In a business that awards departing, how do we adequately celebrate last men standing? In a world where it pays more to get out, what is left behind for those who stay home?

Just like a teenager or a TikTok Mommy Blogger, I have felt all the feels over the past weekend. I’ve been depressed, angry, sad, confused, and felt misunderstood. I’ve seen people who are supposedly on the same team as I am have wildly different takes that sometimes make me wonder if any of this is even worth it anymore. 

Almost a decade later, I can still remember the feeling I had when I saw the first image of Mike Riley in a Nebraska polo. It was disorienting—something that had always seemed so familiar suddenly being so foreign. I had a friend who drove a 1970s VW Bus in college. It was creamsicle orange and had surf company stickers in the back window. As his time in Corvallis wound down, he decided to sell it. I never left the area, and neither did that VW bus.

To quote Ice Cube, “Today was a good day.” It’s always a great day to be a Beaver, but today was probably one of the better vibes days I can ever remember in Beaver Nation. There was almost zero to complain about, from coaching decisions to player execution to the score…heck I didn’t even see anyone complaining about the announcers for once.

As Beavers, we’ve become accustomed to disappointment. Growing up whenever I watched an OSU game with my grandfather, at some point he would invariably say something along the lines of “I wonder how we’ll flub it up this time.” No matter the sport, no matter the situation, we’re geared to expect the worst.

Loss affects everyone differently. When a loved one dies unexpectedly, everyone in the family reacts differently. Some will look for who to blame: God, the doctors, someone you can sue, etc. Some will make it about themselves, making a post on Instagram and talking about how Meemaw died just after they got to the hospital, “as if she was waiting just for me to finally say goodbye.” Some will just close themselves off from the world, preferring to be alone with their feelings.

The Pac-12….er….Pac-10…..er….Pac-9 has been through tough times before. Founded in 1915 as the Pacific Coast Conference, it actually died for a few years in the late 1950s after the University of Washington was found to be illegally paying players in 1956, then everyone turned on everyone else and ratted each other out for doing the same thing…..a great read on the history of the conference can be found here in a piece titled ‘Modern NCAA Conference Commissioner was Forged in Fiery Destruction of the Pacific Coast Conference.’

It’s the most wonderful time of the year. Another NFL Draft Weekend is upon us and this one could showcase a healthy amount of Oregon State flavor.

Here’s where I have the Beaver NFL hopefuls going in a full, somewhat admittedly optimistic, seven-round mock draft.

For years, I’ve been hearing about the Beaver Bias (shoutout The Payton Years!). Most of the time, I try to figure out if it’s really a thing, or if there’s some other reason and it’s mostly my fandom coming through.