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Gibson at center of Beavers' turnaround CORVALLIS - Chris Gibson has to pinch himself every so often just to make sure he's not in the midst of a long, pleasant dream. Five years after helping Roseburg High to 28 straight victories and a pair of Class 4A state championships, Gibson, the Beavers' starting center, finds himself on an Oregon State football team that went 11-1 last season and was ranked No. 1 nationally by Sports Illustrated earlier this week. When Gibson arrived at OSU in the fall of 1996, the Beavers were coming off a 1-10 season. "The thing that bothered me was that losing didn't seem to affect some of the guys who were here back then," Gibson says. "That was a shock to me." Gibson kept his mouth shut and, along with other eager newcomers, including Roseburg teammates Jake Cookus and Mark Walsh, set out to change the mind-set and alter the losing ways of a program that hadn't tasted success for more than a quarter-century. The tide began to change during Gibson's redshirt sophomore season in 1998, when the Beavers went 5-6 and lost two games by one point under then-coach Mike Riley. The next fall Dennis Erickson arrived, and OSU finally got the monkey off its back by going 7-5 and earning its first bowl-game appearance in 34 years. And then came last season's magical journey that saw the Beavers come within a field goal of going unbeaten, clobber Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl and earn a No. 4 national ranking in the final Associated Press poll. All the while, Gibson hasn't received a lot of attention or made his way into many headlines; offensive linemen seldom do. And yet, over the past five years, he has contributed just as much as the headline grabbers such as running back Ken Simonton and quarterback Jonathan Smith. "It feels great to finally get this thing turned around," says Gibson, who earned first-team, all-Pac-10 honors and third-team All-American accolades last season. "I think what did it was all the little things, such as coming to the summer workouts and putting in the extra time during the season." No one has worked harder than Gibson, and it shows. He recently set personal records by hoisting 400 pounds in the bench press and 500 pounds on the squat rack. His 6-foot-3 frame now carries a granite-like 285 pounds, up 50 pounds from high school. And the winning attitude he brought from Roseburg is as strong as ever. * * * There aren't many Division I starting lineups that Patrick McCall couldn't crack. But when you're on the same team as a Heisman Trophy candidate, you find yourself on the sidelines at the start of a game. McCall racked up 658 yards, averaged 5.1 yards per carry and scored six touchdowns in relief of Simonton last season, numbers that would normally lead to a promotion the following season. But McCall knows that as long as Simonton is healthy, Simonton is the OSU's No. 1 back and he's No. 2. "This team runs the ball a lot and almost all the carries go to the tailback because we're in a one-back set," said McCall, a senior who averaged nearly 13 carries per game last season compared to Simonton's 23. "So there's enough action for both of us. "If one of us got all the carries, we'd be pretty worn down by the end of the season." McCall, a native of Carson, Calif., was recruited out of high school by former OSU coach Mike Riley when Riley was the offensive coordinator at Southern California. McCall went to Michigan instead but became disenchanted when they converted him to a defensive back. He came to OSU after Riley took the head coaching job in Corvallis. * * * A lot of college football fans know that Florida State owns the nation's longest home-field winning streak at 35 and Oregon has the second-longest at 20. And who's No. 3? It's Fresno State, OSU's opening-game opponent on Sept. 2, with 15 in a row. "That's going to be a tough game for us," Erickson says of the Sunday night game that will be televised on ESPN. "We're going to have to play our rear ends off to win that football game, but our players know that." The Bulldogs return 16 starters, including nine on offense, from a team that went 7-5 a year go. Reach reporter Don Hunt at 776-4469, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.