Vaz Stabalizing Beavers QB Position

November 1, 2012, 4:15 pm

The Oregon State Beavers lost their first game of the season last week in Washington and are back home in Corvallis against Arizona State looking to rebound. Beavers QB Cody Vaz didn’t expect coach Mike Riley to go to him last week against the Washington Huskies, and he conveyed as much when he called in to the Bald Faced Truth with John Canzano on Thursday.

“[Coach Riley] just suddenly turned to me and said ‘Warm up’,” said Vaz. “I had to get warm pretty quick." Vaz had been keeping himself in the game mentally the whole time, and had been keeping himself as warm as possible on the sideline so as to be ready to step up at any given moment. As soon as Riley gave him the call, Vaz was focused on one thing: giving his team the opportunity to win.

After almost completing the comeback against the Huskies on Saturday, Vaz was named as the starter for this next week against the Arizona State Sun Devils. The challenge facing the Beavers is being able to move past the loss and focus on the opponent at hand, and Vaz is confident in his team’s ability to rise to the task.

“Our team is so mentally and physically tough,” said Vaz. “That was a tough loss last weekend, but everyone came back here last weekend, was ready to go… didn’t blink at all.”

The team’s focus is now on the Sun Devils, who travel to Corvallis a week after a close loss to UCLA. Vaz immediately pointed to Arizona State’s athleticism, and emphasized that the key for the Beaver offense is to run their game plan and stay on the field as long as possible.

But we’ll just have to wait until Saturday night to see if Vaz and the Beavers can execute that game plan against Arizona State.

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