Joe Freeman: As Oregon State Beavers fall to Ducks, a season of uncertainty reaches a painful finish

As Anthony Gould strolled into a makeshift interview tent outside Autzen Stadium on Saturday, he had tears in his eyes and a faraway look on his face.

The Oregon State Beavers had just suffered a 31-7 gut punch to the rival Oregon Ducks in a game that was even more lopsided than the scoreboard suggested. And as the OSU junior wide receiver sat down to speak to reporters afterward, the weight of the moment was visibly heavy, the emotion of the defeat — and the season — noticeably raw.

“We’ve been through a lot this year,” Gould said.

For three months, amid unprecedented uncertainty, the only guarantee for the Beavers was the game in front of them. A home opener against UC Davis ... a Friday night statement meeting against Utah ... a visit to Deion Sanders’ Colorado Buffaloes ... an emotional — and perhaps final — trip to Autzen. As the outside noise echoed around them, as Oregon State administrators spoke before lawmakers at the Oregon state capitol and university lawyers traveled to rural Washington courtrooms, the Beavers disregarded the distractions and tried to band together for each other.

So Saturday was about more than a game for Gould and the No. 15 Beavers. It was about more than the conclusion of another regular season.

Saturday marked the end of a an era for Oregon State, the end of more than a century of Pac-12 Conference football history and tradition, and the end of the players’ ability to stiff-arm the outside noise.

In a way, they finally reached the acceptance portion of the stages of grief.

“Our future was never for certain,” Gould said. “And that’s something we’ve battled with the last couple of months. We poured ourselves in the locker room, (decided) we’re going to do it for ourselves, do it for each other. And that’s something that we’ve been doing, battling all year. So, yeah, it’s emotional just to lose, but ... I’m proud of these guys. We’ve been through a lot of behind the scenes that a lot of people don’t know about. I’m just proud of our team. It’s a tough one tonight, but we battled when there was a lot of uncertainty in the air.”

Moments after Gould uttered those words, Oregon State coach Jonathan Smith took a seat in the same chair in that same makeshift interview tent and added another layer to the uncertainty. Multiple media outlets reported Friday that Smith has emerged as the top target at Michigan State, which is weeks into a search to replace fired coach Mel Tucker, and the man who has spent six years methodically and admirably lifting Oregon State back to relevancy did nothing to dispel the reports.

Has Smith interviewed or will he interview for the Michigan State job? “No decisions have been made,” he said.

When will a decision be made? “To be determined,” Smith said. “Don’t know.”

Where do contract extension talks with Oregon State stand? “I’m going to keep those between me and (OSU AD) Scott Barnes.”

I’ve been impressed all season by the Beavers’ ability to focus on the grind, as the kids say, and block out the never-ending chatter surrounding conference realignment and the ruthless way they were shunned by college football’s cool kids. I suggested in August that I thought it might be time to root for the Beavers , to rally around them and their dream season as television executives and power-hungry conference commissioners took another bite out of what’s left of the sports’ soul.

The Beavers’ dreams were supposed to include a chance at a Pac-12 title and a middle finger to the college football establishment that has left them in realignment limbo — not a lopsided loss to the Ducks, ambiguous postgame comments from Smith about his future and Gould’s tears.

But dreams don’t always end the way we want them to.

Oregon entered the 127th game of this rivalry as a heavy favorite and the No. 5 Ducks were a far, far better team Saturday. Bo Nix put an exclamation point on his Heisman candidacy. The Ducks’ defense redeemed itself from last year’s debacle at Reser Stadium. Now the only things standing in the way of a College Football Playoff berth is the Pac-12 championship game — and a rematch with the Washington Huskies — and a favorable selection by the CFP rankings committee.

After that, a new, lucrative future awaits in the Big Ten.

A bright future with certainty and hope.

Or, the opposite of what’s in front of Oregon State.

After months of ignoring the outside noise, reality finally arrived for Gould and the Beavers Saturday. And it wasn’t pleasant.

“It’s tough,” Gould said. “We just tried to play for each other ... block out the outside noise. There’s going to be distractions regardless. Conference realignment, whatever Coach Smith has going on, there’s going to be outside noise. I’m proud of this team and couldn’t be more blessed to be around this great group of guys.”

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