Another quarterback competition may arise this weekend.

True freshman QB Owen McCown felt residual impact from that sack in the third quarter on Saturday, leaving him with limited reps at practice Tuesday, and with the departure of Brendon Lewis to the transfer portal earlier in the day, interim head coach Mike Sanford will make a game-time decision if J.T. Shrout or McCown will start against the Oregon State Beavers this weekend.

“Owen was able to suit up and practice in a limited manner today,” Sanford said. “That'll ultimately be a game-time decision. We feel really good about the situation we have at quarterback and really how it played out in the game was encouraging. Owen was dinged up even at practice today. There's a reason why we made the move. He was banged up and that carried over a little bit into Tuesday, but he was able to be out at practice [and] take some limited reps.”

As of now McCown is CU’s starter if available, but if Shrout does play Saturday and puts up big numbers, Shrout may spark yet another QB competition for this team. That's looking a little far ahead here and proposing some hypotheticals, but either way Sanford and staff preparing for an impressive Beavers team.

The Buffs (1-5, 1-2 Pac-12) enter this game as an underdog yet again, by a 23.5-point margin. Oregon State (5-2, 2-2) possesses versatility on both sides on the ball and took its lone losses against ranked USC and Utah teams.

Oregon State QB Ben Gulbrunson has started the last two games with veteran starter Chance Nolan in concussion protocol and is expected to start again this week. Gulbrunson, a third-year freshman, helped the Beavers to wins over Stanford (28-27) and Washington State (24-10) in his first two starts.

Sanford is preparing for both quarterbacks as well as their abilities to run the football.

In scouting the Beavers, Sanford also sees glimpses of older OSU teams with remnants of Mike Riley’s schematics.

“Even when I was a quality control coach at Stanford, this looks like that kind of the DNA of that Oregon State era from 2000 to 2008, 2009,” Sanford said. “Mike Riley’s fingerprints are all over this. Jonathan Smith was impacted greatly by Mike Riley. Mike Riley and my dad are very good friends, [they] shared an office at USC. So I can see a lot of the pieces, the way they fit together, I think are very similar to how they were built in that kind of early 2000s."

Familiarity sure helps but only goes so far as seen against Minnesota. Another familiar element that the Buffs have played against us rain, which is in the Saturday forecast for Corvallis, Ore..

Sanford is taking this week to prepare for the wet conditions by testing different gloves, trying no gloves and throwing and catching a wet ball.

“With the experience at Air Force, we didn't handle the elements particularly well,” Sanford said. “I think we started slowly as a result of the elements. We're not gonna allow that to happen.”

A Shrout rain redemption game perhaps? Regardless of if he gets the start, Shrout’s mentality has changed since that tumultuous Air Force game.

“I think some of J.T.’s rough starts have been from almost an over-driven, over-intensity mentality,” Sanford said. “I just like the headspace he's been in. He's been in a workmanlike, focused and confident [mentality], but I think there's been a calm to him recently. I think that's part of growth. There's growth that comes with starting, maybe not playing as well as he wanted, but I think that his demeanor was much better going into this game [Cal].”

Shrout completed 8 of 12 passes for 69 yards and a TD off the bench in the 20-13 overtime win over Cal last weekend.

Taking on the Beavers in Corvallis will be Sanford’s first road trip as the interim head coach and he and the coaching staff will try to rally the team once again.

“Just when you have more people bought in and more people invested in what's going on on Saturdays, you get better results in practice, you get better results in your process, your preparation,” Sanford said. “And ultimately, I believe it pays off with a more invested team on game day and that's what we saw."

Notes:

Running back Deion Smith is pushing toward a "very likely return and we’ll see when that is, but very different news and more positive news that even I expected after the game,” Sanford said.