2024 Oregon State Fever - Thanksgiving (10-1)

I suspect you're right about the QB situation determining how good we can get this year.   Mediocre QB play means a win floor of roughly 7, as you say.

The BeaversEdge guys, who have been watching practice, had this to say (paraphrased) about the QBs:

Ben:   Some days looks good.  Other days looks bad, throwing picks.  Best of the three at sustaining drives. 

McCoy:   Really doesn't have it.  Had nothing good to say about him as a QB at this level of play.  I had the same impression of him watching highlight vids of the Spring game.  Seemed like another Garretson;  fair run, fair pass, not really great at either.  The walk on, Montiel, was better at fitting the ball into windows.  

Johnson:   Most talented of the three, especially as a runner.  Has only had about five series with the first team.   Tendency to tuck and run too soon. 

Other tidbits:    All three tend to be late getting the ball there on timing routes.  

Interestingly, as to Johnson, one of the journalists asked Gundy about three/four weeks ago if he didn't think it was time for Johnson to get more first team reps.   Gundy got kind of testy, saying he called them like he saw them or words to that effect.   Starting to look like they were giving the other two more needed developmental time (Johnson had missed Spring ball and had more ground to make up) and it hasn't worked out.  Yet.  

But it really didn't take long. As you noted, OSU was really bad during the 70s, 80s and most of the 90s. But that really changed over a couple of seasons. Riley went 5-6 in 1998 and had the win over Oregon. Then Erickson stepped in and went 7-5 in 1999 and then 11-1 in 2000.
And yes, Kansas State is a great example and very comparable to Oregon State.
I should add that the change in scholarship limits gave schools like OSU a better chance to stay competitive. But my overall point was what was happening within OSU during those periods.

KSU's 2023-24 budget was $93,251,000. So roughly the same as OSU's. Maybe there's more NIL funds for KSU players, IDK.
Agree that they've had an easier path to Big 12 title games. But my overall point is they built a solid football program basically out of the ashes in Manhattan, Kansas. A city that has about the same amount of people as Corvallis (a little less) and is about 120 miles from Kansas City. 
KSU actually has a much worse football history than Oregon State and was really bad decade after decade until Bill Snyder arrived in the 1990s. Snyder had two stretches as coach, 1989-2005 and then back in 2009-18 after three mediocre seasons under Ron Prince. Now it's Chris Klieman, who has led the Wildcats to four bowls in five seasons (the 2020 pandemic season was the exception).
Again, who you are able to hire and then giving them enough support is very important. 

That is a budget for last year.  The real numbers expenses and revenues from that budget will not be released until early next year.

The 2022-23 budget was $83,642,000.  Actual revenue was $102,332,761, which was also off the Kansas State site.  Ticket sales exceeded the projected revenues.  Contributions exceeded the projected revenues.  Big 12/NCAA exceeded the projected revenues.  Concessions/ Merchandise exceeded the projected revenues.  Licensing exceeded the projected revenues.

And that worked out well for them, because Kansas State's expenses exceeded the budget by several million dollars.