What Happened Last Time Between Houston Cougars and Oregon State Beavers?
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On some level, the Houston Cougars can relate to what the Oregon State Beavers are going through.
Over the past few years, the Pac-12 completely imploded with USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington going to the Big Ten, Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah going to the Big 12 and Cal and Stanford getting a lifeboat to the ACC. Meanwhile, Oregon State and Washington State were left behind to pick up the pieces in a shell of a conference. It hasn't been pretty for the Beavers, as they're 0-4 this season with each of their last two losses coming by 30+ points.
It's a nearly identical situation to what happened to Houston in the mid 1990s, as it, TCU, SMU and Rice didn't receive invitations to the new Big 12 when the Big Eight collapsed. While they're back in a power conference now, the Cougars know the pain of essentially being relegated all to well.
Besides that similarity, however, the Cougars and Beavers don't have much shared history.
Houston Cougars, Oregon State Beavers Last Met 55 Years Ago
The Cougars and Beavers have played three times before, but all of those games took place well over 50 years ago. The last of those three matchups took place on October 17, 1970, in Houston, with the Cougars taking down the Beavers 19-16.
Oregon State shut down Houston's offense for much of the game, but the Cougars came through when it mattered most. Trailing by four late in the fourth quarter, the Cougars went on an eight-play, 77-yard drive, with Terry Peel hitting Elmo Wright for a 22-yard touchdown to take the lead with 1:17 to go. The defense then held strong on the Beavers' final drive to seal a huge win for Bill Yeoman's team.
The Beavers finished the game with 356 total yards and 19 first downs to the Cougars' 244 total yards and 12 first downs. They also rushed for 276 yards to the Cougars' 176, but neither team did much in the passing game. It truly was a different era of football.
This game was also quite sloppy on both sides, as the Cougars fumbled four times and lost three while the Beavers threw three interceptions. Houston was the more disciplined team, however, taking only two penalties for 17 yards while the Beavers had six for 79 yards.
Houston would go on to finish the season at No. 13 in the AP Poll with an 8-3 record, while Oregon State finished the year at 6-5.
It should go without saying, but Friday night's game will be very different than the last time these two teams met purely based on the changes to the sport over the years.
