Coming off a one win season from 2017 for Oregon State football, the Beavers need a better rushing attack to find more success in 2018.
Oregon State football has been at the bottom of the Pac-12 standings for the past few years, especially in the reign of former head football coach Gary Andersen after he came over from the Wisconsin Badgers. Now, the Beavers have a new coach at the helm in Oregon State alum Jonathan Smith.
In his time with the Washington Huskies football program, Smith led the team to a new level as the offensive coordinator in Seattle. He can be the type of coach that instills a system that finally gets this Oregon State offense off the ground, and can win some games in the Pac-12 in the upcoming years.
Part of this offensive attack the Beavers need to put together to find more success in their schedule this season involves rising junior running back Artavis Pierce. As a former two-star prospect, Pierce plays with a chip on his shoulder from getting overlooked by some of the bigger programs on the west coast.
Moreover, Pierce sat behind some very talented running backs in Corvallis, like Ryan Nall and former Oregon Ducks transfer Thomas Tyner. Pierce actually had a bigger freshman campaign that he did in the following season. Pierce finished his freshman season with more than 500 rushing yards and four touchdowns.
He followed that up by rushing for less than 350 yards and one touchdown last year. Part of the reason for his drop in production was due to a much smaller workload, as he got 30 fewer attempts than the season previous. His yards per carry dropped by about 0.5 too which didn’t help his cause.
With a more open Pac-12 North this season, after the Huskies and Stanford Cardinal, the Beavers do have a chance to steal some wins. They need Pierce to come through in a big way, and get beyond even the production level he found in his first college season. Reaching around that 700-800 yard mark is an ideal next step.
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Oregon State does lose a lot in the ground game, that were important pieces from last year. Both Tyner and Nall were tremendously talented running backs. Nall was the biggest part of the Oregon State offense altogether last season, but he made an early jump to the NFL following the 2017 regular season. The time is now for Pierce to lead the Beavers to a more respectable record in 2018.