This year’s Las Vegas Bowl shaped up as historic with the Southeastern Conference making its debut as a game partner via the Florida Gators. There was less buzz around the inclusion of the 20th all-time Pac-12 representative, Oregon State, but that turned out to be a mistake.
The Beavers cashed in on a chance to use the high-profile spot to make a statement and finish their season strong in front of a national television audience at Allegiant Stadium. A motivated Oregon State squad, fresh off finishing in the top half of the Pac-12 standings, bulldozed a makeshift Florida roster 30-3.
“We don’t take anything away from the SEC or the Florida Gators or anything like that, but our biggest thing is (when) you talk about ball, look at the Pac-12 too,” senior safety Jaydon Grant said.
The SEC’s debut in the Las Vegas Bowl was a total bust. Oregon State dominated all three phases of the game in a spectacular send-off for a senior class that helped spur a dramatic turnaround for the program.
The victory elevated Oregon State to a 10-3 record on the season, a massive improvement from the 2-10 mark in 2018 when many of the outgoing players first arrived in Corvallis, Ore.
“You just think back about all of the work, the body of work that has taken place to get to this point,” senior linebacker Jack Colletto said. “I mean, we couldn’t win a ball game to save our lives. To go from 2-10 to completely changing the program, flipping it on its head and not only doing that but finishing the right way, we take a lot of pride in finishing.”
Local Bishop Gorman graduate Tyjon Lindsey arrived a year later than that after transferring from Nebraska, but quickly assimilated to become considered among coach Jonathan Smith’s core group. The wide receiver, who won two national championships as a Gael, started the scoring Saturday by taking an end-around eight yards for a touchdown in the first quarter.
Fellow receiver Silas Bolden, a freshman, had a diving catch in traffic on the drive and didn’t stop making highlight plays all afternoon. Bolden led Beavers' receivers with six catches for 99 yards and a touchdown, which he similarly caught in between defenders to start the third quarter.
“He continues to make plays,” Oregon State coach Jonathan Smith said of Bolden. “The guy is tough, not just fast. The touchdown catch in the second half, he knew he was going to get hit, locked in on it and came down with it.”
Bolden’s catch put Oregon State up 17-0 and came after Colletto, a captain who won this year’s Paul Hornug Award as college football’s most versatile player, extended the possession by converting a fake punt. Colletto rumbled ahead for 11 yards on a direct snap on a fourth-and-2 play around midfield.
“We put it in his hands to continue the drive and then we separate the thing by getting up 17,” Smith said. “That was a huge play. He’s doing that offensively, lead blocking, gets the first down and carrying the ball at quarterback. He’s got tackles, not just on defense but on special teams. We’re going to have to replace him with maybe three or four guys.”
Colletto also blocked a punt a few minutes after Bolden’s touchdown after helping the Beaver’s defense force a three-and-out. Teammate Skyler Thomas recovered the loose ball and returned it to the Gators’ 7-yard line. Three plays later, Oregon State quarterback Ben Gulbranson scored on a seven-yard touchdown draw and the rout was on.
Gulbranson also threw for 165 yards while completing 12 of 19 attempts. Oregon State is known as a run-first team but had to pivot slightly after Florida looked up to the task in the trenches early and leading rusher Damien Martinez went down with an injury. Junior Deshaun Fenwick proved worthy of carrying the load, racking up 107 rushing yards on 21 attempts.
Media voted the freshman Gulbranson, who took over for injured starter Chance Nolan midway through the year, the game’s most valuable player.
“I think he had one of his bigger games tonight,” Smith said.
Oregon State’s defense might have been even better than the offense, holding Florida to 219 total yards and not allowing it to hit the century mark until the fourth quarter. Florida’s only points came with 37 seconds left when the Gators sent out kicker Adam Mihalek to extend the nation’s longest streak without getting shut out to 436 games.
Mihalek converted on a 40-yarder on fourth-and-goal to also allow the Gators to avoid the fate of becoming the first team to ever get shut out in the Las Vegas Bowl.
“I could be mad because they took the points or you can just look at the mirror and say, ‘Dang, we shouldn’t have let them get all the way down there,’” Grant said. “We really wanted the shutout, but at the end of the day, 30-3 is not bad.”
The Gators struggled to move the ball efficiently without star quarterback Anthony Richardson, who opted out of the bowl game to prepare for the NFL Draft. More than 20 other Gators who were on the roster during the regular season also entered the transfer portal.
Richardson’s fill-in, freshman Jack Miller, completed 13 of 22 passes for 180 yards.
Florida fell to 6-7 in coach Billy Napier’s first season with the program, with the SEC now 0-2 in the Las Vegas Bowl (Arkansas got an at-large bid and lost 30-14 to UNLV in 2000) and the Pac-12 evening up its record in the game at 10-10.
“I don’t think it’s necessarily just big for our conference and our program but really the whole country to see what we can do,” Colletto said. “There’s a lot of good football and good football teams in the Pac-12.”
Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or
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