After knocking out No. 1, Beavers look for next step.

Byline: OSU FOOTBALL By Bob Clark The Register-Guard

CORVALLIS - All right, Oregon State: how do you follow that?

If the Beavers (2-2 overall, 1-1 in the Pac-10) can defeat the team ranked No. 1 in the nation, as they did Thursday night at Reser Stadium with a 27-21 triumph over USC, what does it portend for the final eight games of the regular season?

"That's a great question that I asked them," OSU coach Mike Riley said Friday after a meeting with his players. "I told them, `We just raised the bar. What can we do now?'

"It'll all start with the next game."

That will be next Thursday night in Salt Lake City when the Beavers (2-2) play their final nonconference game against 17th-ranked Utah (4-0), which should remain unbeaten with a home game today against Weber State of the Big Sky Conference.

One thing working in OSU's favor going into that next game: the Beavers probably won't be favored, and Riley doesn't sense he'll have a team resting on what it accomplished during one wild night at Reser Stadium.

"What we have to now do is use this game like we do all games, to get better," Riley said. "That's got to be the goal. We don't want to go back, we don't want to go back to the long plane ride home (after previous losses), we don't want to go back to the bad feeling in the locker room (following defeats).

"A taste of this should be inspiring to the team. I'm looking forward to our approach to practice, because that was the key to (Thursday) night."

How many teams have come this far in a span of three weeks? Remember, the Beavers were 0-2, they'd been thumped by Penn State and there seemed to be little reason for optimism about a turnaround.

Not even a win over Hawaii prepared anybody for the OSU performance Thursday night. The defense held USC to 313 yards, and came up with two turnovers. The running game was dominant, quarterback Lyle Moevao drew praise from Riley for "some rather subtle things that were outstanding," such as audibles to change the planned play at the line of scrimmage, in addition to a host of crucial completions.

Even punter Johnny Hekker had his best game, putting three punts inside the 20-yard line, including a pair in the fourth quarter that forced the Trojans to start drives from the 6- and 2-yard lines.

That's probably the kind of all-around performance it takes to beat a team like USC, and Riley said it was especially important to start off the game well to build some early confidence.

A win over a highly ranked team is becoming the norm for an OSU season. In 2006, the Beavers knocked off a USC team that was ranked third nationally. Last year, there was the win over second-ranked California in Berkeley.

Now, this.

"My hope is that this can do for this year's team what (the win over California) did for last year's team," Riley said. "We'll see a that's something that will be up to everybody in our building.

"As far as what it will mean historically is one thing, what it will be to this team I don't know right now. That's what is most important to me."

The significance of beating USC seemed to resonate around college football on Friday. There was so much discussion from every direction on ESPN that it became the Beaver Home Network for most of the day. Riley guessed he'd done about 10 interviews with national media outlets by the time he got around to his usual day-after-game teleconference with beat reporters in the late afternoon.

"It's been busy," Riley said, though he certainly didn't mind. "It's one of those deals where it feels good, it's all good stuff for the program and the school."

Riley's celebration of the game lasted into the wee hours of Friday. No, it wasn't that exciting.

He spent some time in the OSU coaching suite with his assistant coaches and the wives of staff members, then left about midnight for home with his wife, Dee. They ordered pizza delivered, and stayed up watching a replay of the win over USC.

He was awake by 6 a.m., got up a half-hour later and was headed for the office.

"For not much sleep, I still feel pretty good," Riley said 10 hours later.

His team was obviously in good spirits, and relatively healthy after a hard-hitting game. Receiver Sammie Stroughter has a hip pointer, suffered on a catch late in the first half that set up a touchdown, and cornerback Brandon Hughes has a strained hamstring. There was also a slight ankle sprain suffered by running back Quizz Rodgers, and he had to be sore after 37 carries.

"We'll see where they are Sunday night" when the Beavers next practice, Riley said.

Riley said the Beavers didn't intend for Rodgers to have as many rushes, and the plan remains to use fellow freshman Ryan McCants in a "platoon" at running back.

That didn't happen against USC because Rodgers "was on a roll and didn't want to change it," Riley said.

Almost as startling as the final score was the way OSU ran on the Trojans. It was the basic zone-read play over and over, with an occasional fly sweep or reverse mixed in, though mostly to keep the USC defense wary of something other than a run between the tackles.

"We went in with a relatively simple running plan," Riley said. "We changed some formations up, but we didn't change the play. We knew we had to repeat runs, and not try a whole bunch of different runs against that team."

The offensive line blocked well and made the proper adjustments to USC stunts, and Riley said "then the back is given a lot of leeway in the creases he can find. It's basically finding a lane, frontside or backside, and Quizz is excellent at that.

"I would like to proclaim we knew that was going to happen, but we just knew what we were going to have to try in the game. It's the foundation of what we do, and we know we have to do it."

And, no, not even Riley said he could have predicted that kind of success. To do so after the game, he joked Friday, "it would sound like I was some kind of prophet."

Not that, perhaps, but definitely one pleased coach with another media demand to meet.

Big shockers

In the past 20 years, only nine times has the No. 1 team in the nation been defeated by a team not ranked.

Date Result Winning Coach

Oct. 29, 1988 Washington State 34, No. 1 UCLA 30 Dennis Erickson 

Oct. 6, 1990 Stanford 36, No. 1 Notre Dame 31 Denny Green

Oct. 13, 1990 Michigan State 28, No. 1 Michigan 27 George J. Perles

Nov. 17, 1990 Penn State 24, No. 1 Notre Dame 21 Joe Paterno

Nov. 7, 1998 Michigan State 28, No. 1 Ohio State 24 Nick Saban

Oct. 13, 2001 Auburn 23, No. 1 Florida 20 Tommy Tuberville

Nov. 9, 2002 Texas A&M 30, No. 1 Oklahoma 26 R.C. Slocum

Nov. 10, 2007 Illinois 28, No. 1 Ohio State 21 Ron Zook

Sept. 25, 2008 Oregon State 27, No. 1 USC 21 Mike Riley