Oregon State is assured of a losing season; what now?

Much like the St. Louis Rams, Miami Dolphins and Indianapolis Colts of the NFL, Oregon State is in a state of rebuilding.

Nine games into the season, the Beavers look like they will have their worst season record-wise since Mike Riley's first season as head coach. That was back in 1997, when OSU finished the season 3-8.

Heck, some may say this year's team would be lucky to finish the season with three wins.

That 1997 team was the beginning of a foundation that was established in Corvallis, leading to over a decade of successful teams with winning records. Just three Oregon State teams have finished the season with a losing record since 1998.

Those three teams all finished the season with five wins.

With games against the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Washington and the University of Oregon left on the schedule, five wins may be out of the question.

Right now the Beavers are purely playing to win games. Considering they're already ineligible for a bowl, there isn't anything else at stake other than finishing out the season strong. These three games will dictate what kind of confidence Oregon State has going into next year.

"That's exactly what I told our team on Sunday…" junior cornerback Jordan Poyer said. "I told them ‘Yeah, it's a tough situation and we're not going to a bowl game, but now is not time to stop fighting.' We've got three games left and we're a young team. If we build momentum in these last three games we can come back next year — I just told them we could be a dangerous team."

The absolute best case scenario would be to end the season on a three-game winning streak, and finish 5-7 just like last year.

"As a team, we're just going to try to think of this as a three-game season," redshirt freshman defensive end Scott Crichton said.

For some of the more veteran players, these last three weeks are going to be their last few weeks in the orange and black.

"Motivation is to continue to play strong," said senior wide receiver James Rodgers. "Obviously the season's not going how we planned, but at the same time we can't sit up here and cry about losing. We still have three games left, so try to make the best of those last three games to help build."

Oregon State is already playing a lot of young guys. At 2-7, the mindset might be to give more playing time to players who aren't necessarily starting right now, but will be likely starters next year. But that's not what this team is going to do for the time being.

"I think the best way to take care of next year is to finish strong," head coach Mike Riley said. "And we certainly don't want to deter many of the older guys that are playing and want to finish off also strong. They have to lead us through this frankly, and make sure their energy and enthusiasm for each game is really, really up and actually leading this team."

In an interview with Riley a few weeks back, the head coach said that a turning point for the program in his career was the 44-41 Civil War victory over the Ducks.

Two years later, the team was in the Fiesta Bowl.

Clearly a lot has to happen for a turnaround with this program to parallel that of the 1998 team. This team is very young and very inexperienced, and those things have reared their ugly heads in games this season.

How the Beavers handle the last three games of the season is going to go a long way in showing what type of team this will be in the future.

"It's definitely frustrating in my first college season not [to be] going to a bowl game," said freshman tailback Malcolm Agnew. "And it's hard staying motivated, but it's just part of being a man — staying motivated and finishing off the season right, getting ready for next year. That's our goal — establishing the season, gaining some respect, maybe pulling a few upsets, ruining some people's dreams."

"Finish this season strong," redshirt freshman quarterback Sean Mannion said. "Next season is a long way off, so we'll just take it as it comes. Every day from here on out we're going to try to grow and get better."

Warner Strausbaugh, sports writer

sports@dailybarometer.com