Erickson Is Great News for Beavers

It was one of the “Huh?” stories of the year.

Dennis Erickson to Oregon State?

About all his new team has in common with the University of Miami, where Erickson won two national titles, is the orange in the logo.

Especially now that Miami is 2-2 and Oregon State is 3-0.

Oregon State hasn’t had a winning season since 1970, but the Beavers come into the Coliseum to play USC on Saturday needing only three more victories to change that, and they already have the longest winning streak in the Packed-It-In-10--though granted, that’s a mere four games.

Yes, it’s about time. Folks around Corvallis have been hungry for some success.

“I think it’s starvation, not hunger,” Erickson said. “We haven’t had it in many, many years here.”

The team already was on the rise last season under Mike Riley--the Beavers would have been 6-5 if not for a failed two-point conversion attempt with no time left against Washington. They also took UCLA to the final minute and won the Civil War game against rival Oregon in double overtime.

Things were looking up, but Riley--one of Corvallis’ favorite sons and a former USC assistant--couldn’t resist an offer to become coach of the San Diego Chargers.

Before a civic depression could set in, Athletic Director Mitch Barnhart caught Erickson on the other end of the NFL coaching cycle--fresh from being fired by the Seattle Seahawks.

“I think I was at home, watching ESPN, and it flashed across the screen,” said Oregon State receiver Imani Percoats, a junior college transfer whose recruiting visit was canceled the day after Riley announced he was leaving. “I got pretty excited.”

That was the way it went for most Oregon State players--from despair to delirium.

“When they first started talking about Riley leaving, I was a little upset because I thought he was leaving for another school,” running back Ken Simonton said. “Once I found out it was the NFL, that’s everybody’s dream, and I was happy for him.”

And once he found out Erickson was on his way . . .

“You know, when I heard that name floating around, I got a smile and said, ‘Something’s going to work out,’ ” Simonton said.

Something has.

Simonton is roughly the size of USC’s Chad Morton at 5 feet 7 and 175 pounds, but he is leading the nation in rushing with almost 186 yards a game out of Erickson’s renowned one-back offense.

And Oregon State, last in the league standings three of the last four years, is leading the Pacific 10 in total offense at 499 yards a game.

Easy on those expectations, Erickson says.

“They see the success we’re having now, and the excitement is unbelievable,” he said, after victories over Nevada, Fresno State and Georgia Southern. “As I caution these people, we’ll see where we’re at as far as the reality of it all this weekend, and the next eight weeks.”

More than a few people wondered exactly where Erickson was at as far as the reality of it all when he took the job.

Surprised? You bet, said USC defensive line coach Ed Orgeron, an assistant under Erickson at Miami from 1989 to ‘92, coaching such players as Cortez Kennedy, Russell Maryland and Warren Sapp.

“But knowing Coach Erickson, he just loves to coach,” Orgeron said. “He’s not a very egotistical guy. He likes the nuts and bolts of coaching. Hands on. I can’t see him sitting out of coaching. I think he likes college football, likes the younger kids. Plus he had a lot of success in college.”

Erickson could have taken an NFL assistant’s job, but instead he stayed in his native Northwest.

The son of a high school coach from Everett, Wash., he built his career at Idaho, Wyoming and Washington State, and his success at those schools helps him rank sixth among active coaches in winning percentage at .742, just ahead of John Robinson.

“It was the right time for me, the right situation for me. I really wanted to get back into college and this job opened up,” said Erickson, 52.

“I’ve been a lot of places and done a lot of different things. It wasn’t the situation where I’m trying to climb up the ladder like you are when you’re a little younger.”

He also saw new potential for the have-nots of college football.

“The parity has changed,” he said. “My last year at Miami, I believe we had 95 or 100 scholarships. Now it’s down to 85.

“Now there are 10 a year USC can’t take, and 10 a year UCLA can’t take, and whoever else, so there’s 60-some players down there that normally wouldn’t be there, and you’re seeing that all over the country.

“With the parity I talked about and the successes that we haven’t had here, there was an opportunity to put a signature on the program and get it turned around. . . . Win more than you lose sometimes, go to a bowl game sometimes. That’s what we’re trying to accomplish here and I think it can get done, which is why I took the job.”

The players were great believers in Riley, but Erickson adds another element--those flashy stones in his 1989 and 1991 national championship rings.

Now Simonton, who hated the Hurricanes growing up because they always won and he has always loved an underdog, sees a winning record coming down the line where once he saw little hope.

“Oh man, when I first got here, the atmosphere, it was a lot of lost focus,” he said. “They weren’t too enthused about school. They weren’t too enthused about football, some of them. Once Riley came, it started to change.

“We’ve been hearing the talk all last spring and summer, but to me, a winning season means absolutely nothing,” he said. “To me, if we don’t get to a bowl game and win, I’d be disappointed.”