Mike Riley's Oregon State Beavers will travel south this week to face the Stanford Cardinal on Thursday night, August 28th. The game is set to kick off at 9:00pm ET and it will be broadcast on ESPN 2. Oregon State is coming off a 9-4 season in which they also garnered an Emerald Bowl victory over Maryland by a score of 21-14. College football picks odds at BetUS.com have the Beavers as a -3.5 road favorite in Thursday game.

This season will mark Riley's eighth at OSU; during his tenure as head coach the Beavers have accumulated a 47-38 record and four bowl wins. This year's team will look vastly different than the one that took the field in 2007 as they are returning seven starters on offense and just three on defense. The offense should still be productive (27.8 points per game in 2007) but there are some question marks on defense.

Head Coach Jim Harbaugh is heading into his second season as the leader of the Cardinal. Last season Stanford posted a 4-8 record and went 3-6 in the PAC 10. Their 24-23 road victory over USC was the upset of the year in college football and probably of the decade. Despite that high, the team had little to brag about as they scored just 19.6 points per game and allowed 28.3 per contest. However, this year's squad should be vastly improved. While they are no threat to win the conference, they could surprise some people.

The key match up in this game will be the Cardinal offensive line versus the front seven of OSU. Last season the Cardinal rushing attack averaged just 111 yards per game and three yards per carry. The Stanford line, however, should be much improved in 2008 and the Beavers entire starting defensive line and linebackers from 2007 are gone.

BetUS.com's line for Oregon State at Stanford:

Beavers -3.5 (-110), Over 46 (-110), -155 (Money line)

Cardinal +3.5 (-110), Under 46 (-110), +135 (Money line)

Get on board for an entire season of our College Football Picks; we are prepped and ready to roll through the full slate of NCAA Football action.

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