Gavin Andrews remembers his first football game of his senior season at Granite Bay High in California.

The team traveled to Nevada and quickly encountered the thin air of an elevation well above 4,000 feet.

“When you’re actually playing, it’s a whole lot different than sitting on the sideline. It’s a really tough challenge,” Andrews said.

“It’s harder to breathe, you get sore faster, you can’t get enough oxygen to your system.”

Andrews and the Oregon State football team will face similar conditions on Saturday when the Beavers take on Colorado in Boulder.

Many of the current team members played at Utah last season or even at Brigham Young in 2012.

Salt Lake City sits 4,265 feet above sea level and Provo a bit higher at 4,550.

Boulder’s elevation is 5,430 feet.

“I was at BYU and that was enough of a challenge,” Andrews, OSU’s left tackle said. “But I think we’re going to take care of this.

“I think the biggest thing is, I don’t know how we’re going to, but we’re going to have to acclimatize fast.”

Two basics of preparation are hydration and conditioning.

The Beavers work on getting in top physical condition throughout the offseason and continue a workout regimen in addition to practice.

Hydration began this week.

“Hydration is the biggest thing we can do,” coach Mike Riley said. “You’ve got to rely on your being in shape and hydration starting now is a big factor.

“People think you get hydrated by drinking water the day of the game. But I’ve been told the process, it builds up at least over a four-day period.”

Going at an extra-hard pace during practice will help as well.

It’s up to each player to make sure their getting ready.

“Just try to make yourself tired every day in practice and that’s going to take sprints to the ball every play, not dogging reps or anything,” linebacker Michael Doctor said.

Some of the players have elevation training masks that they have been wearing while they lift weights.

Andrews received one during the summer and defensive end Dylan Wynn also has been using one this week.

The masks essentially replicate breathing the thinner air of a higher elevation.

“It really just makes you have to focus on your breathing,” Wynn said. “It just restricts airflow to certain extent and makes it harder to breathe. It kind of simulates the lack of oxygen you get.

“Conditioning in that does help a lot.”

The Beavers made sure there will be oxygen available on the sideline to help the players throughout the game.

“We can even have the oxygen masks there when we’re off the field on the sideline there for us when we need to get oxygen back,” Doctor said.

Wynn said the Beavers can’t afford to slack off in preparation for the elevation.

“It’s actually a big change and you feel it when you get on the field. So a little extra conditioning, some extra water and good eating and we’ll be ready to go,” he said.

“It’s an interesting place to play and they do have a home-field advantage because of it.”