Mitch Dahlen Shares Beavers' Secret Sauce: "It's just effort."

Earlier this week, Oregon State offensive coordinator Mitch Dahlen spoke with the media.

Fifteen seconds into that conversation, the first-year play caller cracked a smile. When asked about the Beavers' 56-26 blowout win over Colorado State, Dahlen praised his team's explosiveness.

"Every opening script that I do, I script the first 12 plays, and a lot of it just goes back to the formations, and the pictures I'm trying to see - like, as I'm going through a game, I want to see as many different formations, and see where we have numbers advantages - so [we] did that early, and then kind of just how the openers played out is the fifth [play] was the big ball to number 12 [star wideout Jesse Legree]."

Legree, the true freshman from Baltimore, has been a revelation this Fall. In five games, he has 28 catches for 741 yards, and 9 touchdowns. His yardage ranks second highest in the country, while his scores tie Ohio State superstar Jeremiah Smith for the most nationwide. For their part, the Pac-12 Conference has honored the Beavers' freshman phenom as their Freshman of the Week for five consecutive weeks.

Dahlen, however, elected to compliment another Oregon State wide receiver: Eddie Freauff.

"If they want to go back and look at like AB's [Aaron Butler] reverse that he scored a touchdown on, if you look at Eddie [Freauff], Eddie's blocking on that. He blocked three guys, he sends a corner into the ground, and he's the first one up to go celebrate. That one fired me up."

Heading into the season, the incoming freshman Legree was off the radar, and transfers Aaron Butler and Aern "Bubba" Hampton were unproven. Freauff was the team's leading receiver, and expected to breakout. Now, he's playing a well-rounded game, and driving the Beavers' culture.

"It's just effort. Those are the things for me that I get so excited about: guys playing with high effort." said Dahlen. "You can see it, like, guys had fun, and to me that's when we're rolling on offense, is when you're able to get the ball to playmakers, but then you have high effort plays of just guys playing football."

Now, Dahlen's hard-working offense prepares to face the San Diego State Aztecs, who forced several key turnovers in a second half comeback against Texas State last Saturday.

While early point spreads favor Oregon State, the Redmond native showed respect to his opposition.

"[They're] a good tackling team. Man, again, I've played these guys when I was at Boise and Fresno. The strength of their program has always been good defense, and it always will be good defense, the statistics and what I see on tape are not the same. This is a really, really good defense, it always has been, and it always will be. We've got to be up to the task."

Dahlen's Beavers and the Aztecs will kick off Saturday afternoon at 3 PM PST from Corvallis, with the game televised on USA Network.

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