Baker High School alumnus Grant Johnson, No. 70, leads the way for Oregon Stateâs star running back Jacquizz Rodgers during the Beaversâ 42-10 win over Washington State in Pullman on Nov. 21. Johnson, a sophomore, is a starting offensive lineman for the Beavers, who play at Oregon Thursday. The winner of this yearâs Civil War will play Ohio State in the Rose Bowl on New Yearâs Day. (Photo by Johnny Bullock)

Former BHS star set to start for Oregon State on Thursday night as the Beavers and Ducks play for a berth in the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1

Grant Johnson is 55 hours from playing in his first Civil War, which is to say he’s preparing to etch his name into a legend.

They’ve already battled on the football field 112 times, the Oregon State Beavers and the University of Oregon Ducks.

But it happens that this 113th clash, which kicks off at 6 o’clock

Thursday evening in Eugene’s Autzen Stadium, is bigger than any of

those past games.

The fans and the sportswriters say so, anyway.

Johnson, though, has more pressing matters to attend to than picking superlatives for a football rivalry that dates to 1894.

Getting ready to knock some Ducks on their tailfeathers, for instance.

Johnson, a sophomore walk-on from Baker City, is slated to start at

offensive guard for Oregon State when the Beavers and the Ducks play

for a berth in the Rose Bowl.

That first part, at least, is familiar.

Johnson has started at the same position in each of the Beavers’ 11 games this season.

He hasn’t missed many plays, either.

“I tweaked my knee and came out for about five snaps,” Johnson said

in a telephone interview late Tuesday morning from Corvallis. “It was

either the Cincinnati (Sept. 19) or the Arizona (Sept. 26) game.”

Playing in a Civil War, though, is something he has so far only dreamed about, ever since he was a boy, so small that a set of shoulder pads would have slid down his arms and thudded to the ground.

(Johnson is rather larger these days, at 6-foot-3, 285 pounds.)

Johnson suited up for the Beavers last year, too, but he didn’t get onto the field when the Ducks beat the Beavers 65-38 in Corvallis.

Had OSU won, it would have played in the Rose Bowl.

The Beavers have another chance at that prize Thursday.

And this year, unlike last, so do the Ducks.

Which is why so many pundits have rated this edition of Civil War as the most meaningful in its long history.

Johnson understands the stakes.

He also understands that envisioning himself lining up against the storied Ohio State Buckeyes in Pasadena on Jan. 1 will not help him prepare for the Ducks.

“Our coaches have been stressing to us this week to just play it like every other game,” said Johnson, a 2007 Baker High School graduate.

“It’s exciting, sure. But we’re just focusing on winning. Then we can look around and see what we’ve won.”

Concentrating on the Civil War is hardly a challenge for Johnson.

“I’ve always been an OSU fan, and I’m just thinking this week about how much I dislike the Ducks,” he said.

Johnson said he’s noticed a distinct difference in attitude, though, between his teammates who, like him, are Oregonians, and those who grew up in another state.

“They (the non-Oregonians) don’t know how big the rivalry is,” Johnson said. “Those of us who grew up in Oregon, they know what it’s about.”

Even if this year’s Civil War weren’t a battle for the Rose Bowl, Johnson would always remember this autumn fondly.

He wasn’t expected to start for the Beavers when the team started practice in August.

Yet now, just four months later, Johnson has run onto such famous fields as the L.A. Coliseum, where the Beavers lost a close game to USC in October.

“I grew up watching USC,” he said. “I thought that was a pretty big deal.”

Johnson has also relished one of his main duties as a player: Carving out holes in the defense for Jacquizz Rodgers to run through.

Rodgers, like Johnson a sophomore, is one of the better running backs in the nation, and the reigning Pac-10 offensive player of the year.

“It’s just fun to know that I have two more years to block for him,” Johnson said. “He makes us look good sometimes.”

If Johnson could change one thing about Thursday’s game, it would be the location.

“I’d definitely it rather be in Corvallis,” he said.

Autzen Stadium is infamous for its crowd noise – a problem that tends to bother offensive lineman, who react to the quarterback’s signals.

Still and all, the field is exactly the same size in Eugene as in Corvallis.

“A game is a game,” Johnson said.

But there’s only one Civil War.