POLL: How to get Beavs from here to there?

OREGON STATE HAS, for five of the past six years, gone to a bowl game and won it. They've confounded the "experts" by ending the past three straight seasons in the final Top 25 poll. And in those three years they've been the second winningest program in the Pac-10 behind USC -- beating a No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 in the process. But it won't stop us from asking you the question..

Where does Oregon State need to most improve, in order to earn a Rose Bowl or BCS berth?

The 2008 campaign was thrilling -- the Beavers stormed back after a 2-3 start with six straight wins and posted a victory over No. 1 USC.

Week after week, the 2008 season saw Oregon State continue in the driver's seat for the Rose Bowl -- for nearly the entire season and right up until the regular season finale.

But as great a season as it was in '08, packed with thrilling, upset and comeback wins, the Beavs at the end went from the Rose Bowl to the third place Pac-10 bowl in the final week of the regular season.

Had they not spent all those days and weeks controlling their own destiny in the race for the roses, last year -- a season in which most all the "experts" picked the Beavs to do little to nothing at all -- would have been seen as wholly impressive.

Instead, it was greatly impressive, and yet it left Beaver Nation with a whole lot of "what-ifs" at the end.

So the question is this: how do the Beavers get from here to there?