OSU football: Fans express hope and worry (2024)

Ellie Hammond cried when she heard that Oregon State football coach Jonathan Smith was leaving to take the job at Michigan State.

“It’s been terrible, I’ll tell ya. I’ve been through the mill,” said Hammond, an OSU alumnus who lives in Sisters. “I’m not surprised, but it was just like, ‘Here we go.’”

Hammond attended Saturday’s Spring Showcase at Reser Stadium with her husband, Bob. They are longtime season ticket holders who reminisced about sitting on bleachers in the drip zone under the overhang on the west side of the stadium.

They both love the stadium renovations that have been completed over the years and they long ago moved over to the east side to take advantage of the cushioned seats and cup holders. That the break-up of the Pac-12 Conference took place just as Oregon State was unveiling the brand-new west side of the stadium added insult to injury.

Ellie Hammond still gets emotional when she talks about the breakup of the conference and the recent loss of multiple athletes to the transfer portal. But she does not blame the university’s leadership.

“They’re doing their best with what the situation is. You know, hopefully get into another good conference where they can play good ball,” Hammond said.

Beaverton resident Jeff Hoag, also an OSU graduate, has had football season tickets for more than 20 years. He described the events of the past few months as “gutting.”

“You could see it coming but I didn’t expect the whole football, basketball, all of those teams, to just get gutted the way they did,” Hoag said.

He got drawn in by the success of the women’s basketball team this season and followed the team much more closely.

“Great coaching and great players, but you can’t keep them here. What are you going to do? I can’t fault the transfer portal in terms of the NIL money, but it’s just too bad,” Hoag said.

He will keep his football season tickets for at least one more year, but isn’t certain beyond that.

“They’ve got to be competitive. The games they’ve got this year, they’ve got to be competitive,” Hoag said.

He attended the showcase with his son Jason, 27, who takes a different view of the family's season tickets.

“I will keep them as long as I live,” Jason Hoag said.

That is the also the plan for Alex Svela, OSU class of 2007, and his girlfriend, Carly Weber, OSU class of 2005.

Svela loves football, both collegiate and professional, and has tried his best to ignore all the talk about realignment. Attending football games is a big part of his life and he enjoys the camaraderie of the fans.

So no matter which conference Oregon State is part of in the future, he will be there.

Weber agrees.

“It’s disappointing, but I’m a Beaver fan, not so much a sports fan, but a Beaver fan. I’ll follow them wherever they go,” Weber said. “It’s sad, it’s unfortunate the impact it’s had on the players with the conference doing what it’s done. But I hope we can … build it back up.”

She doesn’t blame the OSU athletes who have entered the transfer portal.

“It was a hard decision for a lot of them to make, to go, but I think they felt forced,” Weber said.

Jason Hoag also understood their decisions.

“I’m kind of the same age they are, a little older than the players but not by much. I can see where it’s tempting, the NIL money is tempting,” Hoag said.

Looking ahead, fans said they were trying to be optimistic while also being realistic about Oregon State’s athletic future.

Tigard resident Michael Smith is holding onto hope that this will end well for the Oregon State football program.

“It’s disappointing to see the Pac-12 fall apart, obviously. A lot of legacy, a lot of history. We don’t know the future, though. This could be one of those things that turns out to be a great opportunity. You can either rebuild the conference or get in a conference. It may not be the Big Ten or the SEC, but it could be a conference Oregon State remains competitive in,” Smith said.

Smith would be fine with OSU ending up in the Big 12, but he does not want to join the ACC. He thinks that conference is about to break up, which might present an opportunity for Oregon State.

“In an ideal world, they’d find a way to rebuild the Pac-12. You get Cal and Stanford back, you get a couple of great teams from the Mountain West, maybe pull somebody back from the Big 12,” Smith said.

Ellie Hammond would prefer to join an existing conference, but like Smith, is not interested in joining the ACC. She doesn't think traveling cross-country on a regular basis makes any sense.

“I guess my preference would be in one of the bigger conferences and play at the level they’ve been playing,” Hammond said, adding that if that wasn’t possible, rebuilding the Pac-12 is the next best option.

Bob Hammond is concerned about the impact of realignment on other sports, including the possibility of women’s basketball coach Scott Rueck leaving Oregon State.

“I’m worried about the women’s coach. I know there’s people just waiving these huge contracts,” Hammond said.

But overall, he is choosing to remain hopeful, which he said is his nature.

“I think they can land on their feet. I’m pretty optimistic that the football team is going to be pretty good. There’s a lot of people out, the parking lot is pretty full. I’m hopeful. We’ll see,” Hammond said.