I received this response on the old blog, and thought I would post it here since the old site does not get much action anymore. This is from ex-Beaver Nick Westerberg on Ryan Allen:
GREETINGS BEAVERS
my name is Nick Westerberg and i am Ryan Allens uncle.
i was a 3 year starter for the BEAV'S a long time ago when we were terrible. i still love my school but i am not happy with the coaching staff or the program at all.
Ryan is a great kid and a terrific punter but for some unknown reason Mike Riley would not give him a chance. i believe that he liked the idea of having a backup quarterback at the punting position. whatever his reasoning he never gave Ryan an opportunity to show what he could do.
Last year i received a phone call from Ryan to come to Corvallis to help him tell coach Riley that he wanted to transfer because he needed the financial aid that a scholarship would provide. I was so angy at coach Riley and his staff that as an ex-BEAVER captain i could not even stay and watch the game that weekend.
we took Ryan to CHRIS SAILORS punting and kicking combine camp in JANURARY and the #1 available punter coming out of that camp was RYAN ALLEN!!!!
everyone was asking what was wrong with the OSU coaches that they would not use and keep a talented punter like RYAN?
Needless to say he received many offers but was given a full scholarship for 3 years to LA TECH in Ruston LA and is very happy there.
My whole family are a bunch of BEAVERS but we are so disappointed in how RYAN was treated that we are have a bitter taste for the school that we all love. we dealt with the AD , ADMISSIONS and the FOOTBALL STAFF and it was a very frustrating and difficult process just to get RYAN transferred.
I love my OSU school but i am very frustrated with the FB PROGRAM."HEART BROKEN BEAVER"
NW
The original can be read here:
http://angrybeavers.wordpress.
Nick, I saw Ryan ranked as the #4 punter on several sites, but never #1. The thing is, I didn’t have to look at those sites; I saw him in person several times and wow. I’ve been on Riley ever since.
The only reason I could think of that Hekker would start is that he could throw and possibly execute punt fakes, but we haven’t seen that play since 2006 with Loomis/Stroughter, so that theory is out the window.
Didn’t Hekker hit Mitchell with a short pass instead of *cough* attempting to punt again in the bowl game?
Fun fact: Hekker’s longest career kick (64 yds) was in the Vegas bowl… a game in which he kicked 4 times for 104 yds and the opposition kicked 4 times for 150 yds–two against the wind if I recall correctly.
I wonder why BYU doesn’t add Riley Stephenson to the Ray Guy watch list. But what would the BYU coach know about a frosh punter who averaged 41.3 yds/punt? He’s just some former Oregon State football player.
That would be pathetic.
“Didn’t Hekker hit Mitchell with a short pass instead of *cough* attempting to punt again in the bowl game?”
I turned that game off in the first quarter once I realized the Beavers didn’t care about being there. Damn, I missed a fake punt?
Yeah… in the third quarter we were into the wind and it was something like 4th and 6 to go. Hekker pulled it down and tossed a two yard strike to a falling Lance Mitchell.
It was a sight to behold.
Then BYU took the ball and put it in the end zone.
I think we had at least three turnovers on downs during the game… two in a row there in the third quarter.
angry
if you go back to the Chris Sailor Jan. camp the posting from the that camp had Ryan as the #1 available coming out of that group. I am not saying he was the best in the US but that particular group.
because you actually watched him then you know our frustration with the BEAV coaching staff. i believe that bruce reed and the rest of the staff are just yes men for you know who? they dont really have any say in who gets to play! that belongs to the million dollar man sittin at the top.
lets face it! NCAA college football has become big business and these head coaches are like C.E.O’s in large corp’s. Mike Riley is going to make decisions not for the kids but the business of OSU FOOTBALL and try and find a way to keep his job. Mr Hekker is a great kid and athlete but not as good a punter as #37 was!!!
I hope you realize that i still love my school but i would like to get our head coach in the good old BEAVER DRILL for a snap or two!! lol..lol..
thanks
nw
No problem. Realize a lot of us here liked Allen better.
This is the place you can let out frustration. You could probably share a lot of good stories that people would find interesting, as well, so I hope you stick around, but if not this was still some fascinating insight, so thanks.
LO freakin L
This is the most pathetic thing I have EVER read. WOW….this sounds like the parent of the kid in high school who just wasn’t good enough to make the team and got cut.
Get over it and move on. Your kid wasn’t good enough!
Which punter is on the watch list for the best punter in the country again? Which punter won a MVP award in a bowl game? Hint…not Ryan Allen
Go away.
Yeah… someone who played DE at OSU and in the NFL has no idea what it takes to make a football team. If only he had a child of his own who tried to make it in collegiate sports, then he might know what it takes.
I mean, it’s not as if he has a daughter who was the first Sun Devil to be all conference for three years as well as an All-American HM and an all league academic.
Just pathetic.
Next you’re going to tell me something silly like Nick’s brother played for Ralph Miller, and that he knows Steve Coury and Jay Locey personally as former teammates.
Go ahead, tell me. And I will continue to display my total ignorance of and disdain for Oregon State athletics.
Actually, I think Locey was a GA at the time, but I wouldn’t know that since AntiBeav and I really hate the Beavs.
What I find more pathetic about this, is that Ryan wasn’t even man enough to tell Riley he wanted to transfer. He needed his uncle Nicky to come do it for him?
“#1 family atmosphere”
“antibeav”
lol
wow that is interesting, and sad. riley passed up a good opportunity with this kid
Yeah…it’s one thing if the better punter was backing up a productive and proven punter…but c’mon. Hekker is terrible. I’d like to see the criteria that he met to put him on ANY watch list.
Consitent? No.
Can punt deep? No.
Can punt with accuracy? No.
Can punt in the wind? No.
The only reason he has so many “inside the 20” punts is that the beavs had so many drives stall mid-field. He couldn’t have reached the end zone with a tail wind.
*ding ding ding*, we have a winner.
I wonder how much say Bruce Read had in this (was he the ST coach then?).
Seems a guy who’s responsibility it is to have the best Special Teams possible would have fought for the ‘better’ kicker. I know Riley is the boss, but seems someone else may have ‘shanked’ this one as well?
This is a lot of whining by a family member. Yeah your nephew didn’t get a shot, and maybe it was a bad move by Riley. But writing off the program seems extreme.
Maybe the OSU staff blew it on this personnel decision, but internalize those complaints. Sounds like the kid has a good situation at LA Tech.
This is an apologist attitude and fairly ridiculous. Put yourself in this guy’s shoes. If you can’t understand why he’d be disenchanted it’s a you problem.
Ryan had an uncle that played Football, but also an uncle that played Basketball for the Beavs? His sister plays basketball for ASU? He’s from Salem, and not Washington. Probably had the Beavs in his sights for years.
Did Hekker come in as a QB? Did Riley move him to punter because he wasn’t going to sniff the field at QB with Lyle and Sean there? Just wondering as maybe Riley felt like he owed him after the move? Can’t shut him down after requesting a move to Punter can you…after shutting him down at QB? Just wondering.
Hekker was recruited as a punter. I believe Riley went up to WA to see him (as a QB) and liked him better as a punter (I believe he punted for his HS team?). This is when the whole Loomis/Serna debacle was taking place in 2007. That’s how I remember it. Correct me if I’m wrong.
Ryan’s cousin (Nick’s daughter) played hoops for ASU, and she was damn good.
Ryan played with the Jordans (Bishop and Jenkins). Jenkins was a really good downhill runner at West Salem.
I’m beginning to suspect that the in-state boys are being underrated by our own staff. We passed on James Euscher, and I get the feeling we’re going to do the same to Hayden Plinke, Michael Balfour, Danny Granillo and Matthew Devereux.
Not that we haven’t had some good ones. We have. And I don’t know if they would have come to OSU. But you look at Riley (Cal), Moore (BSU), Pinkerton (ex-WSU), Suh (Nebraska), Nanee (BSU)…now I’m getting a bit nostalgic…but there has been plenty that have done great things at other schools, and would have been nice to see stay home. That’s what makes it even tougher to swallow with Allen. Good ones that want to be a Beav. Nebraska had some good walk-ons that contributed and starred, because they were Huskers since they were kids. We need those kids too.
Don’t get me started with hoops…I’m sure you know better than I Jack…
You bring up a good question/point: how much success other programs have had with walk-ons. I don’t follow other programs close enough for an answer. Do the Huskers have fewer/more successful walk-ons than the Beavs? Are the Beavs truly an aberration like fans like to portray?
Nebraska has a fine tradition of walk-on athletes dating way back. Osborne would promise them a scholarship if they would promise him hard work and improvement. And he told them precisely where he wanted them to improve. It made for a semi-tradition of giving two or three scholarships to the walk-ons every year.
I don’t know how much that’s changed with new limits and coaching changes over the years, but it worked for some spirited practice squad play… and drawing a couple kids that would have gone elsewhere on scholarship.
I’m not talking the highly rated kids either. Oregon is one of the more poorly scouted states in the country. Washington suffers a little in the SE of the state, but their population centers are scouted pretty well. The vast expanses between rural areas doesn’t lend itself to any real ‘legend’ making like it does in eastern states where each town is 10-15 miles from the next and news spreads like wildfire.
It doesn’t help that UO recruits nationally. That sends the message to scouts that home-grown talent is insufficient for them. Well, it isn’t. They try to pick off the premier players in-state rather than looking at developing talent on their own. But they have very real weaknesses in personnel which might not have been the case had they plugged holes with local talent. Those three star kids in the South get so many looks that any improvement in their game gets them to the three star level. I can point to a good dozen kids in our area (Western Oregon) who should be added to the three star category. Some end up at Portland State and never develop to their fullest potential. Some choose to walk on and get a scholarship after one year at a D-I school. Some get their scholarship after three years, and then they start or contribute a lot. That tells me that every senior who is behind the former walk-on was a wasted scholarship offer who was more highly rated for reasons other than skill.
Keep in mind that I believe attitude, intelligence and effort should all be factors in a rating as well as current skill. I’m one who thinks they might mean a little more in the end.
I have been saying since the spring that Jenkins is going to impress. I think he is going to be a great back-up guy and should be ahead of McCants. He has a great can do attitude also.
I’m waiting for someone to chime in on the ‘Why do you hate’ comments.
I guess it should be noted now that Hekker is likely a fine young man. We’re only discussing his game and practice play as compared to other NCAA punters here.
And anyone who looks at the criteria for the Ray Guy watch list shouldn’t really be that impressed. It most likely means that their coaches were just the first ones to send in the nomination paperwork. The list should expand quite a bit in the next couple days.
I’d love for Hekker to become a consistent kicker. I just haven’t seen much that tells me that will be so.
I’ve thought about it a bit, and I think the message is missed by some readers. Riley has the right to make personnel decisions, good or bad.
What should anger everyone is that there was no competition for a position. If Hekker is truly better in a game situation as some would suggest, I want to see the proof. He wasn’t the best in practice, so what happened to the spirit of competition?
Coaches always have to make hard decisions, but those decisions should be based on something concrete. This one sounds like a stubborn loyalty rather than any real numbers.
If it’s not happening at the P position, where else is it not happening? Attention to detail should rule the coach’s decision process.
Yeah, this is my stance as well. Twice last year (objective) telecaster’s laughed at our punting game. Laughed! On the air!
And rightfully so; it was embarrassing. Everyone has an ego, but is Riley’s so big he’d rather stick with Hekker than admit he was wrong?
I knew at some point I read about Ryan Allen getting a shot. Found it.
http://blog.oregonlive.com/behindbeaversbeat/2008/11/punter_finds_his_footing_after.html
Pretty interesting article in retrospect. Hekker is quoted as saying he wasn’t trying to get better in practice.
Really? I have to say, this all sounds a little sad. Allen might have had great talent, but that doesn’t make him the best player. I don’t think there is a conspiracy here. The coaching staff obviously thought Hekker was the best option at that time. Why didn’t Allen just stick it out? Things change. Fans and even coaches opinions will differ on players. I don’t believe Riley always gets it right, but is sure is easier for us to sit here and try to point out the ones we think he is wrong on. His batting average on picking and developing talent is so much better than anyone of us could ever imagine. I could go down a very long list, but let’s just start with one. Jonathan Smith. I don’t think he ever expected Jonathan to play, but he saw something in him. Who knows, if Allen had stuck around and fought for his playing time, he could have been a really neat story too.
Jonathan Smith was the back up in 1998 to Terrence Bryant. When Bryant was injured in the UA game, Smith filled in. And when Bryant was missing badly against UW the following week, Smith came in to play in the second qtr.
So technically it was won through competition in a game setting.
Man, I didn’t know the back-up punter was a such a big deal to you. If you ever went to a practice and watched both Hekker and Allen you would know that Allen was far from spectacular. Hekker hasn’t been great, but he has showed a lot more than Allen did in practice. I really don’t feel bad that the kid transfer or that the coaching staff “allegedly” didn’t bend over backwards to make it happen for the kid. He was a walk-on punter for crying out loud. I think everyone should let this silly story go, especially since the person relaying information is family and has anything but an unbiased view of the situation.
It’s not a big deal, it’s a huge deal.
And it both showcases and confirms the stubborn decision making that (1) relegated Hardin to the bench (because he was “quiet” in practice), (2) put Pankey in the starting lineup as a freshman and allowed him to stay there despite consistently sub-par play, (3) kept #28 in important/national games despite multiple touchdown burns, (4) ran 4-star talent David Ross out of town. Etc. etc, I could go on if you wish.
Sure, none of these things are a big deal if your goal isn’t to be the best team possible.
And I saw both of these punters in person, and what I saw was Ryan Allen booming balls above Reser’s facade, and Hekker shanking low line drives out of bounds. It’s not a silly story about family bias when you have (a) me and a bunch of readers in agreement about Hekker and (b) several sites/camps ranking Allen as one of the best punters in the country, and (c) telecasters making fun of the Beaver punting game on national TV.
In Riley you trust!
Well then, we can agree to disagree. I think Hekker is the better punter based on what I saw in practice and what I’ve seen him do in games. Should of Allen gotten a chance during a game? Perhaps, and he almost got that chance except Hekker kicked the sh*t out of the ball and performed very well. Slow down on the Hardin reference…he hasn’t proved anything yet and probably will be beat out by Poyer a couple games into the season. You have a valid point with Tui and it may surprise you that I was right there saying Tui needed to be benched. You think just cause someone disagrees with you then they blindly trust Riley. That isn’t true for me, but what I am able to recognize is your lack of knowledge about football that drives many of the posts you write. Maybe I should stop visiting your site, but I just can’t. It’s like watching a video of a guy getting hit in the nuts; it’s kind of painful at first, but at the end you just can’t stop laughing.
“Person X” never knows anything about “subject y” when “person z” dislikes “person x”.
Welcome to the internet.
Looks like we will see how Mr.Allen performs against Boise St. I believe they travel to the “smurf turf” this year. He will probably being doing a lot of punting!
You know I think the Hekker/Allen situation must come to intangibles. I have watched many practices where I didn’t think Allen was better/worse than Hekker. Allen may have been better that day/few days that you saw but I think that the body of work that I saw was fairly average by both (neither impressive).
I don’t remember exactly how it went down with Allen leaving the team, if I could get a refresher, but my take on the post shows a few NCAA violations, unless he was with the team at the time. The camp may be shown to be an “extra benefit” but bad reporting because an “ex-beaver” paid for him to attend a camp. Also, Allen was recruited following the camp? Other teams in the NCAA are not allowed to recruit current players on other rosters.
Also, anyone notice that Bruce Reed was only truly special as a special teams coach in 2006. That same team had Stroughter on a massive hot streak (who has also had a successful punt return rookie season in the NFL, including a TD). I think if anything, special teams complaints can fall on Bruce Reed, he was unremarkable for the Cowboys and has been since he came back. His special teams are special only because of great individual efforts. I think we were foolish to get rid of Unger, to me that is the greatest issue with this staff.
It’s not about Allen at all for me…I’ve never seen him kick, and could really care less if his uncle was AC Green. It’s about Hekker. And it’s about our inability, or indifference to finding a punter. When Loomis left without notice, it was understandable to have a drop-off in our punting game . It just seems like punting is an afterthought…like we look around the field in August and start asking guys if they know how to punt. It’s the kind of foresight you’d expect from a 1A high school coaching staff.
I have become somewhat of a Rily apologist over the years; used to not like him at all. But I really think he drops the ball a bit in the kicking game. Drop one of our 5-year scholarship-locking “projects” and RECRUIT A SCHOLARSHIP PUNTER!
I’ve been saying this for years.
It’s why I was ecstatic when they used a scholarship on Trevor Romaine (PK). The weird thing about that situation is they’re grey-shirting him even though Kahut is a senior. This makes little sense since the backup (Johnson) is terrible and has a max range of 30 yards. I don’t know of any qualification issues for Romaine.
That you can give Kameron Krebs a scholarship but not a good, prep punter is a decision that deserves any and all scrutiny it receives.
I almost guarantee that Peter Ashton was recruited to be Danny White in the Staubach days.
It might work out. I think his numbers are good enough to get him a scholarship on punting alone.
It amazes me how someone who is so ‘connected’ to OSU with ‘insider knowledge’ continuely proves you have no clue how Riley and his staff recruit.
You have contiuned to whine and complain claiming Riley doesn’t care about or recruit kickers, which is 100% false! Riley has said many times that each year (when needed) OSU will recruit what they feel is the best 3-5 kickers in the region. There aren’t a lot of quality kickers coming out of HS. Most are converted soccer players. Its one thing to ‘waste’ a scholi an an unknown like say James Rodgers. Its another to waste one on a kicker, unless you are 100% he will pan out. If they land a solid kicker, great (look at Kyle Loomis a few years ago and Trever Romain this year) they will offer a scholi. If not, they invite guys to walk on. If they earn a spot and perform they will be offered a scholorship in a year or two (Serna, Hekker, Kahut, etc). So stop with your false complaints that Riley doesn’t care or recruit kickers…it makes you look dumb(er) and uneducated.
If Ryan Allen truely was ‘one of the best punters in the country’ he would have numerous scholorship offers out of HS. Instead he walked on at OSU and then was a back up? Seriously Angry?!?!?
Lets be honest, Riley has forgot more about football then you’ll ever know. The guy has his faults, all coaches do. Fact is, any coach is worlds better then the internet dork who bashes him week after week. It’s why they’re football coaches and you’re not :)
Inviting someone to walk on is not in any way recruiting them. It’s saying, “Meh… you’re not good enough to play here. Come prove me wrong… on your own dime.”
That attitude tells the top K/P prospects that the position is an afterthought. So why should they go to school here.
The point you so obviously missed is that a team is only as strong as its weakest link. If that’s your punter, then you see something like a punter out-kicking his coverage and allowing a 63 yard TD return or 3 punts with no returns netting 40 yards in a bowl game.
Other top schools regularly recruit top kickers and punters because they want to be complete teams, not an excellent offense or defense and a losing special teams group.
Some coaches can be excellent at what they do and still have their faults. Ignoring a skill like punting only adds losses to your record.
I would be thrilled to see someone like Alex Tardieu recruited to be on scholarship. But he’s probably going to be grabbed by someone who cares about that phase of the game, and he’ll be a legitimate kicker in college.
Riley seems to think he’s sly by picking up combo QB/P types. It hasn’t really worked out with Hekker thus far. Maybe it will work out with Ashton.
“If Ryan Allen truely was ‘one of the best punters in the country’ he would have numerous scholorship offers out of HS.”
Oh REALLY!?
By that logic I guess James or Quiz are not two of the best WR/RB in the country. Better put aside your Heisman hopes, boys, because how good you are is all about how many offers you had coming out of HS!
What is doubly funny about this “point” is that if I ever so much hint that NCAA interest in a player is related to ability, the “antiangrys” of the world reach into their Bag o’ Rodgers Bros and start their “blah blah blahing.”
My anus itches
Talk about low hanging fruit.
The simple solution is to PYHOOYA.
Sucks for Ryan Allen. And if he’s so good, I guess it sucks for Oregon State too.
That said, the only ‘evidence’ presented here is fairly anecdotal. Allen looked better in warm-ups? So what? He was the best punter in a kicking camp? Great…Hekker is on the Ray Guy watch list. (which doesn’t mean that Hekker is good…he isn’t. But neither mean much of anything.)
There’s a post on another blog specifically talking about the punters two years ago.
“Sehnem boomed some really good ones, but botched a few others.
Hekker had some that were kind of long, but need more hang time.
Allen’s punt were high, but didn’t travel far enough.
None looked like a PAC-10 punter…”
Not a resounding review of any of them, frankly. Not NEARLY worth the amount of posturing you’re doing about this.
Hekker probably BARELY beat Allen out for the starting spot and Allen never did quite enough to overcome it. What’s the problem with that? Possibly Allen has improved a TON this past off-season. Too bad he didn’t want to compete for the starting job this season, as it would be GREAT to have a punter better than Hekker.
He couldn’t afford to compete. But I agree. There are intangibles at play which made the position closed… like one guy had a scholarship and the other didn’t.
Related to OSU kickers… JaMarcus Russell only played for as long as he did because the Raiders wasted money on him. There were plenty of other QB’s on the team who could have lost just as many games. Maybe they only would have thrown for 130 yards per game instead of the 70 or 80 Russell usually put up. So should anyone have ever spent any effort pointing out that he really really needed to go? I’m going to leave out the part where he was just waaaaaaayyyyyyy overrated coming out of college. I’ve already said ‘I told you so’ to my Raiders friends.
So maybe the competition wasn’t worth this argument, but the position is. Hang time and consistency are the keys to punting. I would rather have someone who kicked 30 yards a pop with no return than someone who alternates between shanks, low-lined 50 yarders and 30 yard hangers.
I’m going to hope that Hekker works it out, because he’s what we got. He can string some good games together, but he can also string some really bad ones together also.
I guess the nice thing about having two punters on the roster is that they each have someone to talk to.
Doesn’t anyone think about the punters’ feelings anymore?
80% off the O-line are walk-ons, so it can’t be political reasons. Riley seems to actually prefer these “feel good” stories. Boosts the myth of Riley recruiting under rocks.
Just in time to wrap up this conversation.
http://www.portlandtribune.com/sports/story.php?story_id=128216524349042600
A friend of mine sent me this quote this morning from a Beaver fan:
“I said it early last season that Hekker would be an All Pac-10 punter in a year or two and I have no problem backing that up now. The guy destroys balls into the atmosphere 65 yards down field. ”
Hilarious delusion. Had to share it.
I should probably take the old site down since people are posting there. NW showed up again, and the LTech guy has an interesting view. Their exchange follows:
Mike Basinger Says:
August 25, 2010 at 2:32 pm
I am a Louisiana Tech grad and I’m very happy to see Ryan playing for the Bulldogs. I live in Oregon and I’ve been a Beaver fan for a long time. The word coming out of Tech’s fall camp is very good. The coaches and fans that have been to practices say Ryan is the best they have ever seen at Tech. I’m sorry about the way things worked out at OSU.
PS: I hope we score so many times at Tech that Ryan doesn’t get to punt very often (:>)
Reply
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nw Says:
August 26, 2010 at 8:13 am
mike
thanks for the nice words about my nephew! we are getting some very good reviews about #86 down at LA TECH. it is still very early but it looks as though he is better than we expected but who are we? just some over protective family members that think their athlete is better than he really is with false expectations?
i believe you will find that this boy makes the OSU coaches look very silly at the end of the year!! for all of the readers that are clueless and wonder why Ryan did not stay and compete for a job??
they have no idea how unfair the opportunity was for my nephew. coach Riley was never going to give Ryan a fair shot(even though he continued to tell Ryan how great he was doing and how the position was open and he could compete for it!!!!) it was only when Ryan figured out that he was being misled did he call me and ask to help get him transfered. my family is a bunch of fierce warriors that have no fear of competition but our coach was not fair? there was no reason for RYAN to stay in a place that did not want to give him a fair chance to compete for a spot.
remember that i played for his dad Bud Riley (who happened to be the only person to show up in my hospital room when i blew my knee playing for the BEAV’S) i encouraged my nephew to attend OSU thinking that the apple had not fallen far from the tree. i may have been mistaken.
please remember that i still have all of my OSU rings, watches, jackets, hats and will always root for my school!!! but maybe not the AD & FB STAFF
thanks
nw
Another punter from Chris Sailer’s Camp, rated #15 in the nation is now enrolled at OSU as a freshmen this fall. His dad is a friend of mine. Says coaches are not interested. Yet they offer a second team all-league kid from Tigard to come in and try to compete with Hekker. Draw your own conclusions and similarities to Allen. Let’s face it, Allen was too good. Hekker keeps his position with no real competition.
I think it’s because they gave Hekker a scholie and don’t want to admit it was the wrong decision, so they keep the competition away at the detriment of the club. That’s the only thing that makes sense, and very little at that.