It won’t go down as a quarterback controversy–yet.  But, despite leading Oregon State to a 3-point victory in Corvallis, Oregon last season, quarterback Chance Nolan will not be starting for the Beavers when the get to Seattle this Friday night.  Both teams are coming off of bye weeks, sporting identical 6-2 records overall and 3-2 in the conference.

Starting will be former 3-star quarterback Ben Gulbranson.  He was a part of Oregon State’s 2020 recruiting class.  Although he was not offered by Washington, he held three Pac-12 offers coming out of New Burypark High School, northwest of Los Angeles, California, Oregon State, Cal, and Arizona State.

Spread over five games this season, including starting the past three, the 6-3, 210-pound sophomore signal caller has thrown for 5 touchdowns and 3 interceptions while completing 61-percent of his passes (61-100, for 818 yards).

He did lead the Beavers to a last second, come-from-behind victory against Stanford in his first start.  In that game he was sacked 4 times and has been sacked six times in the past 3 games, all of which OSU has won.

In his last start against Colorado, he hit on 14 of 22 passes for 202 yards with two TDs and no interceptions.  In that game, Beavers’ running back Damien Martinez took a lot of pressure off of Gulbranson, carrying the ball 22 times for 178 yards and three TDs.

With a Montlake monsoon in the forecast and a predictable light crowd given that the weather conditions and it being a night game on a Friday night, Gulbranson likely won’t be asked to carry the load against the Huskies or face a packed hostile Husky Stadium.

Nolan left the Utah game with an injury and hasn’t played since.  He had started 17 straight games for the Beavers.  However, it sounds that if Gulbranson struggles against the Washington pass rush (if there are many passes to be thrown, given the weather forecast) Nolan may be called upon to rescue the Beavers, if necessary.

Kaila Olin goes a bit deeper into what to expect from Gulbranson Friday night.