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General Thread

452

This can cover hoops this week and any other topics.

The last thread wasn’t popular, huh? That’s fine. In the future I won’t share information I get via email. What’s funny is when I don’t, people ask what’s in any emails that I reference. When they don’t like what’s in it, they shoot the messenger. I feel really good about the current sources. They’re the best ever, to be honest. But yeah, I’m not going to listen to whining over the work I put in here, so I’ll just keep it to myself or create a private section for that information. Any suggestions on how to handle it are welcome.

Go Beavs.

452 COMMENTS

  1. Information is what it’s all about and I appreciate it being shared. The needs of the many outweigh the whines of a few. Keep it coming.

  2. I need help figuring out why OSU’s been so slow to deal with the 10th assistant coach and Corey Hall’s status. Niner has been super deliberate (read: slow) about naming his other assistants, so I guess maybe it’s just his personality, but the skeptic in me thinks it’s because nobody wants this job.

    Is it possible that somehow Niner’s waiting to talk to someone on the staff at Alabama or Georgia (or possibly just now got access to someone on the Oklahoma or Clemson staffs?), which would explain the delay?

    I feel like nothing’s happening, and the silence surrounding Beaver football is then invariably filled by talking heads who want to talk about Riley. I’d rather have Niner doing some good things and taking the attention away from our washed up, tired, re-re-tread assistant coach who has not even been assigned a position group to coach yet.

    Go Beavs.

    • Yeah, it’s basically a no news dead period for football. So either we talk about mediocre basketball, go ot (politics, economics, music, soap making, etc….), nothing at all or Riley.

      Riley is what lead to the creation of the blog, so Riley it is!

  3. I thought the last thread went fine. There was some defensiveness about the source, but maybe that was rooted in the related topic of religion?

    • It was more of how the info was presented. If he said Riley can’t read a room and brought up religion to a non religious recruit, there would be little push back. If if he said Riley brings up religion in recruiting visits but has never been seen at church, that would be something too.

  4. Have to expect some crap as this site tends to attract an unruly crowd with little self control. But that is what makes it great. Keep giving us info Angry and ignore those with a bee up their butt.

  5. I appreciate you sharing any info you get, the same goes to everyone else who shares info on here. It’s inevitable to have people attack your info as if it’s your opinion. It’s the nature of the internet. People react to things they read without fully comprehending the info, its source, or its intent. I do hope this blog doesn’t turn into a bunch of idiots pissing on each other like the O-live comments. I think you should do whatever it takes to prevent that. But all of us are going to have disagreements on here, that’s what keeps it interesting.

  6. Appreciate the comments.

    Give me your opinions/feedback on Angry@angry. I feel his agenda is to foster in-fighting in an attempt to make the blog unreadable. Since he can’t stop the message of AB, he’s trying to make it unreadable bickering. That’s my sense.

    • My sense is A@A has a personal vendetta against you. He will disagree with or try to disprove anything you say. It doesn’t bother me, but I’m not on the receiving end of his pissing. If I was I would just use the “x” button, which is a great feature.

    • Says he likes the recruiting info, but in all reality just comes here to stir shit up and try to prove you wrong. Rarely ever offers an opinion or anything of substance. Really just takes your words, twists them so he can understand them to fit his narrative, and then refutes your opinion wether right or wrong.

      Beats a dead horse saying the same shit over and over again.Harmless troll. Easy to ignore.

      Obviously a self liker and opposing position down voter which is hilarious.

      There aren’t very many trolls left. All the Ducks went away. Beav it or Not came back for a minute and went away again. Kroger Complete… I kind of miss all the back and forth between you, Jack, and all those guys. I know it was annoying/frustrating for you but as a passive observer it was funny to witness. Some of the dick measuring contests were epic!

        • The press pass thing wasn’t a joke though. In fact it shouldn’t be a joke. I’m not sure what the technicalities are to get credentials, but I don’t see why someone who covers beaver sports isn’t entitled to one. Does Machado have a pass? If she does then this site should.

        • The press pass thing was my instigating. And it was absolutely awesome to showcase how Riley and Bob DeCareless we’re protecting their Neat image and doing their best to prevent the hard important questions from being asked and answered.

  7. Kind of seems like Riley’s problem is more his inability to read the room. I am not one much for organized religion, I think it does more harm than good, but if it works for you then more power to you.

  8. Looks like Smith convinced Christian Wallace to stay based on his last tweet. Wonder if he moves to RB with Nall and Tyner both potentially gone or if they like him at nickle? Either way kid needs to see the field this year in some capacity.

  9. Keep sharing please. No one has to like everything you post and the comments didn’t seem that bad against your take.

    A@A is harmless, she just takes cheap-shots whenever she can.

    I must be old because I always laugh when someone complains about thumb-downs on their posts….

  10. I think you should censor everyone you disagree with Angry or disagrees with you… That obviously makes the most sense… I don’t understand you taking it personally… We all have our own opinions, thats what drives good discussion… But if you enjoy communism and censorship, it’s your site, do what you want… I think everyone appreciates having a blog that gives them a voice but if that bothers you, it is your site after all… I’ve always enjoyed the blog regardless if I agree or disagree with folks

    • And this, ladies and gentlemen, is what is wrong with America: people not exercising good judgment over what is an opinion worth sharing and not sharing. In no way does this comment present anything useful to arriving to the truth, but only stated to generate a few laughs. Exhibit A, everyone!

      The use of hyperbole to support one’s argument through humor rather than presenting rationality is one symptom that America’s democratic values are in a state of decay. You see it everywhere on the Internet, as well as in bars, salons, restaurants, advertisements, television, radio, etc etc. But don’t worry, you’ll be rotting in your grave before you see the next generation’s FANTASTIC suffering as a result. So please, keep influencing others to practice your rhetorical “tactics” as it only digs us deeper into the hole of hopelessness. I’ll grab a beer and watch.

        • Unfortunately a class clown got elected President, and more and more people are adopting his tactics at shutting down discussions they don’t agree with.

        • Maybe what’s wrong with America is that people can take one statement from someone and make the broad conclusion that this one thing is what’s wrong with America?

      • I guess I interpreted his post differently. I mean exactly what I said, zero exaggeration. What Angry is is talking about is censorship. Silencing the opposition, I don’t see how it could be interpreted any different. Bringing up angry@angry and asking folks what to do about them. Sounds a lot like censorship to me. But whatever, if you think the demise of America is because of humor to get a point to across, I feel sad for you. If your not smart enough to decifer the difference than that is on you. The demise will be because people want to silence anyone who doesn’t align with their perception of the issues. The fact that people can’t look at someones argument objectively and form their own opinion without taking it personal is a mystery to me. That’s what is wrong with America to me. Feel free to attack now that I’ve said my piece.

        • Censorship on a private blog vs censorship in the streets is a much different issue. If someone comes here threatening me personally, they’re going to be banned (e.g. BION). A@A needs a timeout every now and then when his diaper gets filled up with shit. So, I grant him one. He hasn’t gone off the deep end with attacks, though.

          • I get that if he is threatening you, it’s a different story. What I am talking about is shutting someone down because of a differing opinion if that makes sense. I haven’t seen you do that before but I am getting the sense that your leaning in that direction. I hope I am wrong and misreading things.

          • I’m not leaning in that direction, per se. Since I know A@A’s agenda, I wanted to hear peoples’ opinions and thoughts on him. I really don’t care except I don’t want to lose good commenters because they have to sift through his shit filled diaper.

            I’ll continue to bash him. Maybe next time I’ll post a screen cap of how many times he upvotes his own posts. Lolol.

          • In some way, I can relate to A@A’s stuff. He’s coming in here strictly to be oppositional. Kind of a devil’s advocate mixed with dickishness. I sort of started chiming in on this blog in an oppositional way. There was a lot of Riley bashing, with what I saw as a lot of excuse making for the players on the field at the time. There was a lot of input that I saw that was really polarizing, like if Riley was just the opposite of his current personality, the team would be better. With hindsight, I’m willing to admit I was wrong in a lot of ways about Riley. I tended to put more responsibility on the team for their weak performances than I did Riley. It took me longer to come around to the notion that he had to go, but when he did, I thought it was needed.

          • A@A and dickishness? That really hadn’t occurred to me. I guess that could be him. He’s more like that guy who makes a poor suggestion about banking when we’re talking about coining a term. He constantly uses straw men and wild leaps of logic. He’s probably doing it right now.

            I find it humorous. Apparently angry is highly annoyed by him.

            I’m still against censorship except for the extremes. Annoying and illogical isn’t a good reason.

        • Censorship happens all the time, and sometimes it’s very good.

          Look at what’s happened/happening in the Ukraine. Putin took advantage of the Ukraine’s free press and speech by flooding their television markets with authoritarian propaganda. There are two ways to counter this very powerful tactic: educate the people (a very difficult thing to do because many Ukrainians cling on to what has been successful aka Soviet communism), or cut the shit and censor. Neither choice is desirable. Ukrainian television stations would go live right after the Russian shows to try to correct misconceptions, only to meet the response of sheer volumes of propaganda that ultimately sparked an independent movement in Crimea.

          In fact, this country has managed to resolve huge conflicts during times of censorship. Both World Wars and the Cold War are just three examples of times this country has dealt with external enemies through the use of censorship. Now, the country has a disease from within, and that disease is spreading faster than shit flowing through a tin horn, reaching almost all forums of discussion. The result? Progress has been stopped, stone-cold, because we never arrive at truths.

          • Censorship happens all the time, and sometimes it’s very good.

            Disagree. To compare a government to a blog is apples and oranges. This is a private medium. Government is owned by the people in this Country. On this blog, I try not to censor, but it becomes a necessity when someone makes threats, stalks, etc.

            Dissent is a good thing. This site was built off it. If someone wants to dissent with the popular opinion here they are basically doing exactly what I did on rivals when I left there 10 years ago and decided to start my own site, only on a smaller scale in the comment section. Fine. They don’t have a right to do it, but I allow them the privilege because I know that sucked on Rivals back in the day.

            Regarding A@A, he’s done nothing to be banned, but I do know his agenda is to promote in-fighting. He thinks he can make AB unreadable with bickering that ruins other sites. It’s an interesting approach. Just be aware of it, all. I put him in timeouts when he whines, as I would any crying baby with a shit filled diaper. After a night of rest I remove his temp ban. If he gets worse he’ll get the permanent ban.

            We have a Constitution to protect dissenting, numb-nut opinions. If everyone agreed we wouldn’t need that Right/amendment. Again, a private blog does not follow the same rules. Here I make the calls, many times in conjunction with a few people I trust (we discuss the problem/issue in email, etc). All that said, so far there’s only been one permanent ban (BION) in the history of AB — he was a total creep/stalker…I have little doubt he’s killed people.

          • Two different scopes does not necessarily discredit my argument. The way trolls infiltrate and discredit logical discourse through hyperbole for popularity reasons is incredibly similar between government affairs and this site. I could argue the same for Facebook, Reddit, Olive, PureOrange, etc etc.

            Why hasn’t this been pointed out ten years earlier? Because only recently has this issue exploded: it started with people geting paid to spread misinformation through hyperbole, and it has trickled down to normal folks like you and I to the extent people don’t need the incentive to be paid because almost EVERYONE is doing it.

            In fact, I think the example of the Ukrainian crisis is relevant to what we’re seeing on this site. You deduce Riley’s faults through his failures in a reasonable, rational way, claiming he is not a good hire despite previous success. Yet, we witness individuals on this site who are in such a state of denial that they have to attack you through the use of hyperbole, and the reason is because they think what has worked before will work now. I can expand that presence of fallacious thinking to most Americans and our current problems as a society.

          • “I put him in timeouts when he whines, as I would any crying baby with a shit filled diaper.”

            …you clearly don’t have kids.

  11. You truly think my post that was plus voted 13 Times was all me? No, people agreed with me over you and that’s why you deleted it

        • Woof!

          Or is it arf?

          I wouldn’t know. I don’t waste my time watching a TV to hear people talk about sports. Come to think of it, this blog is it except for the pre-game crap that’s usually muted while music plays. I suppose I can understand listening to the coachspeak/knob-slobbering dynamic of the local radio shows. But you really have to be into that and/or willing to listen to the same thing every… single… day.

          I will say that you brought up a TV personality. So maybe he’s doing what he’s paid to do… if his job is to agitate the pudding heads who waste their time paying attention to what he says or does.

    • I wouldn’t doubt it. You could have liked your post in your home, on campus (using OSU’s two WiFi networks), work, Starbucks (DutchBros), various restaurants, public buildings, a gym, basically anywhere that has a unique WiFi.

      How do I know this? Because I’m guilty of doing it once on one of Jack’s rants (sorry Jack, my opinion of you has changed significantly for the better since then). Anyways, it’s possible, and based on your previous comments it’s not out of the realm of possibility that you thumbed your post up in many different locations.

  12. I like the inside info even if it seems to clash with my ideas of what may be happening. Keep plugging away Angry. Don’t get bogged down by a handful of voices.

    Riley and religious talk isn’t surprising. But such discussions as part of a recruiting trip can be out of place or perfectly timed. It seems unlikely that Riley wouldn’t have wisdom and be fairly judicious about such conversations, given that he has been a state employee and a christian for an extended period of time.

  13. side note of possible interest: There is a bar and grill in Corvallis now called The Angry Beaver. (formerly The Dam). I hear tell its full of middle aged men using coarse language and making homophobic slurs…so not all that much unlike here!

    (kidding)

    (but not really kidding)

    ;)

  14. By the way, I have an email from Sidd Finch that’s pro-Riley. I haven’t posted that one yet. Anyone interested in it? It’s funny in a way in that it talks up Riley and mentions how he never curses, etc. My relationship with Sidd isn’t great at this point. Mainly because he apparently expects me to publish his opinions in exchange for information. Homey don’t play that.

  15. I thought we had an agreement to share what I know. In no way did I request information. I thought it would help the blog and provide info to those who wanted it. But apparently not. No worries. I’ll stick to other avenues.

    • Yes, that was the agreement — that you would share what you know. But then when I disagreed about posting the pro-Riley piece you wrote (and instead said you should just log in and post it as yourself, since it’s your opinion) you said this gave you “pause for contributing”. So, as I wrote above, this appears to be you give me information, and in exchange, I have to post pro-Riley pieces that I disagree with. That’s just not going to fly. Good luck giving those other outlets information. The last one you gave me was that losing Petras was no big deal because Yankoff was going to be Smith’s QB. These appear to be nothing more than guesses.

      The search continues for a second good source.

    • Sidd, you’re kinda new here so you probably don’t have a feel for how it works. There are numerous members here who write periodic, in depth reports on various things. Sometimes they post them in the body of a thread, sometime they email them to angry and he posts them as their own stand alone thread.

      If you have something put together just post it up as you posting your opinion. We’ll all jump in and run with it. If it grows it’s own head angry or one of the other mods will usually bump it in to it’s own thread. If not it will still get plenty of views and commentary.

  16. If this is an opinion blog, state opinions.
    If it is also an insider blog, state your own insider info rather than funnelling through Angry.
    If you need to troll everyone periodically, then so be it. But please be responsible trollers and have some personal time limits to your trolling.

    I think this blog is a great place to check in, gather insight, post an opinion, have a few laughs, ignore Jack’s darker side, consider A@A’s perspective and then go on with my day. Let’s not make it out to be anything more than these things.

    The fact remains that no one at OSU’s Athletic Department really wants to be successful in sports yet anyway. This is a place for commenting and lamenting about the failures of OSU sports, AD, small time marketing, slanted media relations, false narratives, national perceptions etc. This blog is sometimes therapeutic, mostly entertaining and seemingly necessary to get beyond the mediocre normal of OSU athletics/football specifically.

  17. Angry,

    Speaking of religion, I went to Confession today and admitted to the priest that I feel like a horrible person because I secretly want Mike Riley to die, just so our program can move on. He told me to pray 3 “Our Fathers”. It seemed light, so maybe he related.

  18. I wonder how many members of our former staff will get picked up by former teams? So far, only 2(Telly Lockette and Chad K) have been hired, and they were 2 of our lower paid assitants. We’re still on the hook for the full salary of the other guys through next December. You’d think with all of the job openings crested by teams adding a 10th coach nationwide, that somebody would hire at least some of these guys, right?
    Or maybe they’re content drawing a check for another year while they sit in the beach? Not such a bad deal.

  19. I know I’ve bitched about the lack of attention to detail OSU seems to be hampered by(The 2016 VTV banner, Mentioning Nikko Hall in signing day promotional material despite him not signing)
    but this new one is too funny.
    A twitter user pointed out that the official magazine of Oregon State, “Orange & Black” features a photo of fans from Gill in a segment talking about OSU traditions. Zoom in on the student section and you’ll see 3 different kids flipping the bird.
    Does nobody look at these things before they go to print?
    It’s on the magazine’s web version too. Zoom in on the lower left photo.

    http://oregonstate.edu/orange-and-black/#p=18

    • If you need any more ammunition for how moronic and out of touch our athletic department is with the landscape of collegiate athletics, I don’t know what to tell you. Been saying this for awhile. Until it changes at the top, it won’t change. Want to win championships in revenue generating sports that actually matter? Go elsewhere. Like it or not OSU is in fact little brother.

      • It’s amazing to me that Casey and Rueck have been able to win, despite the ineptitude they’re surrounded with. Part of that must be that they’re in sports that aren’t as competitive nationally as the revenue generating sports, as you mentioned. But still, how are they able to insulate themselves from the derp factor?

        • “It’s amazing to me that Casey and Rueck have been able to win, despite the ineptitude they’re surrounded with”

          Casey and Rueck’s success is worth some discussion, even a thread of its own. As in many things, I believe a combination of factors is at work. I wonder what others here think.

          Does the size of the WBB operation make the ability/quality of the HC more of a driving factor than the FB operation? Applies also to the comparison between Baseball and FB?
          Is it because a smaller number of committed donors can have an effect and can be more easily reached by the HC than is the situation in FB?

          What is the common trait seen in Casey and Rueck? For one thing, it seems they both have built a solid fund raising organization. For another, they both seem to have a core philosophy and set of standards. They both happen to have a personal belief system which involves religion.

          Other factors?

          • I don’t see Rueck with the fundraising that much. And he reaped what CR sowed, so it’s not fair to compare hi to Casey. Casey had to go out and essentially fund everything we see that is now Goss and the baseball program. He smartly used winning to leverage more money from the shoe people, for himself and his program. He was given the autonomy to do this because the expectations were low.

            Rueck also inherited low expectations. But he also inherited what every new coach dreams of, a clean slate. Recruiting is so much easier when you walk into a house and say, “I guarantee you will be playing major minutes next year. This will be your team.”

            And on the religious front, Rueck is so. Casey is devout, but he is not religious when it comes to OSU beyond adhering to the basic ethics that make up many religions. Sort of like the last post about Riley’s religiosity, there’s a reason Rueck misses on some top recruits, and they have to do with religion and negative recruiting. I don’t think it’s a case of him saying what he does to the PSAs he does lose. But they get to hear how he pitches to others where he did “read the room” correctly. These things aren’t secrets.

          • They have and consistently implement a vision.

            They win.

            Probably continuity of staff, with succession readiness if staff do leave for promotions or other opportunities.

          • Here’s my take on why Casey and Rueck are successful. Continued, upper echelon success in football, and to a lesser degree in men’s basketball, is a function of three things: (1) winning tradition; (2) fan support; (3) resources, fund-raising etc.

            Obviously these are all inter-related, but in College Baseball, unlike college football, the “tradition” factor does not go back to Pop Warner, Frank Leahy, etc. but truly only as far back as when ESPN started televising the College World Series. Yes, by the middle of the last decade there were some already well-established “blue bloods” in college baseball: SC, Arizona State, LSU, but the pool was small and there was room for more. Pat’s teams got good at exactly the right moment (national interest in college baseball was ascending because of the “Omaha/Rosenblatt” story), equivalent to the early 1950’s when television began trumpeting Notre Dame, SC, Oklahoma, Bama. So now OSU baseball is, I would maintain, a blue-blood as well–a known quantity not only by fandom, but with media insiders in the blogosphere, and, accordingly, by recruits. Pat gets the best recruits in Oregon and Washington, is competitive in California and Arizona, and gets a few from farther afield. Thus, he wins more, which brings in the fans and the resources. It’s a classic positive feedback loop. The key thing is catching that wave and keep riding it. Oregon caught a wave with Kelly and the uniform craziness; it will be interesting to see if they can stay on top of that board. OSU will face the same problem when Pat leaves.

  20. after reading a few basketball articles I find it hard to believe that Tinkle is going to last much longer. Every year our team is full of excuses. Tres quoted as saying something about playing lackadaisical and “every time we do that it seems like we lose”. No shit?

    Coach Tinkle offers up the same BS that Robinson did and Jay John did before him. They talk about being a young team and are looking to get some guys to step up as leaders.

    People here like to trash Riley for his “identity” comments, but it seems far worse in basketball.

    Ducks 85 Beavers 72

    • You get a blog personal foul for comparing anyone to Jay John. His BS was legendary… and derelict.

      But yeah… Tinks and CR aren’t that much different in terms of results. The spacing on O is worse, but there is better O talent. The D is sporadic because it’s always compensating for having to have the best O player on the floor for O.

      I would say the major difference is that CR’s teams could press break. They weren’t good enough at it to be consistent. But the scouting report didn’t scream “press” when watching tape.

  21. Baseball starts pretty soon too. It will be interesting, to say the least, to see how Luke Heimlich is treated this season. It will be a real shame if he never gets his shot at the next level.

    I’m still pissed about the officiating in Omaha. The fix was in on that one.

    • He’s not listed anywhere on draft boards. He’ll have to go the long way into the pros, independent ball and then hope for a minor league contract.

      Team is stacked this year. 2019 is going to see a mass exodus of talent.

      • I mentioned it before, but why wouldn’t he go to Japan first? Seems like he could make better money going that route and play higher quality ball right away.

  22. Don’t mind the students flipping Le Bird, what is annoying are OSU students wearing duck jerseys playing flag football. When I attended OSU that person would get shamed hard.

  23. This is the write up that Sidd wanted me to post as a topic. I told him since I didn’t believe the narrative, I wasn’t going to post it. Instead I suggested to post it himself as a comment, at which point he basically insinuated that he wouldn’t be a source anymore. So, I feel my assessment that he wanted pro-Riley propaganda in exchange for information is accurate.

    Here’s a different take for you…but thought it would make a good post.

    I heard him swear once. Once. But, I’m not sure he would admit to it. After a game where the refs had blown a call nearly costing the Beavs the game (which we all know has happened plenty of times in Reser), Riley said a bad word in a private moment with another coach, and in true fashion he nearly stopped himself at the end (it was “son of b!tch” if you’re wondering.) I’ve been around Riley. I’ve been around Coach Smith too. This is not a bad thing for OSU football and Coach Smith’s staff. Riley knows the game, his favorite things are his family, his faith and football. That is all there is in his life, literally. And he loves OSU. I can tell you that he fell on the sword, to some extent, when he went to Nebraska. Then AD Bob De Carolis had asked Riley to restructure his contract at the end of that season. Riley knew the writing was on the wall. So when Nebraska came up, he jumped at it knowing it would free OSU from his contract and save him from being fired if another bad season happened. For that, I respect Riley. He did not want to leave OSU, but he knew it was the right thing to do for everyone. And, he is an excellent recruiter – recruits and families love Riley for how genuine he is, and he is genuine. His ego is non-existent and that is incredibly rare for (former) head coaches. If Coach Smith feels that having Riley around to help him navigate his first head coaching gig, then I am all for it. Coaches in football, unlike basketball, treat it like a brotherhood. If a guy is a good coach and has a good reputation, they get offered other jobs. There are a lot of variables into coaching success – mainly relying on 18-21 year olds. Just because a guy maybe didn’t work out at School A doesn’t mean he won’t do well at School B. Sure, you want to that up and comer like Alex Grinch at WSU. But you also need that veteran like Bud Foster at Va Tech. A young head coach like Smith needs some veteran leadership around him. Riley can offer that without Smith having to worry about looking over his shoulder. Let Smith assemble his staff and trust that he is surrounding himself with what he needs to be successful. Go Beavs! -Sidd Finch

    • My other source is so much better.

      Sidd was guessing. His last few predictions:

      Heyward a Beav
      Yankton a Beav
      Riley NOT on the staff — this one after my good source said Riley was in the building, and a player’s dad confirmed Riley had a corner office.

      So, he just made me look bad with his bad “inside information”. If he wants to bring that information to some other site, so be it. I think he was a pro-Riley mole.

      • As an outsider it appeared he was trying to extend his 15 minutes of notoriety after being right on the Smith hire. Have Sidd and Brandon Sprague ever been spotted in a room at the same time? Just wondering.

    • Reads like a lot of BS…I don’t agree he fell on a sword or that he has no ego.

      “Riley knows the game, his favorite things are his family, his faith and football.” This is funny because in the SEC, that order is reversed, or as an LSU fan told me “In the south its football, God, country, in that order.” Which explains the fans and vicarious fulfillment they pursue so rabidly every year.

    • I heard him swear once. Once. But, I’m not sure he would admit to it.

      Starting off by telling us he believes Riley doesn’t have any self-awareness or worse, self-honesty? He’s going to have to spend a while rationalizing that.

    • He did not want to leave OSU, but he knew it was the right thing to do for everyone.

      I deny this on a couple levels.

      There are some who thought him resigning from OSU would be the right thing to do. He had clearly lost any edge he had almost a decade before. His insistence about being a comfy job blanket for his friends when they did not deserve to be coaching at OSU was his choice. If he didn’t have the will to do his job for OSU, not his friends, then he clearly was not reading any writing on the wall. The writing clearly stated, “Do your job.”

      Had he simply jettisoned ballast, he would have risen in many minds. He chose another route. And then he got hammered for all the same stuff anyway. That he chose that path tells me that he did not want to stay at OSU. I can buy the NFL. But to put that into perspective, I would hesitate to rehire DE after all this time and how he constantly says good things about OSU no matter where he’s employed.

      The bottom line was that he didn’t want to lie in the bed he’d made. Rather, he wanted to leave. That is clear because leaving was not the right thing to do. Staying and righting the dadgum ship (or at least trying) would have been the right thing to do. It’s not like he would have been out money with the contract restructure. He would only be out of time if he chose poorly.

      • Before Riley took the San Diego job he was negotiating with Barbara Hedges for the job that Neuheisel ended up with. Jonathan Smith’s big coming out party in Seattle in ’98 was his audition.

    • Recruiting and being a genuine, no-ego guy are two different things. I can go for no machismo. But no ego is a detriment to being a leader. You need to have the surety that you can make the right decisions always, the humility to admit when you fail, and the resolve to correct and progress from there.

      Maybe we should apply cussing to this?

      Coaches in football, unlike basketball, treat it like a brotherhood. If a guy is a good coach and has a good reputation, they get offered other jobs.

      Coaching in college football is an old boys’ club. It’s who you know, not what you know. And the only way to break into that club from the outside is to be a good recruiter. So many good leaders are lost to the real world because the old boys’ club controls the entry into the coaching market. This puts a premium on good coaching within a stagnant market, which raises costs. Hoops has too broad a base and does not lose as much money as football does because it costs so much less to facilitate as a sport. In fact, hoops is more than likely profitable for most schools. There are a bunch who have no football team and run their ADs in the black due to hoops. This demands a culture of merit in coaching. Sure, there’s still some old boys’ club bullshit out there. If there wasn’t, schools wouldn’t hire head coaches who were of this certain coaching tree and/or is a great recruiter… only to find out they stepped in it.

      To end, yes. You want some veteran leadership for a young coach. But you also have to have standards. If you don’t have basic best practice management in place, you don’t have any leadership, let alone veteran. As stated above, I would also stew about this if it were DE. But I would be tempted to rationalize everything with a neat deal as you’ve done here. Because time doesn’t allow me to forgive old debts. It helps me forget them.

      I could probably rattle off a good ten veteran coaches who would be better fits than the guaranteed schisms of MR or DE. And I guarantee two or three would have willingly signed on if asked. As it is, we have one who asked us, defining his own role in the process.

      • Jack, I may but heads with you at times but this is spot on. I would be more accepting of DE but I think it’s because he almost took us to a national championship. It almost makes up for the quiting. Almost. Imagine if we hadn’t lost that one game… easily could have changed things so much that we’re not having this conversation about Riley

      • I keep thinking of that assistant football coach in waiting who is out there waiting for his big break but Riley is hogging his position.

    • Why the fuck do “pro-Riley” people want to pretend his three years at Nebraska didn’t exist? I mean this could have been the apex of his head coaching career and he completely fucked it. Isn’t that a record to be judged? What am I missing?

  24. Hoops thoughts

    Mbb – well Vegas doesn’t see them as huge underdogs. Oregon isn’t the same team as the last few years. If the beavs do what they’ve been doing lately, laying off the 3 pointers, they’ll be in the game. Feeling like they’ll pull one out being at home.

    Wbb – another ranked opponent, can the beavs get over the hill this time? Story of the year, self inflicted wounds have held them back. Less than 10 turnovers win the game.

    • The men’s game will just be a war of attrition. Neither of these teams is consistent. We have slowly become a better second half team. But we still have a ways to go.

      The women will likely get stomped. We don’t have an answer for Ionescu.

      • Good thing they have a couple more weeks to preoare for Ionescu. Beating the Bruins tonight would be a step in the right direction ;)

        • Canada’s smooth. But I think we have enough bigs to compensate for both. It’s going to be the back courts that determine this game. Someone besides Pivec needs to step it up.

  25. BASEBALL: This as retweeted by Lundeberg from Ted Cahill,
    “The Division I baseball committee supports proposal to allow four fall games (wouldn’t count to 56 game spring schedule). Will be voted on as soon as April by the oversight committee”

    • Good teams such as osu may not benefit as much. Their best competition is already in the team. I think it’s safe to say that a team made up of all the backups would be better than some pac 12 squads.

      But maybe it can give the young guys some much needed experience.

    • that would be cool. I’d hope that Pat could work up some good home and home series with LSU, Florida, and the like. Corvallis one year, away the next. Scheduled for when the football team is on the road; sometime from the last weekend in September until the third weekend in October would be the ideal window

  26. Am I good at analyzing coaches? I’ve been trying to figure it out myself.

    Riley – Correct
    Taggart — Correct
    Cristobal — Correct so far, and will be correct.

    Shaw — Incorrect
    Andersen — Incorrect

    But, with Alabama doing well, I knew I mentioned Kirby Smart at one point as a great up and comer. I found the post: http://angrybeavs.com/football/10716

    Edit: found another where I elaborated on him and others. http://angrybeavs.com/?s=kirby

    In it, I target Mendenhall and Harsin. Both would have been way better than GA. Even had Tedford as acceptable.

    I feel like I suck at judging coaches, but maybe not. I feel Smith is a good fit, FWIW.

    • you’re better at it than me fwiw. Shaw was a flip of the coin, couldn’t decide what to think about him. Obviously he’s doing something right down there. Everyone thought anderpants was good. He was really good at selling himself. I’m hoping your right with Smith, I don’t know because this is his first rodeo as HC.

        • Meh… he’s got a lifetime gig and decent health… for money that already pays him like he’s a top ten NFL coach.

          I think maybe only the Giants and working for the Mara family might be enticing. Go big or go home.

        • that would help even playing field for Smith. There’s already a downtick in coaching strength at Oregon (nuff said), Utah (Andersen), WSU (Grinch), ASU, and possibly Zona. The one great underappreciated circumstance for the Riley apologists is (other than Pete) the low caliber of coaching in the conference until, Chip, Sark, Rich Rod, Harbaugh, etc. showed up, at which time Riley’s W/L plummeted. Maybe JS can benefit in the opposite regard.

          • Chip and Peterson are the only scary coaches in conference.
            I expect some PAC regression. Hopefully Smith can cash in on it. All it will take is finding a QB and then the expected/natural development of other positions.

            Firing Rich Rod and hiring Herm were laughable moves that will set AZ schools back 5 years.

    • Kirby Smart was a no-brainer. So is Brent Venables… whose season is done… so he can sincerely take interviews for a head job.

      Gotta appreciate that kind of person when they come along.

      I wonder who might have a job opening right now. Venables would be a good fit.

  27. Jack says:
    DECEMBER 9, 2014 AT 4:40 PM
    Rating: +3 (from 3 votes)
    Ha ha!

    We win!

    In three years when NU and we are looking for new head coaches… we still win!

  28. BWB’s have given up 13pts off of TO’s with 3+min left in half, down by 9.

    ADD/EDIT: At the half 19 down and, surprise, 19 pts given up on TO’s.
    As much as I hate reliance on 3’s, their gonna need several to prevent a blowout.

  29. Dang you, Jack! This is not a neat deal! Gals down 69-31 going to the 4th qtr.
    Nine years now and Rueck still lookin’ for his second win at Pauley.

      • Yeah, the soft pre-season catches up. This blow out shows they’re likely not going to be in the hunt for another PAC-12 title this season. I would expect them to be in the mix for forth or fifth place. Rueck has got to figure out how to cut the TO’s. Pivec at PG doesn’t seem to be it, She had 6 TO’s tonight. I think USC is probably going to give them a spanking too.

    • Sorry.

      You all underestimated Syd.

      She was awesome.

      I could make the big talk some of you make for Scotty if I ignored the talent not got and on hand.

      Scotty + Syd = Awesome

      Scotty + team – Syd = decent

      Recruiting schtick = known

      If this team has Pivec, Westbrook and Ionescu, we win multiple championships.

      None of them will win any.

  30. Nice job by MBB tonight. Hard to believe these are the same guys… it really looks like a different team. Not saying they’re great or even a tournament team but the improvement is evident.

  31. The good: beavs won handily. Defense is much improved. Took the offense right to the ducks defense.
    The bad: had trouble breaking the press at times. Resulting in easy buckets for the ducks.
    The ugly: free throw shooting. Could have won by 20 had they converted a few 1 and 1s.

    We’ll see how this translates to the road. Toughest test of the season next week.

    • The Beavers are going to be decent at home and will likely win the majority of their games at Gill. But can they do something on the road? That definitely remains to be seen.

      • PAC 12 is looking fairly weak this year. Maybe 3-4 teams in the tourney.

        If the Beavs defense travels with them, they’ll have a shot at the upper half of the conference.

        • They didn’t so much play D as much as they got lucky to play a team that can’t hit open jumpers on the road.

          Watching Stevie on D last night, he’s incorporated cherry picking into his Miss America D. The only time he doesn’t is when his “assignment” is at the top of the key, and he gets caught wandering around the blocks.

          • Noticed Stevie cherry picking all of the 2nd half in the Colorado game, which is when we started to run away with that game. Opponents will catch on soon enough

          • I saw it then too. But I’m fine with it in a blowout.

            A two or three possession game, however, is not the time to wave politely at your man then run up court.

          • He had one in the second half when we were leading by four. He faked a ball check from ten feet away, and took off as the wide open trey went up.

            The shot bricked then bounced in the gap where he should have been if was playing D. The shooter looked surprised that the ball came back to him after he was flat-footed and watching his shot.

    • Starters won’t be able to log those types of minutes consistently during the 2 game weekends. Drew and Tres played all but 2 minutes. STJ played 37.
      Fatigue will set in for game 2 of most weekend series. Berger was a nice addition this year to give guys a spell, and they need Gligorije back to give Drew a breather. Hopefully the young guys can build up some confidence and show they can run the team for longer periods to give the top 3 guys more time to sit, so they’re fresh for the last 5 minutes of games.

        • I got a hunch he’s done for the year… Def could use him

          Anyone else feel Hollins might just be better than Ethan right now?…Looking at stats on Kenpom that seems more reasonable than the casual fan may think

          • Hollins definitely crashes the boards! Nice to see, but I’m not sure he’s ready to replace ET yet.

            In the post-game Tinks mentioned that ET hasn’t felt very well the past few days. I’m of the wait-and-see opinion.

            That said, Hollins is a valuable asset for the team and deserves his minutes. I feel the same about Kone’.

          • No… the ET v. Hollins comment.

            They’re two different positions that can’t be compared. You would do better to compare Hollins to Mitchell Butler than you would to ET.

          • Too hesitant. He could be so due to experience for now. But ET has a calm about him that Manuel doesn’t. Manuel can come off the bench and contribute some games as a star. He did pretty well on Friday.

            I would entertain Manuel replacing Stevie. His non-D D makes me angry on almost every trip down the floor.

          • Yeah people can blow by Stevie easily…Hopefully Ethan’s 3pt% variance can come around and we find out he’s a better shooter than we’re seeing so far

            Let’s pray for a road split… somehow?

    • I believe our 2006 D was one of the best in conference play.

      That satisfies that low bar. It’s not like he said they were one of the best for his whole tenure.

  32. Will the changes in coaches throughout the conference make a quicker turnaround possible for JS?

    UA, ASU, UO, UCLA, OSU all new head coaches.
    UW, CU, WSU, Stanford each replacing an OC or DC

    Utah adds GA, lol, Cal , and USC so far are the only staffs to remain intact.

    Is this a good thing for JS? Do you guys have any thoughts about it?

    • The coaching change at OSU is +4 games for us. We have a lot of good talent starving to be coached properly. D-line play/depth will probably dictate any more wins.

  33. Well, the refs just gifted Florida a chance at the win with a phantom foul. And Florida took advantage of it with a great play.

    Watching Xavier at Providence was a little depressing. There was D everywhere, and players were beating those Ds.

  34. I guess 5* bigs for UA are going to get the NBA treatment on steps this year.

    My guess is that the FBI files on them will warrant them getting off, because bribes were available to all the students if they would have asked.

  35. We must remember that all teams are equal but some teams are more equal than others. Whether it is sub-conconsious favoritism or blatant favoritism by refs, blue-bloods get the calls as each game winds down.
    If a euro-step isn’t travelling, high dribble palming is no longer a carry then who can tell which “rule” actually applies now. For some reason any freshman setting a pick is called for a “moving pick”. Easy way for the refs to swing momentum on cue. I am suspicious of the new emphasis on such a subjective area when other obvious calls like palming, travelling aren’t even called. Watching colleg football during the fall is maddening enough, then I begin to watch the horrendous slant of reffing in college basketball, and remember why i was so annoyed by basketball last spring.

    Were there ever the good old days of good true amateur competitiveness without the taint of referees/influence/ESPN/big money?

  36. I think Manu travels everytime he goes into the lane. It seems to me the euro step has become the three step, and the labelling then is conflated. My mistake on the name of it. All I see on NBA is 3-4 steps, and it filters into NCAA/High School to the point that refs must decide that it isn’t possible to call it eveytime because the games would have no flow.

    • Yeah… sorry.

      NBA treatment=3 or more (sometimes many more) steps.

      If it bleeds into the college game, I’ll have to start watching more college hockey. Players who break the rules don’t deserve to retain their flow. The rules are what everyone plays by. Ditching them for one guy gives him an unfair flow that nobody else is allowed to have. And you can’t just tell these players who have spent their lives training certain muscle memory habits to just go ahead and take three steps, since it’s now an impotent rule. That screws with flow more than just the simple lousy officiating.

  37. Anybody watching the Rams/Falcons? I’ve liked the Rams turnaround and hope they’ll win today, despite Atlanta having an OSU favorite Terron Ward on the roster. Hekker representing the Beavs, and from what I’ve read EWU’s Cooper Kuup(sp?) has had a pretty impressive season for the Rams.

    Matt Ryan had a down year, 20:12 WR Julio Jones with only 3(?) TDs.

    Also read Gruden’s going to get $100M for 10 years from Oakland…and he’s not even playing QB. I think he played his cards well; staying out of the game for years and appearing disinterested, I think driving up demand, particularly for a franchise longing to return to glory. It will be mildly interesting to see if he gets them to the SB and how long he sticks around.

    • Friend on rivals board tells me this post was essentially posted by the rivals site owner minutes after i posted it, here. Happens alot apparently. Guess he is an avid angrybeaver reader.
      FYI, Smith offered him.

      • Sounds like we still will get Hall. Got some reassurance on that.
        So maybe Jones is a backup plan for crocker. Also, Hunt is visiting soon. Lots of WR options.

        Expecting several new offers/visits to report tomorrow for some other positions

        • Based on offers on recruiting sites I estimated that we only have a chance to get at tops 15 of them. With there being probably at least 13 spots to fill and it being virtually impossible to get 13 of the 15 there have to be new offers to fill the class. They might need to settle a little bit to fill the class.

          It looks like the second signing class will be good and bad. The good being we probably will sign the best talents of the class by far. The bad being there will probably be some in the class that leave us wondering whether they belong at this level.

  38. Didn’t know Matt Bryant Falcons kicker was ex-Beav at one time.
    Transfer to Baylor. Dude is 42 and was money in beating my Rams yesterday.

  39. WBB up 35-20 with about 5 minutes left in the second. More impressive is that they’re doing it without Gulich who went to the bench with the game tied at 6 with 2 fouls.

  40. Rueck’s teams have handled the full court press badly and been turnover prone as long as I can remember. In recent years they’ve had the experience and quality on offense and defense to make up for that flaw. This year they don’t.

    The way I see it, Scott now has an opportunity to fix up a problem he’s had as a coach for years.

  41. Lost by 4. OSU ended up with 27 TO’s for the game. Lots of extra possessions for USC and they took advantage of it. Pivec’s out of position at PG and is struggling to handle pressure on the ball. What happened to Tudor? Goes for 27 at home, then gets one field goal in two games on the LA trip.The guards have got to find some game besides spotting up on the 3 pt. line. Rueck needs to find another Jamie Weisner! Oh well, USC was favored so not too much of a surprise overall.

    • Didn’t know SC was favored, weren’t they picked at, or near, the bottom in pre-season poll?
      At any rate, first back to back losses for Beavs since 2014, so this loss WAS a surprise to many (me included).

      • You’re not going to beat the,worst team in the conference with 27 turnovers let alone beat a solid USC team. Rueck needs to put katie at point guard an allow pivec to do her thing as the off guard. Right now, pivec is a turnover machine……

        • No you’re not. I also think he needs to move Pivec off the point. It was an experiment worth trying but it’s not working, at least in conference. Rueck needs to get his male practice players to press and double the shit out of these gals in practice so they learn how to handle it. If he’s doing it now he needs to figure out why they aren’t learning. If I was the Arizona school coaches I’d work on full court press and traps all week and make OSU demonstrate that it doesn’t work.

          • My amateur take…….but don’t you have to be willing to push the ball up court as much as it takes to make the opponent pay if they are going to full court press you for a good percentage of the game? I hate to see players pull the ball back when there are opportunities because the coach wants to “run the offense”. You also need a team that has the fitness and the depth to run when the game dictates.

            I know there was some mention about about Stevie Jr. cherry-picking, but I like that for now. A team is supposed to get cheap baskets against pressure and double-teams. Great teams can handle pressure. It’s the women’s teams achilles and you know Rueck realizes it, but does he have the personnel to do anything about it? Tinkle understands it also, but he sort of lucks out by having his son out there who can handle the ball and it seems to be addition by subtraction with Jaquori leaving.

  42. I saw that all students under the age of 25 at OSU are being required to get the Meningitis B vaccine (involves 2 separate injections to be completed by Feb 15th)
    Those who don’t comply will have their academics put on hold.(No final winter term grades given and Spring term registration will be locked until vaccinated)

    Nations best college town with a life threatening disease lingering around campus?

  43. Just an FYI Jensen Huang and his wife donated 2.5 million to the engineering school years ago.

    These people aren’t dumb. They give to the academic side where results can be seen.

  44. The NCAA championship is being played in the Mercedes Benz dome”…how many of Alabama and/or Georgia starters appreciate the irony?

  45. Its a fine game. People need to learn to appreciate quality defense. That said, the minute the Bama RB yelled Fuck Trump I was a Bama fan for the night so Rolltide!!!!

        • Oh… you can take your squealing “anti-American” bullshit and stick it back in your mealy little puppet mouth.

          Fuck Dumbshit Donald. His legacy will be one of the stupidest moments in American history.

      • Bullshit, there is nothing more American than criticizing the POTUS. You apparently want to live in a dictatorship where criticism isn’t allowed. That is un-American. You might want to look into what is and isn’t American because you couldn’t be more wrong.

        • Didn’t you know that this is now a patriotocracy? We have a patriotocrat in charge.

          Oh… and god bless… yes… god… very much… god bless everyone… and god too.

  46. Nice to know that the name of the university matters more in getting into the playoffs than what was actually done on the field.

    It’s what America was founded on, after all.

    On the bright side, Oregon picked the wrong QB from Hawaii to recruit, apparently.

    • They wouldn’t able to register him before all the Bama fans would string him up to a tree in the center of campus and lynch him.

  47. I hope Smith can get us a QB. Unless Willard has developed we’re years away from even having one.

    Watching bowl games was depressing. We are so bad in comparison. It’s like we play a different sport.

  48. Must be nice to be the Huskies. Just signed 2 4* QBs (Jacob Sirmon and Colson Yankoff) in tue 2018 class, and now 5* QB Matt Eason is transferring back home from Georgia.
    It’s too bad we couldnt convince Yankoff to come here, where there is no logjam in sight.

    • he might end up at UW, but he has to sit a year before he can play. The story I saw said his destination was the Pac 12 North and OSU and Cal were mentioned along with UW.

    • Its so odd to me that players sign on at schools with massive logjams like that. I know most kids just assume they will win the competition to be a starter or at least aren’t afraid to compete for the job but its still odd to me. If I were a 4 or 5 star kid the last place I would go is a school that has a logjam at my position unless it was clear I was better than all of them. Its so odd to me. At least 2 of these kids (I’m including their 2019 commit Dylan Morris in that group) will end up transferring or never playing beyond mop up duty at UW.

  49. Bama’s freshman QB who played the second half had the fastest release… and the ball was beautifully thrown spirals. That kid has Heisman written all over him.

        • Jones threw a bunch of jump balls/ 50/50 balls that the Buckeye WR’s came down with.
          This kid threw into tight windows and hit is receivers in stride. The Jalen Hurts era ended last night.
          He looked great throwing and he can run. The Bama train will keep rolling exit year.

          • The Bama train ran with Jalen Hurts. Why would you be surprised when someone without a scouting report and with fresh legs comes in and dominates or a short period?

            If he’s good or better, so what? It’s Bama, where doing nothing all year is celebrated with playing time in the second half of a bogus championship game.

            And why is Saban smart for going to him so late in the season if he’s that much better? Isn’t he dumb for not doing so earlier… like when they lost the one big game they played during the season?

          • The fun part is that kid was a Mariota fan/disciple and was waiting for his UO offer that Helf never gave.

            Already saw hole fan say “it doesn’t matter, he’d be on the bench behind Herbert”. Knew it was coming.

          • Lat three, I believe.

            Same difference.

            QB with no scouting report and fresh legs drives an already moving train home. Everyone crowns him the greatest player ever. Life goes on.

          • OK, well it doesn’t really matter but…
            “After entering the 2014 season as a redshirt sophomore, third on the Buckeyes’ depth chart, Jones made his first start of his college career in the Big Ten Championship Game in place of J. T. Barrett, who had been injured the prior week versus Michigan. Jones led the #6 (AP) ranked Buckeyes squad to a 59–0 victory over the #11 ranked Wisconsin Badgers, on the eve of the NCAA football committee’s inaugural playoff selection.[21] Jones was named MVP of the game.”

            Not ready to anoint him supreme leader. Fact remains the kid last night showed a lot of poise.

          • Wow.

            Tough place to be inserted and do well.

            So he looked good. He obviously didn’t look better than the starter, or he would have been the starter.

            Dumb coach.

          • Which coach? The Wisky coach who went 10-3 that season but had the 91st most difficult season in 126 and thinks dual-threat qbs are difficult to defend?

  50. How is BYU getting a visit from possibly the top uncommitted QB in the country? Especially after they just signed Zach Wilson?

    https://247sports.com/player/tanner-mckee-80173

    Most people seem to think Stanford is the favorite to land him, but he was recruited by UW/Jonathan Smith and did visit UW earlier in the year.
    Not saying there’s any chance we land him, but you’d think if Smith is the elite QB recruiter that Andrew Nemec claims he is, that we’d at least get a look.
    (or maybe it wasn’t Smith who was getting those QBs to visit UW after all….)

    • shoot, i tuned in too late and only caught the final 30 seconds or so. Heard him say we’ll have a 3-4 front and that Smith will announce the final 2 coaches when he’s ready(Tibesar didn’t want to speak about that topic before Smith did)
      Parker and Warren sounded like they had giant erections at the end of the interview. Not sure if that’s a good or a bad thing with those guys, though.

      • Outline summary, may not be complete:
        -Well spoken, had no hesitancy to say that FUNDAMENTALS are more important than scheme and immediately put forth his Four Areas of Emphasis, in order:
        1) Pursuit (hustle does not require talent)
        2) Block destruction (Strike, Shed, Separate)
        3)Tackling (we have a tackling plan to simulate in drills)
        4) Take aways (his Purdue team led the Big10, mentioned not only ints and fumble recoveries, but also force punts).

        “I work for the players”…..to help them achieve things they could not w/o my teaching

        Says he has told the team, “You will always have things to learn until you finish playing the game”

        EDIT/ADD: Here is the link to today’s program, TT interview begins at 1:24
        https://beaver.hypothetical.net/audio/joe-beaver-show_2367_20180109.mp3

        “Everybody has the same amount of practice time, you get what you emphasize…” Hmmm, no mention of slip-n-slide.

        • I like the emphasis on fundamentals. “We want to be the best pursuing defense in the country….block destruction, destroy blockers….tackling(!)…”we have a tackle plan, we’ll train them on how to tackle….drill it, make it muscle memory….takeaways, ultimately our job to take the ball away…” sounds like the spring and fall will challenge the OSU roster. If they follow through on this, I’ll actually watch games.

          He just sounds so much more coherent and intelligent than Riley and Banker (no surprise) and much more specific then Andersen.

          Says they’re going to give all the players a fresh start and not judge them too much on 2017 film. Who has the best chance for a reset there? Who will take advantage of it?

          Says they’ll run a 3-4 style similar to Pittsburgh Steelers.

          • Hmm, who has the best chance for a reset? Who is the player with the most potential, yet didn’t live up to that? Or the player who had shown flashes prior to last year then the implosion happened?

            On offense I’d say that was Nall, he quit, and it’s no contest. But he won’t be here and I think you meant on defense anyway.

            On defense I really liked Kee, #37 is long, athletic, has a motor, aggressive, not a quitter. I thought Bright was poised to have a big year, and he fell flat. Maybe he had a man crush on McM like Nall, maybe it was the Harvey thing, he was up and down, dude that should have seen a big uptick, maybe this year? Wallace?

            If they plan to run a 3-4 who is in their plan for NT? Is there a big space eater on the roster? And I don’t mean Sumner’s melon.

  51. He said he would be running a 3 x 4 base and the Bray would coach inside backers and he would coach outside backers. DB coach sounds like it has been determined, but he didn’t want to announce it.

    • I used to work for them. Their application review will not be finished for another ~30ish months.

      The company has communication flaws, but the design is so stupidly simple it’d be hard for it not to pass the review.

    • Plus the NRC’s inflexibility towards newer technologies a big reason why the budget has ballooned and deadlines have not been met. Wonder why TerraPower refuses to build their traveling wave reactor in the US?

      • Between mostly industry plants aggressively supporting their past and future jobs, unfunded mandates, Yucca Mountain and losing funding, I’m surprised they can do anything.

        • It’s really a shame. We (the United States) did all of the heavy lifting with regards to developing the technology, just to piss it away. In 20 years, I think almost all patents related to light-water technology will be owned by foreign governments because no American company wants to invest in it. That’s a big issue, considering the Chinese and many European countries own most of the patents related to renewables. We also can’t put more dams in because most of the capacity is already met.

          • When government gives up research for established industry interests, It sacrifices safety and security (and, frankly, industry’s future) to emergent tech. This is why I’m where I am on R&D and funding education.

            John Galt can go fuck a hole made of his imaginary silly-putty-based crap idea that wouldn’t even fly in the religious texts.

            Short-term thinking is short-term.

    • I’m no expert here, but that’s pretty interesting. I’m a big fan of passive safety systems. Also from my understanding a lot of research in reactor technology was abandoned (or terminated) because it had no benefit to the production of nuclear weapons. We still have a lot to learn in this area.

      • I think everyone in the industry is jumping on passive safety systems, although Westinghouse (under new leadership) appears to be abandoning the AP1000 design.

        Indeed you are correct with regards to abandoned technology. There are two isotopes of uranium and one isotope of plutonium that can be used to create fissile (spontaneously disintegrating) material. U-235 is fissile in itself, but is extremely rare in nature and requires enrichment (this is what is normally used in bombs and most commercial reactors). U-238 must be converted to plutonium-239, but Pu-239 is releases much more energy per fission than U-235 and hence was pursued by the military and DOE. The last one, U-233, must be bred from thorium-232, a very common isotope that can be found in certain sands. Although natural uranium prices are low because of low demand, acquiring U233 through the transmutation of Th-232 is very desirable right now because of the safety features included in the process, such as material stabilization, high melting temperature, and nonproliferation reasons.

        However, the US does not have extensive data libraries pertaining to the nuclear characteristics of Th-232, relative to those libraries for U-235, Pu-239, and U-238. The Indians are the ones who are heavily investing in the technology, and their designs show the most promise for commercial application.

  52. “Confirmed: WSU has hired Tracy Claeys as defensive coordinator”
    Per Stephani Loh and the Seattle Times

    From the Grinch to the ???………gotta be a line in there somewhere.

  53. The momentum of the game last night changed on two bad calls in the third quarter. Is the fix in? The Georgia blocked punt and a face mask. I never blame the reffs but Georgia wins that game without those missed calls.

    • Or maybe if they don’t forget how to tackle in the fourth….

      I too thought there were some bad calls, including no calls on Alabama hitting/shoving late after the ball was gone or the play over (roughing, unsportsmanlike that could have sustained drive) but there was also some stupid, cutesy, qb-shift-out-to-receiver-rb-take-the-snap series that seemed a little desperate and ineffective.

      Also, on the winning TD pass, was the CB expecting safety help? They didn’t replay that pass, but when I watched a highlight later it looked like maybe he was ready for a sideline route than releasing the receiver and expecting safety help? If that’s not the case, he was just very poor in coverage because the receiver had plenty of separation.

      • Cover 2, corner played it exactly as coached, well, should have jammed the receiver off the line and then push him inside towards his safety help, help that was late to the party…..That throw was next level though. Outside the numbers throw, in stride, and im more impressed with how he looked that safety off.

        IMHO, thats what is the difference between an average QB and an elite gunslinger. The ability to identify coverage POST snap (since everyone disguises or rolls to coverage) and the reaction time to interpret what you are seeing. Tua said it himself, he saw cover 2, knew the play called would put one defender in crisis (people are saying it was 4 verts, but i would assume the inside receiver probably would have bent his route inside to put pressure on the same safety that blew it.) I wish someday we have a QB like that. :(

        Terrific play call, and terrific execution….Oh and it helps to have an offensive line that can protect so you can actually go through progressions or be able to look off safeties.

        • That’s why you have pre-snap reads and contingencies. You can boil it down to which direction one layer moves on the snap to figure out where the holes are going to be. It’s why you see errant passes to nothing when the receiver reads wrong… and a QB who wants to talk to said receiver.

  54. There’s at least one 4* WR(possibly 2 actually) who will visit this weekend. I dont have permission yet to name names, but you can probably guess one of them.

  55. I mentioned Brock Purdy is the likely next QB target for OSU in the 2018 class in here last night and now all 3 of our local recruiting reporters are suddenly following Brock.
    Must be avid angrybeavers…..

  56. Nicebeaver, love the recruiting info, much appreciated! Any word on any lineman outside of Joshua Gray, and Ronald Audette who will be visiting?

    Noticed Victor Terry III decommitted from Wazzu today. OLB from LA. Had a visit in September I believe, and was teammates with recent signee Francois.

    • Gray and Audette are the only 2 offensive linemen I know of who are confirmed to be visiting. (I’m not 100% sure which side they like Audette for, but since he’s a Tibesar recruit, he could very well be on defense.
      For OL, I dont see a big need in this class given how many guys we have on the roster and several who redshirted last year.
      For DL, there are a couple of JC guys remaining who i think will end up visiting, but i dont have any certainty on those yet so i wont name names yet.
      The position I think we’ll see several new offers/visits for is OLB.
      There seems to be an emphasis on finding those OLB/DE hybrid types.
      One is that Rice commit, Brockermeyer, but there are several other guys who are being evaluated currently. Guys like Semisi Saloony, Casey Rogers(who i think has other interest), Robert Jordan, Alexandre Dumais…..there are too many to list.

      I think I mentioned before, but if I didnt, WR Nikia jones out of Oklahoma will visit this month as well.

      Terry has actually been decomitted for about a month, but for some reason just went public today. He would make a nice OLB to fill one of those spots, but I dont know which teams he”s currently considering.

  57. Any word if Smith is going to have open practices?

    I miss the Riley days of having full fan reports of how awesome our team looked in Fall Camp, only to watch them fall flat in the first 5 games.

    It was much better than Andrepants’ closed practices where we had no idea about the team in Fall Camp and got to watch them fall flat in the first 12 games.

    • Don’t think there is any team that has open practices anymore. Would expect short portions of practice to be open during the season.

      Prob get some full open ones during camp and spring

    • Smith’s handling of policy issues will be worth watching; open vs closed practices, firm rules on who is allowed to speak with the press, subtle uniform changes**, organized team activities outside of FB.

      Things like that will be indicators of the culture he wants to establish.

      **Thinking beaver tooth helmet decals for outstanding play, elimination of players names on jerseys, etc. Just, please, spare me the “turnover (saw)chain”!

  58. FWIW, this from the Scoop:
    “We alluded to this last night and are continuing to hear today that Rick Neuheisel is very much in play for the Arizona head job. Stay tuned…”

  59. Tracy Claeys to Wazzu……
    Appearances aside, Leach has hired a very fine coach as his new DC. Not cut out to be a HC, but a smart guy with a math degree. Very good X and O’s coach who was the main reason for Jerry Kill’s multiple successful rebuilds of morbid CFB programs.
    Pros:
    Excellent at halftime adjustments.
    Adapts to players strengths and not tied to a specific system. Started copying Aranda’s system and worked in some 3-4 packages to complement the 4-3 base.
    Good at identifying talent and putting the guys in the right positions.
    Good at teaching fundamentals.
    Cons:
    Not a great recruiter.
    Major health risk. He is morbidly obese.
    Not sure how he will get along with the sarcastic Leach.
    First rodeo without his former DB coach who was fantastic. Now DC at Wake Forest.

    Job Interview was shutting down Leach in the Holiday Bowl in 2016 with five DB’s suspended. It was a masterful game plan that was executed to perfection. He is a very good coach who covered up for the dreadful offenses and QB’s that Kill rolled out. A country bumpkin that is an excellent football technician. Sorry to see him end up at a PAC rival.

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