CORVALLIS -- The sea of shirtless dudes jostled as one.
The crowd kept growing as more filed in. A seemingly endless line of testosterone stretched back to the student section. They hooted, hollered, and whipped their shirts in the air. Their collective blood alcohol content could probably fill a swimming pool.
But their energy wasn't transferring to the field.
Oregon State football was flat, dying on the vine, staring down the prospect of a home loss to a Lafayette team it paid $500,000 to make the long journey from Easton, Pennsylvania. 0-8 was a distinct possibility, even after firing their coach. It couldn't get this bad, could it?
The Beavers hardly noticed the mass of mostly pale bodies growing in the south end zone. Players' body language was tense coming off the field at half while trailing an FCS team, 13-10.
Yet in the end, OSU seemed to learn a lesson from those rowdy fans, and it fueled a massive turnaround en route to a 45-13 win:
Have fun.
"I've seen a lot of smiles on people's faces," quarterback Gabarri Johnson said postgame. "People excited, jumping around on the sideline, congratulating teammates. It was fun."
It wasn't just that OSU won its first game of the season on Saturday. The second half was a jolt of positive energy that woke them from the nightmare. It got them over the "mountain of bad," as interim coach Robb Akey put it, that happened to them the first seven games of the season.
"I'll tell you what," Akey said. "I'm happy as can be to see these guys smile. And they were able to. And it was cool. And I was glad to see the way they responded."
The first half was more of the same from the Beavers. A tired offense, an inconsistent defense giving up big plays, and a special teams unit that couldn't put all the pieces together.
Lafayette is playing at a lower level of college football. It showed, even as the Leopards took a lead into the break. Yet despite the talent disparity, the Beavers still had to overcome them. They made it hard on themselves, again.
It took facing down their demons and making some difficult decisions for a 35-0 second half to happen.
OSU leaned on the dynamic Johnson at quarterback, choosing to bench $1.5 million NIL acquisition Maalik Murphy amid another stale outing. They ran the ball more than ever, got that extra push up front for Anthony Hankerson, and it helped the senior run wild for 204 yards and four touchdowns.
Hankerson somersaulted into the end zone at one point. There has been very little in this OSU football season worthy of a somersault. Or even a mildly satisfied grin.
Johnson -- who rushed for 82 yards, threw for 79 more, and accounted for two total touchdowns -- gave the Beavers a spark. Hankerson served as both fuse and bomb, giving his teammates motivation and leading with his aggressive play.
Johnson pointed to speeches by both Hankerson and linebacker Aiden Sullivan as catalysts for OSU's second half turnaround. Akey contributed, too, with fiery words all week and plenty more at the halftime break, he said.
Just before the third quarter started, Hankerson could be seen at the center of a full-team huddle, yelling and pumping his fist as teammates nodded their heads.
If Hankerson had a t-shirt in hand, he might have been whipping it around. Sometimes it is just about vibes.
"Play for somebody bigger than yourself," Hankerson said of his message to teammates. "We was playing down to our opponent's level, and we're way better than that. ... The play doesn't really care who makes it. You've just got to go out there and trust your teammates and be who you are."
An exciting second half against an FCS team does not save a season, or fix a program's many deeply rooted ills. A Bronze Beaver statue outside the stadium isn't a lucky talisman. Or is it?
At least for a night, having fun again healed the Beavers' souls. They will have a bye week to breathe and revel in this feeling before Washington State comes to town.
In what is objectively a lost season -- setting aside the coaching search and personnel questions, quarterback battles and institutional failures -- isn't fun enough?
"That's the biggest thing about it," safety Skyler Thomas said. "The game has got to be enjoyable. If it's not fun, then there's no reason to play it at all."