end Mike Hass has certainly helped Anderson's cause. Hass posted a Pac-10-record 293 receiving yards against Boise State, boosting him to third nationally with a 134.3-yard average.
"I think both teams are capable of putting up big numbers, but I'm hoping that our defense is up to their capability," Riley said. "I know their defense is good, so who knows what that means in the ballgame. It appears that you could have a big shootout with the numbers that Andrew and Derek (Hagan) have put up, but the defense might have something to say about that, too."
Putting personnel aside, Riley isn't the least bit worried about the large crowd at Sun Devil Stadium -- or the possible repercussions of Browner's smack talk.
"We shouldn't be worried about anything," Riley said. "We went into the so-called 'Eye of the Tiger' and played hard, and did a lot of good things. I hope that has residual effects on every atmosphere that we go into and every top-notch opponent that we play."
Reach the reporter at brian.gomez@asu.edu.
