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Well, that was a fun few hours. I have a feeling the Kelly stuff isn't done, but for now it's time to move on. Heck, I almost want him to stay because it just highlights how archaic OSU is, and also how passive Riley is…it's good to be reminded of this every day because it builds pressure for change. That being said, part of me was glad to see Kelly go because it would be nice to beat Oregon again at some point. The schadenfreude argument has some merit. That I need to eat some crow today has some merit. That I'm going to move on for now yet still believe something stinks in Eugene has merit, too. 

That's all I have to say on that topic. Discuss anything you wish here. Chris Young's commit was glossed over. He's a good get. Hasty, too. Wallace has OSU in the lead still (pretty surprised at this one, actually). Caleb Smith set to decide soon, and he also received a 4th star from Rivals recently. In short, there's a lot going on with recruiting. Home stretch. If Riley can keep the class intact I'll be highly impressed. Right now, skeptical but optimistic.

561 COMMENTS

  1. I’ve got the phone right here but if Rob Mullens wants to make me wait as a negotiating ploy, well, two can play at that game.

    My mad skillz will transfer nicely to the UO program. Opponents will never see my “slow down” offense coming.

    • Joe, you will not be coming back. The last time that you were here, you spent way too much time screwing the cheerleaders and not enough time doing game preparation. The only play that you know how to execute was the end around and that was up on Mary’s Peak with you know who. You are Persona Non Grata!

    • Joe,
      I’m too lazy to find the link (SB Nation article), but you were selected as the worst coach in OSU history. No other way to slice 6-47-1. Don Read was the Duck pick.

      • my dad was president of the portland beaver huddle for a few years when avezzano was head coach. he doesn’t have many nice things to say about him to say the least

      • My opinion is that Craig Fertig was the worst, because he took the high stature for the program that Andros had achieved, and ran it right into the fuuking ground. But once it was there, then Joe ran with it…lol.

        • Andros had the luxury of picking up and carrying on with what Tommy Prothero had started, but after the Fred Milton incident in 1968-69 the program was headed straight down the loo. Enter Fertig, who had the misfortune to be a rat boarding a rapidly sinking ship. Avezzano IMHO knew how to coach (his career as a Dallas assistant attests to that), but what he didn’t know was how to recruit.

  2. I can’t let this Chip Kelly thing go. I was so giddy last night that I could not sleep as I had visions of the Beavs beating the Ducks sooner rather than later. Now I feel the whole thing was a ruse to inflict cruel and unusual punishment on Beaver Nation. I am so sick to my stomach that I can’t eat breakfast. This situation points out how our program is so lackluster that the NFL won’t come after any of our coaches even if they have NFL and CFL experience. Riley never is named in any of the coaching searches which has to tell us something. We need an upgrade across the board or it is more years of losing to the Ducks.
    Who broke the mirror in Reser stadium and they are to blame for all of the bad luck. I know it was BDC!

    • Kelly has shown he’s willing to leave for the right price. Tampa didn’t offer the right price, but somebody will. Gotta think Chip was feeling pressure last night having this news break during the stretch run of the recruiting period. Pretty sure the Chip to NFL stories will start up again after letter of intent day. Remember, it’s a long off season…

      • I’m thinking his agent told him to hold off for a day or two. There’s still another job open where he might have a perennial pro-bowl QB running the show for years.

          • I doubt it. I think he’s either eyeing the Indy job, or he’s stuck at Nikegon until they are forced to fire him.

            It’s interesting that Tressel is now being mentioned for that job. The Irsays certainly don’t set the hiring bar too high.

    • Really? If Riley was offered an NFL job, BDC would double the extension on his existing contract.

      But seriously, even if OS won a National Championship next year, nobody is coming after Riley. He has clearly stated that this is dream job and he will retire from here. With some guys you could say that is just talk, but I fully believe that is Riley’s position.

      • Jack
        I think you are grasping at straws. All of the rumor outside of Beaver Nation is that there will be only minor infractions and I tend to agree with that. Ohio State had lots of info out there that could not be disputed. So did USC and Miami. There were players that came out publicly, early and often,about what happened. There have been no players at Oregon doing this and it has been over a year. Look at what happened at Auburn and they did not get any penalty. You can keep on wishing but I think that the impact is so small that we are still in for trouble as long as they have Kelly.

        • Naive much?

          tOSU self-reported in a hurry once things became apparent. Nikegon hid behind someone nick-named “The Cleaner.”

          Boise and USC ran away from the truth… ignored it… said there was nothing to see behind the curtain.

          UNC and South Carolina admitted all quickly and suffered light sanctions as a result.

          The Ducks will be beat down for multiple violations in multiple sports.

          If you doubt that, then you’re just ignoring life.

          And I want Chipster to be there when it all comes down. Nothing pisses me off more than a coward who runs away from his own actions.

          Well… maybe if that coward then runs to my favorite NFL team and proceeds to make them in the mold of his .500 NFL career.

        • One prominent sports blogger said Kelley WILL be fired…..that it is always the school who is the last to realize what has to be done.

          It has all died down while the NCAA does its investigation. That takes a long time. UO attempted to cover up the Lyles thing, by making a last second desperation request of Lyles to provide them with SOMETHING, anything, to show as paperwork for the 25k they paid him. Then they released it as the product of that payment,and it was outdated material. NCAA doesnt like coverups.

          The NCAA seems to be out for blood these days. I am making no prediction, but the duck fans wishing for mild sanctions are, I think, just whistling in the dark. We will see.

    • You realize Riley’s NFL record was 14-34 in three seasons, right? He had his NFL HC chance and it ain’t coming around again even if he wanted it. Calm down, it’s just a game. I think it’s funny that Duck Nation collectively shit their pants for an evening. Now, they have to chew on the fact that Chippy is not a lifer.
      Look their program has been good to great for the last 25 years and you just have to learn to live with it. They most likely will never have a three win season again with their support and resources. The onus is on OSU to get back to at least being competitive now and then. That has nothing to do with Oregon.

    • LOL … punishment on BeaverNation?? I dont think UO worries much about us. Imagine how the Duck fans felt, hearing their genius coach was taking off.

  3. The odds of UO taking a serious step backwards, even if Kelly leaves, seems very slim. I could see some coach coming in having a forgettable, short go of it a la Rich Rod and Michigan, but such an individual would quickly be jettisoned and they’d get a better replacement. They have the resources, and attracting talented coaches, even if they have to find them like they did Chip, is NOT going to be a problem.

    We are back to the same old issues at OSU – how are Riley and staff going to improve off-season programs to get early season results (e.g. the first month of the season), learn to defend spread option teams, and make the CW competitive again? How are they going to get to an Alamo (now the Pac-12 #2 bowl right?) or Holiday bowl, and then the Rose? How is OSU going to improve the game-day atmosphere at Reser?

    The current staff doesn’t have answers to these questions.

  4. Meh, I’m not in on the duck hate with what seems to be the rest of you. I mean I’m all for them getting sanctions if they broke rules but I’m not hoping they get the death penalty or anything…

    does everyone hate a successful rival or is it just us?

    Because that would make us sore losers.

    • Every team’s fanbase root against their rival and hope they fail. It’s been like that for a long time. Not sure how that isn’t already known.

      • yeah, I mean the common people do…

        But usually, the slightly intelligent folks that watch tend to be less polarized in their opinion.

        As in they only root for other teams to lose when WE are playing against them. Perhaps we could learn from them instead of hating them so much… I mean they are obviously doing something right.

        • Who hates? Where are you getting this nonsense?

          It is what it is. In Nikegon’s case, “it” is sanctions soon to come. It’s just reality.

          I find your naivete to be the polar thinking undone here.

        • BM, you are doing what I see alot of people doing that comment on these topics. I think you are losing sight of what a fans job is vs. what a coach/program needs to do. When it is all said and done, sports are entertainment for 99% of us, the other 1% either are getting paid for it or are nutjobs. So, “hating” your rival is all in fun. Again there are that .1% of nutjobs out there (like the Dodger fans that beat the crap out of the Giants fan last year) that truly HATE their rivals.

          You choosing to root for the Ducks when they face anyone other than the Beavs is fine for you, but don’t think you are elite because you have come to this way of thinking. Maybe rooting against the Ducks makes that game a little more entertaining for me, maybe joking with my Duck friends when thing are going bad for them is fun. “Hating” the Ducks doesn’t exclude me from being able to admire some of the things they do well, but regardless of how much I learn from that program down south it doesn’t change anything.

          That is the job of our coaches and administration, they are the ones with the power to change things. They are part of that 1% that doesn’t get to look at sports as entertainment. For them it is their livelihood and they don’t have the luxury to “hate” their opponents (although they should try to use that “hate” if they can gain an emotional advantage with the players). Their job should always be to learn from the successful programs and even those programs that are not successful.

          Why would you want to make every other fan live by your rules? Just enjoy the sport as the entertainment it is and let others do the same.

          • I rarely ever root for the ducks and I was rooting against them in the Rose Bowl because I like Wisconsin.

            but I mean, how often do you get a team from your state in the National championship unless you’re in the SEC?

            not very often.

          • I hate everything about the U of O and hope they loose at every sport there is. If they had a ping pong team I would hope they lost.

            I’m hoping for some vicious santions for football and basketball, but honestly/realistically they probably get a slap on the wrist though its pretty obvious they were paying for players and SHOULD get lit up by the NCAA.

            For the most part the NCAA does little to punish even the biggest cheaters.

      • BM sees more than there is to see… except apparently the obvious violations Nikegon has committed across their whole athletic department.

        I’m not thrilled to see Duck apologists in Beav’s clothing. More appalling is the thought that only Beavs fans think sanctions are coming. What moron thinks this? EVERYONE EXCEPT DUCK FANS know that sanctions are coming. It’s a byline now.

        Wake up Duck fan.

    • I hate the Ducks, but that is not what fuels my wanting to see them get sanctions. I wanted to see USC get sanctioned and I grew up an SC fan (my dad was an SC Alumn). I just hate cheaters getting away with things because it just makes others want to give a try also and makes it harder for the clean programs to succeed. If UofO did minor infractions only, then give them minor sanctions. If they are proven to have done more, throw the book at them.

      One of the beauties of College Football is the rivalry aspect. Most fans hate their rivals as part of the fun. About being “sore losers”, I wouldn’t like UofO more if they went 0-11 next season.

        • “Hate” in this context is a funny word. I use it quite flippantly. I have more friends that are Duck fans than I do Beaver fans. I say I hate the Ducks, but the reality is that I very rarely ever go out of my way to read anything or spend any time actively “hating” the Ducks. But, I certainly get more of a tickle out of their program experiencing pain. Probably as much as anything because it gives me the opportunity to jab my friends a little.

          • I like elite college football programs to fall on their asses once in awhile. It’s good for their fans to get just a small taste of the hell-hole that was OSU football for 28 years. It builds character. It seems like ever since the scholarship limits went in to effect, the playing field has evened out just enough that some of the big schools feel the pressure to cheat in order to keep their edge. I don’t want Alabama to be like their were under Mike Shula every year, but I like it to happen just enough to burst their bubble now and then.

    • “Sore losers”…I haven’t heard that since junior high. I think it’s fun to hate other teams, it makes the games fun if you are not into gambling. You wouldn’t last long in the SEC…. I righteous anger cleanses the soul!

    • I’m not exactly a duck fan any more than I am a UCLA fan or any random team for that matter, but the sanctions aren’t the matter.

      They may have committed multiple violations across their athletic department, but they have also made ingenious decisions across their athletic department. sure, breaking rules gets you punished. I’m just wondering why everyone is hoping that they get such a rough penalty.

      I’m just wondering why we are hoping the ducks get thrown under a bus. I mean them going from top to bottom won’t make us any better except by one standing. I doubt Riley will get any of the fallout that is worth a damn.

      And you’re right. I wouldn’t get along well in the SEC. I am not white, and I am an agnostic. Both things that are not welcome in those areas.

      • I was referring to the fan enthusiasm/mental illness towards their rivals in the SEC. Pretty much set from birth that you hate your rival. Weird, thing though they all bond together over SEC pride during bowl season.

      • “I’m just wondering why we are hoping the ducks get thrown under a bus. I mean them going from top to bottom won’t make us any better except by one standing.”

        Their cheating kept us out of 2 Rose Bowl games and cost us one Rose Bowl win.

        Isn’t that enough?

  5. I will admit that I am a sore loser and tired of the Ducks winning so much. The last 2 years have been brutal. If they win the CW at Reser this year and go to a good bowl, I will throw up in my seat!

  6. “Home stretch. If Riley can keep the class intact I’ll be highly impressed. Right now, skeptical but optimistic.”

    Agreed.

    BDC and Riley have made clear that it’s going to be status quo in all other areas of the program so long as they are in charge (that is, no significant changes in coaching staff, schemes, etc.) So the only way that OSU football is going to improve — near term — is through better recruiting. Fingers crossed that this promising class of recruits stays more or less intact thru signing day….

  7. Jack you make grandious statements when someone questions you and you never provide any facts to back up your assertion.
    “The Ducks will be beat down for multiple violations in multiple sports.” Where did you get this? Show us something to make us believe that you know something that the rest of the world doesn’t.

  8. OK Jack, that is the third response where you did not provide data to back up your assertion noted above. Strike Three You are OUT. You are now off the Varsity and being demoted to JV. Hit the showers. To make it back up to the Varsity you need to hand in all of your homework and remember to show all of your work. Your posts from now on will be titled “speculative at best”.

    • Is Jack now being paid for his posts? If he is, I think I will start spending more time doing research so I too can get paid for my workbreaks.

      Seriously, I have seen Jack come up with some very interesting info since I’ve been reading this blog. Sometimes, he has been able to “scoop” the professionals. But, ultimately this is a free fan site, everything that you see on here should be thought of as “speculative”. You judge the degree of speculation based on the number of times that they are correct vs. the number of times they fall flat.

      Either way, it is not his JOB to provide you detail of how he knows what he knows. If you don’t believe him, that is cool, it will eventually be resolved when the NCAA decides to rule.

  9. Jackie what makes you think the duckies aren’t playing ball with the NCAA. Just cause The Cleaner keeps “know it all’s” in the dark doesn’t mean your right. Lawyers don’t like to share their defense.

    Keep up the Smartest Guy in the room act going though, someone may belive?

    Anyway, back to recruiting talk people and let the duckies worry about their problems. We have enough of our own.

      • I should clarify my statement. What I mean by that is when a person needs to spend top dollar for a “Brilliant Lawyer” vs. getting a reasonably priced lawyer to defend you, then that tells me that you are worried about your case and you’re paying your lawyer top dollar to make sure they have an idea of what the prosecution side will say if taken to court. Now, with the NCAA, they are NOT the judicial system. They are in charge of keeping order in the Collegiate world to make sure that everyone follows a set of rules/guidelines to the letter. When guidelines are broken, such as allowing your top donor to be a part of the hiring, firing, and recruiting process, that is a direct violation in the eyes of the NCAA. That is the only one I know for a fact that is going on, but why it took the NCAA so long to look at this case? You give people slack on the leash/reigns, they will see how far you can go before they yank on that leash. That’s EXACTLY what U$C did and Oregon is doing. Don’t compare Auburn in this mix because that is different. That was a 1 time deal involving 1 player…not the entire Athletic Department. You can compare tOSU and U$C though. They demonstrate recruiting violations and 2 different types of punishments. If Oregon keeps playing the “innocence until proven guilty” card….they will have another thing coming because the NCAA is not part of the Legal system. They are a part of something else entirely that does not involve judges…unless you call the investigative board members the “Detectives” and the “prosecutors” are the ones who are defending the NCAA, and the “jurors” are the same people that are the “Detectives”. Hmmmmmm….

    • Because they didnt, from the start. When the story broke, they didnt just fess up to the NCAA, they fired off a desperate request to Lyles to shoot them something on paper…so they would have something to show for the 25k they had paid him. This is an attempt to cover up what was really going on. What that is, we dont really know, but it wasnt for normal recruiting services. And anything else, is illegal.

  10. It is not a job to provide details if you have them. He doesn’t seem to be able to show us anything and until he does, he will remain Blow Hard Jack. (Not that I want any proof that he can blow hard)

  11. your’e far from the only one who needs to eat crow today, angry. as far as chip’s concerned i really can’t say that i’m all that suprised. he’s got a pretty nice gig all things considered, and he has to know he’ll have other chances in the future. guys like him (no prior nfl experience, offense style still unproven at that level) have a very limited opportunity to succeed before they’re canned and deemed not capable of being a head coach in the nfl. riley is a decent example, the big difference between he and chip though is that as soon as his nfl head coaching time is over he’ll take over a traditional powerhouse in the ncaa and riley stuck around as an assistant. it’s possible too that he’s also aware of how bad pete carroll looked because of the timing in which he left sc and wants to avoid coming across as a slimey doucher. who knows.

  12. What’s left for recruiting? We have 24 commits of which, 3 are soft (Shelton, Wallace and Smith) and one possible silent(Lawler).

    Do we pick up anyone else? Sounds like we are just holding on for now. Any of the commits a possible academic casualty?

    • NU boards rumored Shelton to be an academic casualty. I’m not sure what their angle was though. It felt like they were preparing to soften the blow should he not choose them, but that was in the middle of his visit there. Last I heard, he was good for grades with just spring classes to pass.

      This is just a nice class.

      Did I see that Saulo was already enrolled? I know angry isn’t impressed by him, but I like his game.

  13. For everyone but Blow Hard Jack.
    The stock market closes in 45 minutes and will have a run up in the closing hour in case anyone wants to make some money today.

    • LOL …. Kenney, you seem to have a problem. I actually scanned thru your almost endless requests for Jack to supply you with all the info on the UO potential violations, and if he didnt, he was a “blowhard”. This subject occupied a bunch of long threads, way last spring when the Lyles story really got going. Jack did supply a lot of info, but no one can give any “proof”, as it is all in the form of second hand incidents. Go back and read up.

      There seems to be stuff in both basketball and football. So I agree with Jack. It doesnt look good for them. And remember that the NCAA doesnt have to prove anything.

  14. recruiting question- it sounds like this is shaping up to be a great class, though i try not to follow the recruits a whole lot until they actually make it to corvallis. (still waiting on that paea kuli suh defensive front) i wanted to specifically ask about chris miller though. i remember at the time he committed angry said he was a zero star guy who i’m pretty sure didn’t have any other offers, at least not in the pac 12. i watched the film posted and to me at least he looked pretty damn impressive at safety. (his rb highlights didn’t impress me so much) so i was left thinking he could be a great diamond in the rough. more recently though i see in an osu recruiting update from the oregonian that he was a three star. is that inaccurate or did his stock dramatically rise?

  15. Angry, can you make a separate blog entry for Kenny and Jack to go “play” in so they don’t completely destroy the comments section of this post with garbage? Seriously guys, quit wasting everybody’s time, including your own.

  16. I like this class a lot like everybody else does, but for me the icing on the cake would be if we land Hasiak at OG. He seems like the type of guy that could play on the offensive line immediately next year. If that were the case we’d have 3/5 starting o-lineman rated as 4-5 star players (Hasiak, Seumalo, Philipp), plus a healthy Josh Andrews (our most aggressive blocker last year). That would quite the upgrade from two years ago when we had four walk-on players starting and last year when we had three walk-ons.

    Call me naive, but I really think if we can put a solid offensive line on the field next year a lot of people will be surprised by the Beavers. I’m hoping within the next year or two there will actually be legitimate competition for the five offensive line spots and not simply a who-sucks-the-least competition.

      • I think many people like this class a lot better than in the past years for sure. This kinda of class is where the program should average, in my opinion. It’s probably the best class in the Riley era, maybe the first year back was slightly better (although it didn’t produce in the end once the players qualified or didn’t qualify). I do like this class, IF they hold onto everybody, and I am like Jack a bit pleasantly surprised by it.

      • Are you serious? The class is ranked #28 right now and I believe somebody else said Riley has never even had a class in the top 40 before this. If Lawler and Hasiak commit then that’s two more four star recruits. This class is stacked with offensive lineman and defensive backs, two spots we badly need depth at. Do I wish we had more DT’s? Sure. But at least the vast majority of these guys are legitimate D1 players and not “projects” that we may or may not see three or four years from now.

      • Mud & Sticks, I gotta believe that you are just a joy to be around at a party. Good grief man, why would you still be a Beaver fan if you can’t even allow yourself to “like” this recruiting class. Thank you for spreading your cheer.

  17. Man, I feel like I got hit with a ton of bricks today. What a letdown seeing my 49’er give the superbowl birth away through mental mistakes, and then the Kelly news reversing. Hoping these recruits are better news then it feels like right now.

      • Glad to see the 49ers have been outed, that team has absolutely no class. They were yelling Merry Christmas! at Seahawks coaches after winning in week 16 and their players were picking fights with the fans. They are quickly becoming the new Raiders, the difference is they actually play football.

  18. I just skimmed the posts – Kenny& Jack, not so much – I can’t believe no one suggested that PK might have had something to do with CK’s decision to stay at UO. Match Tampa Bay money? I guess I’m the only paranoid one.

    • Someone dropped Tressel’s name for that job, and Indy fan had a fit for a couple hours about the denigration he would be as their coach. That was quick. No Tressel for them.

      I think Kelly would be a great fit for Indy with his speed game. He likely wouldn’t take his offense to the NFL, since it would have too many of his players leaving the field on stretchers. But his mentality as a coach is perfect for the pros. And he would definitely eschew the huddle. Manning does so as much as he can already, and I imagine Luck would buy in as well.

  19. OT- I’m watching Dan Patrick’s show on tv right now. Haven’t seen the guy in quite some time because I don’t normally like his show, but from what I’m watching right now, it sort of looks like the guy is going through the early stages of Parkinson’s disease. Is this common knowledge and I’m just late to find out?

        • Real good as in 7th out of 12? If that’s really the case then perhaps “real good” for a bottom dweller but not much more than that.

          Let’s evaluate this class when they’re actually enrolled and on campus and then again when this class is in its senior year.

          • Don’t be a stick in the mud, Mud and Sticks. It is a pretty good group. Please allow us to have our brief moment of optimism.

          • 28th recruiting class and there is a chance it can be a top 25 class. Haven’t heard about academic “casualties”. You can look at it as they’re being 7th out of 12 teams in recruiting rankings or you can look at it as they’re nearly a top 25 recruiting class. I don’t care who you are, a top 25 recruiting class is pretty. Would be the best ranked recruiting class in program history I believe. Feels like you’re unnecessarily negative.

          • How in the hell can they have a top 25 recruiting class and still be 7th out of 12 in the Pac-12? Let’s see, we have the ACC, the SEC, the Big 10 (or is it 11), etc., etc.

            Tell me what you’re smoking I’d like to get some of that. Who needs reality anyway!

          • Pac-12 programs are having a great year when it comes to recruiting. Beavers are 6th now and the Pac-12 has 5 teams in the top 20 in recruiting class rankings. Beavers are 27th, 1 ahead of Utah.

          • I’m wondering if the new Pac-12 TV deal has any part in it? All games will be televised nationally. That’s a good sell to recruits and their families who can’t make it to every home/road game! :)

          • The six with higher rankings would also be in the top 25. You can have the 10th rated class in the nation and be the only the fifth best in the SEC.

  20. “Let’s evaluate this class when they’re actually enrolled and on campus and then again when this class is in its senior year.”

    I agree.

    No need to be negative yet with the comments like ‘7th out of 12’ and ‘good for a bottom dweller’.

    On paper, this is our best recruiting class ever. I’m not sure why everything needs a negative slant.

    *meant for Mud & Sticks above.

    • 7th out of 12 in the Pac-12 is how Rivals is rating them. Can’t move up very far in the standings if you don’t recruit top notch kids.

      OSU was the door mat for years and I’d just as soon they didn’t return to that status.

      Fans are living in fantasy land if they think OSU can compete with the ‘ucks, Trojans, etc. on a consistent basis with recruiting classes ranked like that (7th out of 12).

      • 6th out of 12 is actually where it is. Those are the same ratings agencies that ranked D. Shelton a **** and on another site he is rated a **. But let’s throw in the towel and hang our heads. M&S, do you really think that a 28th rated class is a guaranteed 6th place finish in 3 yrs? Your negativity is as silly as the those polyannas that think that the highest ranked class in the Riley era guarantees a Rose Bowl. Enjoy the moment, it is a very solid class for a team that has had 2 losing seasons in a row. If your expectations are that the Beavers should have a top 5 recruiting class right now, you are an idiot.

        • “Your negativity is as silly as the those polyannas that think that the highest ranked class in the Riley era guarantees a Rose Bowl.”

          People who think that: population zero.

          I love these straw man arguments.

          Nobody. Not even Mike Riley thinks that this class means we’re guaranteed a Rose Bowl.

      • “OSU was the door mat for years and I’d just as soon they didn’t return to that status.”

        I’d prefer that we avoided doormat status as well.

        Bitching and moaning about the best recruiting class we’ve ever had doesn’t help.

      • M&S. … God, man, you are missing a big point. The last two years and exp last year, we SUCKED. Getting even a decent recruiting class is a sign of the coaches working harder on that aspect. Hope for the future.

        • Why the sudden change of heart rsteve503. You were one of the biggest pessimists until the last few days. I welcome the change, but did you get a piece of news that changed your tune a bit? I like the class, and any improvement is good in my mind. Although that will not probably hasten any coaching change.

          • Well, when the bb team went to 1-5, it really got to me. Now my mood has recovered a bit. I stopped kicking the dog, and yelling at everyone. And reading that our recruiting class doesnt look bad, and in comes that damn devil…hope!

  21. We have competed with them with far worse classes. Not the last couple of years obviously. If you don’t think this class is impressive then you don’t know what your talking about. Our classes will always be ranked lower because we are not highly regarded. Recruits choose us and their ranking drops immediately.

  22. I was out all day, just got home. I see a lot of posts about guys bickering. Guys who are bickering–just stop bickering. Nobody is going to “win” the internet. Ever.

  23. Rumors of Kelly going to the NFL woke me from hibernation. Then I just wanted to go back to sleep. But then the thought came to me that since Riley and Kelly have become such good friends would it be too much to ask that WHEN Kelly bolts for the colts that he take Riley with him to be the QB coach?

    • I forgot that they are buddies now…Riley probably shared his NFL experiences with Chipster and talked him out of it….why go through all of that hassle in the NFL when you can stay here and bit the shit out of my program for the rest of this decade.

  24. Cyril Noland is trying to recruit OSU twitter users to follow Kenny Lawler and convince him to come to OSU. If you check out Lawler’s page, there are already quite a few WSU fans doing the same.

    Cyril Noland
    @C_Noland02 Cyril Noland
    Attention: Beaver Nation, PLEASE help me bring in @K_Law2nice ! GOOO FOLLOW!!
    4 hours ago via Twitter for iPhone

  25. Angry – I have a suggestion for a future topic that is spurred by the overall (apparent) success of this recruiting class (DT excepted), and that is, what is wrong with OSU’s off-season programs and how do insightful posters here suggest it be improved. I pose this question for two reasons:

    1) Empirically, OSU has been unable to turn the the extra practices associated with bowl practices into improved player development/performance the subsequent season. Even with the extra bowl practices of say, a Sun Bowl, OSU would generally come out the next season and go 1-3, maybe 2-2 to start the season. These early season losses end up costing OSU in bowl placement at the end of the year. As a program, the coaches and players never seem to take the “pre-season” seriously. Its easy to say that OSU tends to put at least one tough opponent on the pre-conference schedule, but at some time, as experience accrues, a program ought to be able to prepare for those games and at least make them competitive, and go 3-1 once in a while.

    2) This is shaping up to be one of OSU’s better classes in sometime. There was no bowl game from this season. How did OSU get a solid recruiting class in the absence of a bowl game and the appearance of success? Sell players on the potential of early playing time? Was it that OSU had more time to recruit BECAUSE there was no bowl? I want to know why OSU can’t recruit when it has moderate success?

    Both of these deficiencies have, in my mind, kept OSU from reaching the next levels – a second place bowl, and obviously, a rose bowl. Therefore, they seem like obvious, programmatic areas to improve. Why can’t OSU solve their own riddle here? Why can’t they come out at least in the second game of the season, looking like they’ve had both spring and fall camps? Riley promised to “evaluate everything we do” after this dismal season. I took his statement as shallow rhetoric, and am unconvinced he’s going to do an objective, systematic evaluation of his program. The theme of the season seemed to be “its the players fault,” and more specifically “its the young players’ faults.”

    This class is encouraging, now that OSU has a solid class, I’d like to know how they can capitalize better on the experience of last year’s youngsters and this year’s talent.I suspect SilverStream and others have ideas.

    • With regard to #2, I think it’s because Riley feels the heat and turned up his recruiting effort. Beavs have playing time to sell, too.

    • Good post, ObjC, I would add a third item to your list: Are there things which should change with the conditioning program which would increase the stamina of players while reducing the incidence of injuries? Is the new trainer having a significant impact on the off season activities?

      • If BeavMonkey is accurate, its seems like a strategically poor offer considering the needs of this class. I was hoping the interest of Air Force and Boise State indicated something – they seem to have discplined, good-tackling lb’s, if not the fastest guys around.

    • He has good size. Won’t need to add massive amounts of size.

      Might need to get faster. I doubt the guys in HS in bend are anything close to the players in the Pac-12.

      To be honest, he does not come in ready to play, and post redshirt year plus spot duties RS fr/So year, I think he will be serviceable Junior and Senior year. That is the optimistic view.

      But for the complainers…There are players like Skotte, and then there are real wastes of scholarships. Skottes aren’t the problems. the problems are the players we recruit who don’t learn anything for 4 years and end up costing 1 scholarship with nothing to show.

    • I’m not particularly sold on this kid either, but, the level of competition has been solid, for the state of Oregon. I mean the same argument could be used against Seaumalo, they both play OSAA 5A. And Skotte’s team played longer and against the better 5A teams this year, winning the 5A championship.

  26. Curious if Chris Young stays at safety or if the plan is to move him to LB? If he stays at safety, it seems like OSU is going to be able to field some fast, effective LB and S combos next year.

  27. Can Riley learn a lesson from Harbaugh and Bellichek? They sometimes play guys both ways in order to keep the best or most physical players on the field. Everyone here agrees that the Beavers need more physical dts. The scouts all agree that Isaac is great on both sides of the ball and has excellent stamina. How about using him as a situational substitution as a dt in short yardage and goal line in addition to starting at og? Heck, in the Under Armour game he was the best ot on the field for either side.

    • They are apparently considering implementing some wildcat packages for Poyer this spring, something I have been hoping for for over a year now. Poyer apparently wanted to run it this past season, and Riley wouldn’t do it, but indicated a willingness to put in some packages in spring ball.

      I also like Wynn as a fullback to block occasionally – I think he could be devastating in that role.

  28. If one accepts the team recruiting rankings published by Rivals (a big “if”), Oregon State (at #27) had a more successful recruiting year than Arkansas (#29), Mississippi State (#30), Nebraska (#34), Oklahoma State (#37), Penn State (#39), Iowa (#41), Mississippi (#42), Michigan State (#45) and Wisconsin (#46). Pretty good!

    A big part of this — I suspect — is the increasing prominence of the PAC-12 under Larry Scott (including the new, lucrative media deals). Five PAC-12 teams made Rivals’ Top 20 (Cal #12, Stanford #16, USC #17, UCLA #18, Oregon #19). Ten PAC-12 schools made Rivals’ Top 50. A rising tide appears to be lifting all PAC-12 boats.

    But why did OSU do better in recruiting this year than six other PAC-12 schools (at least according to Rivals)? I’m guessing it’s a combination of increased time and effort by Riley and his staff (undistracted by bowl game preparation and motivated by pressure to move past a dismal 2011 season), the promise of early playing time for top recruits, and the fact that OSU did actually put a lot of young players on the field this past season (which gives credibility to OSU promises of early playing time). The unsettled coaching situations at ASU, AZ, and Washington State also hurt recruiting at those schools, and thereby probably helped all the other PAC-12 schools, including the Beavers.

    • The better recruiting could also have to do with a lot of the promising looking young players that played last year (especially Mannion on offense). It’s probably nice for an offensive player at any position to be able to already know who his QB will be for the next few years. Likewise on defense guys may be excited about playing with high energy guys like Wynn, Crichton, and Welch for the next couple of seasons. Whatever the reason for the better recruits it is definitely a welcome upgrade.

    • “…But why did OSU do better in recruiting this year than six other PAC-12 schools (at least according to Rivals)?…”

      Perhaps it was because he spent less time in Hawaii and also hired some guys who are better recruiters.

    • I think a big part of the reason Oregon State was more successful at recruiting this year than others is Coach Seumalo. Without him, his son Isaac doesn’t go to Corvallis high and eventually decide to go to Oregon State. I think he’s directly responsible for keeping Caleb Smith on board. Is it a coincidence that Smith re-commited within an hour of when Seumalo re-committed. Take those 2 guys out of the class and suddenly our ranking drops to typical Riley status at the bottom of the Pac. Bad news is, I don’t see any other coaches on our staff with 5 star all american high school senior sons in the next few years, so you’d have to assume the future Riley classes will drop back down to their average.

    • This has nothing to do with Larry Scott. Recruiting rankings, even after signing day are hypothetical rankings filled with fluff and pr bs. Look, just the other day Michigan State signed an unranked defensive lineman from Portland. The kid is from Canada and was only in the USA a short time. He was missed by the camp followers who invent rankings from clouds of hot air. OSU is recruiting better because their backs are to the wall and they know that with another year of bad results they will be gone. The work ethic has been reborn. There are more players with better skills for many positions this year for all teams. The coaching changes in the league have also produced more competition. To give Larry Scott credit for this is to worship a false god.

    • I have to agree with Tom Luginbill’s assessment of ranking recruiting classes.

      He says that there is validity in ranking a top ten list. And he can make an argument for a “next five” to be added to that list. He also allows for a grouping of another 20-25 schools for a general top 40. But he says that once you get to about 12-15 schools on the list, there are too many moving parts to make any credible attempts to rank these classes.

      He thinks anyone who ranks classes past 15 are just blowing smoke. There is a definite top ten. There are a handful of schools who just miss the top ten. And there are a bunch of schools who are clearly better than the mean.

      OSU broke back into that latter category a couple years ago after several years of wandering in the wilderness. And they’ve made enough progress in each class to move further from the mean. I think it’s unimportant to be considered one of the elites when it comes to recruiting. But we should at least be rubbing shoulders with them on the recruiting trail. And we should be able to take about as much as we give in the end.

      If this class is our saturation point, I can live with that. I think the players we have on board and on the hook are some outstanding talents who like to win more than they don’t like to lose. We just need to start seeing this level of recruiting across all positions rather than just at four or five.

      But if you would have asked me a couple years ago, I would have said we need to see this level of recruiting across all positions, not just two or three.

      • It would be interesting to see a statisitical analysis for the last ten years on how many total 5 stars, 4 stars, 3 stars and two stars are awarded each year. How many total kids are evaluated from year to year over a period of time? How has the number of evaluators changed over the years and the number of services offering ratings? There is a lot of black magic in this game.

  29. Based on the Trib story and what Jack posted, during this past week the gross pay of my “heroes” were as follows:

    Bobby D ~ $9,615.00 ($500K annual)
    Mike R ~$22,000.00 ($1,151,667. annual)
    Mark B ~ $6,933.00 ($360.5K annual)
    Craig R ~$18,269.00 ($950K annual)

    http://www.portlandtribune.com/sports/story.php?story_id=130212662027395500

    Are OSU and the fans getting their money’s worth?

    I’ve seen reference to Dr. Ray giving an outline as to what will be done with the windfall TV package and if what I saw was correct (pay down the debt) my hat’s off to him. Does anyone have a link to what he said? TIA

    • I remember the story you’re talking about, but I can’t find it. He said the AD’s debt would be paid off in five years, and the dept. would be contributing back to the academic side after that. I’ll keep looking. It has to be in one of the recent papers.

      Meanwhile, this was largely ignored by onlookers.
      http://staterblog.com/2012/01/rays-annual-address-no-whining-just-plenty-of-progress-and-a-huge-economic-impact-for-osu/

      I shouldn’t say it was largely ignored. Oregon and NW businesses know full well the value of OSU and its mission. That’s why the Moore’s gave a nice chunk of change to the school. But this side of our school doesn’t get the press and sustained praise it deserves.

      Ray set a goal to make OSU a top ten APLU institution, and I’ll be damned if he isn’t doing it.

  30. Can anyone explain to me the rating system for JC recruits? I don’t understand why Chris Young was named JC Defensive POY and is a three star. He was also a 4 star out of HS. Do they lose stars for eligibility?

    • The evaluators follow the spring/summer camp circuit for high schoolers. They get measurables and then rub shoulders with college scouts to cross check opinions. Some jc guys have been thru the circuit but did not have the grades. Many other jc players matured late or just got into a system where they have exposure late in the game. But since many of these guys weren’t on any camp circuit, the evaluators (for the paid services) do not have enough data on forty time, shuttle and flag football with other comparable recruits. There is just not enough data for guys that come out of nowhere. No offenseive to the player of the year award for the Beaver jc recruit but this award is somewhat suspect. The best two jc teams in the country were CCSF and Mt Sac. The offensive and defensive players of the year were probably on their rosters or come from the leagues that they played in. Again, no offense to the Beaver recruit, but when you have the Technical Institute of Monterrey Mexico on your schedule, you cannot really be the player of the year for the entire US.

  31. From ESPN today: “Five recruiting overachievers”

    There wasn’t much to celebrate this past season as the Beavers limped to a 3-win season and a second-to-last-place finish in the Pac-12 North division. But Oregon State won 23 conference games in the previous four seasons, and most of those wins came against conference foes with stronger recruiting successes. The Arizona Wildcats, California Golden Bears and Washington Huskies have each out-recruited Oregon State year-in and year-out, but the Beavers have four wins against each of those programs in the last five seasons.

    Head coach Mike Riley is one of the longest-tenured coaches in the conference and Corvallis has been a challenging place for more talented teams to visit. The Beavers may never ascend to the top of the Pac-12, but they should be able to consistently contend and thrive in their giant-killer role.

    • It’s nice to get national coverage like that from ESPN, but it’d be nice to eventually grow out of our “upset alert” role and actually become the team-to-beat. Guess we have to crawl before we can walk though.

    • There’s nothing like having the expectation of mediocrity foisted upon you. Some are going to look at this back-handed compliment as reason to think we’ve arrived.

      • well it beats the shit out of being a joke to all of college football for 28 years. espn isn’t “foisting mediocrity” on the beavs’ football program, they’re doing it to themselves in too many ways right now. if whoever wrote that really has that perception of the beavers, it’s not like it’s unreasonable.

  32. Guys who think we recruited better than a lot of the SEC schools.

    We oversign. They do too, but no longer can oversign obscenely. They are limited to 25 incoming each year.

    Thus, the rivals rankings give average stars ratings and sum number of “points”.

    Just because we have more points than Arkansas doesn’t mean our class is better. we just recruited more people.

    If you look at the average star rating, there are a ton of schools ahead of us.

    Ark/MSU have higher average star ratings than us.

    But actually, a funny thing happens. We can actually sort by average star ratings. If you do this, our recruiting class is ranked 42nd.

    So I understand that stars aren’t everything, and a lot of our players play above what their rankings are. But you can’t disagree that a team composed of mostly 4-stars with some 3-stars is better than a team of mostly 3-stars along with some walk-ons.

    And also of note, even though we are currently ranked 4th in recruiting for OL and 9th for DB, we can’t guarantee that we will keep our class intact.

    So I still wouldn’t say we’re as bad as 42nd, but I wouldn’t say we’re as good as 27th either. Maybe somewhere in the middle.

    • Yep, number of signees skews the rankings. That being said, if they can hold it together, this is a great class by Beaver standards.

      I don’t think the Beavs ever signed three 4-star guys who would all actually qualify. They have a few other guys who should be 4-stars, too, and Gilmore lost his 4-star status earlier.

      • Commits who should be four star or higher IMO:
        Seumalo, Smith, Shelton, Wallace, Gilmore, Weinreich, Andrews, Bays, Young, Hasty and Brown.

        Those really close:
        Brice, Noland, Mitchell, Skotte and Stanton

        Brice reportedly gone according to one recruit who tripped with him to Ole Miss. Shelton and Wallace still soft?

        And apparently if your name is Caleb you’re a good enough student to graduate early and enroll in college.

        • Where does Hasiak belong? I would add him to the four star list. I know he’s not technically a commit yet, but from all accounts it sounds like he’ll be a Beav.

          • I would say the four we have on the hook still are all four star plus. We’re looking at Lawler, Hasiak, Martin and Pierce-Brewster.

            I’m guessing all others are greyshirts. Anyone know what that list is? I’ve heard McCaskill is one.

        • I think all of those CBs should be 4-stars, but I’d put Wallace and Brice ahead of Shelton.
          As noted, Brice is staying closer to home. Wouldn’t be surprised if he changes his mind again, but I would be surprised if he recommits to OSU.

          I pretty much agree with your 4+ star list. Bays is so underrated. Andrews and Brown could easily be 4-stars.

          • We saw that with Cooks last year too….

            I wonder how much thought has been given to use kids as a recruiting tactic? Put a ton of resources early on into wooing a charismatic, persuasive, passionate kid in an area with a lot of other good prospects, and then let them help you when the recruiting struggle heats up?

    • Hey, I get what your saying, but even average stars doesn’t tell the whole story. Just look at number 1 and 2 on that list. USC has the highest avg stars, but thats because they have only 12 committs, so that skews their class as well, meanwhile Fla St has three times as many 5 star committs, one less 4star committ and twice as many 3 star recruits, yet they come in second. So, the points system is designed to not overvalue a small class. If you look the number of committs per star ranking it might tell you a little more.

      According to Rivals we don’t have a 5 star recruit, Fla St has three, but Isaac Seumalo is a close to a 5 star as you can get, and I don’t recall OSU ever getting a higher recruit (anyone?). We have three 4 star committs and that ranks 24th, but five teams have double digits. We have eighteen 3 star commits and that ranks 6th overall, Cinncy leads with 26, and I don’t remember a class ever with that many 3 star committs since I have followed OSU football. In fact, I don’t think we have ever had an average of 3 stars ever either (currently 3.0). So, just like alot of things stats don’t lie but they don’t tell the truth either.

      I think this is one of the best classes (if it stays as is) we have ever signed, and that is a step in the right direction. Where we ranked right now is about where we should be ever year, in my opinion. We are not going to have a 5 star kid of the coach every year.

      • the class that was signed in 2001 (after Fiesta bowl) was a better class according to the rankings. Some sites had Derek Anderson as the top rated QB in the Nation.(which I believe was a higher ranking than Seumalo) I believe he was choosing between us and Florida State. That class also had Steven Jackson.

        My memory maybe incorrect but I think that was are highest rated class… (according to internet rankings) This looks like Reilys best class.

        Recruiting website have changed greatly in the last ten years so comparing classes may not be that accurate.

    • Does anybody watch Breaking Bad here? No spoilers, but I just finished Season 2 and have come to the following analogy.

      Angrybeavs : Beaverbyte :: Walter : Walter Jr.

      The website Walter Jr. is working on was making me think of this.

  33. Could it be that rivals/scout are giving more stars to everyone as the years go by so as not to hurt our self esteem and to feather their beds? This is kind of like counting how many trophies you get as a youth soccer player.

    • I don’t really think that star inflation is happening on rivals.

      some classes are better than others. the 2011 was a GREAT class of RB.

      This class is not so good for RB, but better for OL’s.

      Unsure on scout, but rivals has had about the same number of 5* blue-chips throughout the years. 25-35, of which about 15-25 actually ever make a 5* quality difference for a team.

      However, I am concerned about you all being as happy about lawler as you are about shelton. ARE YOU NUTS? or did you just never learn about marginal utility?

      Put into perspective, Kenny Lawler is a miniature upgrade over the guy he will be replacing. Devian Shelton is miles above and beyond the guy he will replace(RR). I mean, Seriously… it isn’t even a competition about who we need more.

      After 2 years of losing due to poorly recruited personnel, we can be compared to a man dying of thirst in a desert.

      It is a diamond water paradox and Shelton is our water and Lawler is our diamond. Lawler would be nice to have in the future, but Shelton’s position is a necessity now or we are doomed.

    • I would think it has more to do with recruiting becoming a bigger business. With the internet, youtube, and more camps I think more and more kids are getting evaluated and looked at so the industry has grown with more recruiting sites, more street agents, etc

    • I’ve been watching him for a while, since he’s down here in Eugene. But I have to wonder why McCaskill doesn’t get any love. Every year, there are players who are left out of the recruiting process/hype, yet they are good enough to play at the next level. He’s just another high motor baller who nobody sees… except that he was a consensus defensive POY in Oregon. I still think JJ Fisher should get the greyshirt offer as well.
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVt2rbxYuHg&feature=related

      • Do you think that it could be as simple as prejudice? Here is a line of thinking. He is from Eugene and if the Ducks are not recruiting him hot and heavy then he must not be any good. Sometimes guys get branded for the wrong reasons. Look what happened to the Rogers brothers. Texas was not interested. And if Texas wasn’t interested, why should A&M be interested. And if A&M wasn’t interested, why would Houston be interested. Sometimes we worry more about what the other guy is thinking or what other folks think of us rather than forging our own identity. I am pleased with the recruiting effort and the projected results of Beaver recruiting. I am optimistic about the future, but not because our stars are better than someone else’s stars,

      • I’m impressed with his discipline, he doesn’t just overcommit and run up the field every time. He needs some size but a greyshirt year should do that quite well. I like to see us keep the local lines open as well.

      • I like on the few occasions where he does get beat by his man, he doesn’t give up on the play and chases down the ball carrier from behind. I’m all for bringing in smart (but possibly undersized) defensive players like this rather than boneheaded athletes who can’t stick to their assignments.

    • Can’t see the video (at work, permissions denied!). Could the kid be moved to MLB if he’s undersized for Pac-12 DE? Many have suggested Wynn could move there (which I think would be great), how about this kid?

  34. As I have been reading this blog the last few weeks I’m reminded of a story I once heard:

    A man goes into a store in a town he has just moved into. The store-keeper begins to converse with the man to be neighborly. The man asks the store-keeper what are the people like around here. The store-keeper asked the man, “well, what were the people like from where you moved from?” The man answered, “they were all very nice, would help you whenever you needed it and just were great all-around”. The store-keeper responded, “well I think you will find that the people around here are very much the same way.”

    Later that same day another man came into the same store. As he was talking with the store-keeper he asked him, “I’m new to the area, what should I expect from the people around here?” The storekeeper asked, “well, how were the people from where you came from? The man said, “they were awaful, they all were spiteful and gossipers and they just didn’t care about anyone but themselves.” The storekeeper responded, “I think you will find that the people around here are very much the same way.”

    Normally the complaint around beaver nation at this time of the year is that the Polyannas are saying stars don’t matter and our recruiting class will be just fine because Riley can find the diamond. This year, our recruiting class has a higher rating and some of you people are saying that the stars don’t matter because the rating agencies must be screwed up. As is always the case, it is easy to slice and dice numbers to say whatever you want them to. I’ve said this before and apparently I’ll say it again, there is plenty around OSU to be negative about that you don’t have to manufacture any.

    • That’s about the dumbest story ever….. and wouldnt happen. The storekeeper is going to trash his customers?? Not likely.

      And you didnt say anything. Yes, there are different opinions on what ratings mean, and everyone has one. So?

      • OK, let me dumb it down for you, the meaning of the story is that people are going to find what they are looking for. Specifically, if you expect to find positive improvement at OSU you will look at this year’s class and see all of the talent that is coming in. If you are looking for the negative you will notice the lack of DT, or will say that the rating system has given OS to much credit.

        I wasn’t trying to talk in riddles, I just find that a story can sometimes illustrate something better than just telling it directly. But, since you prefer it directly I will say it directly – the people on here that are always incredibly negative need to evaluate themselves. At the end of the day, for us fans NCAA Football is still just a game. If it causes you so much grief to be a Beaver fan because there is never anything good that you can see in the program, get out while you still can.

        This recruiting class is a good one for OSU. Yes, it could always be better. Yes, another coach may be able to get it done. Yes, (fill in the blank). But the people on here that are always complaining about the Polyannas, but then are exactly the same with their negativity make me just as annoyed.

        • You still havent said anything. People are going to find what they are looking for? How does that moronic story illustrate that? You think the guy actuall believes one person (the storekeeper) knows all?

          And even that “truism” means nothing. So what? People see the world according to their mood of the day. This isnt some sort of deep wisdom.

          You are annoyed at “negativity”. Fine, –go to O-live! Thats where you find most of the “polyannas”. This site is devoted to a CRITICAL view of OSU athletics. If you dont like that, go away.

          Critical thinking is what can lead to improvement, beyond the improvement expected of simple evolution. If no critical word is spoken, why in hell should anything in the world, improve? So the NEGATIVE statemenst are much more potentially beneficial than the statements of any polyanna. You should applaud the negativity, and be annoyed by the positivity, at least in the face of the current mediocre state of OSU football.

    • Looks like he was with Carolina for a few years as well. Hopefully he can translate his experience into the college level. I think recruits respect coaches that have been nfl players just because they have been the the show. So I guess we will see.

  35. Machado tweeting that we’ve offered Chans Cox

    Lakeside (Ariz.) Blue Ridge LB Chans Cox has been offered by

    From what i’ve hear, Cox and Beavers go well together.

      • No spoiler… You won’t believe where BBad is going to go. Shot me an update as you progress.

        Two others we enjoyed on a catch-up basis. Mad Men and The Tudors. JB

        PS: I can’t wait to get to Signing Day and see what really pans out.

        • I’m all caught up on MadMen and am looking forward to Season 5 (which I think we should be seeing in the next few months)

          Haven’t gotten into the Tudors yet but hear it’s good.

          So far I’m finished with the first 4 episodes of BBad Season 3 and am hooked.

          Justified Season 2 is in the mail too. So much good tv to catch up on.

          • Dexter is phenomenal! Shameless on Showtime just entered it’s second season and it’s a good one two. William H. Macy plays about the best jackass of all time.

          • I thought Dexter was best in the first couple seasons, then they got caught up with some star power for the antagonists, and it got a little weird. But it was still outstanding… just best when the plot was front and center rather than who was playing in the plot.

            Homeland is great too. But I’m a sucker for anything Damian Lewis is in since BOB.

            By far my favorite is Game of Thrones. I thought it was going to be another Camelot knock-off. But it hits you like a freight train, and it doesn’t let go. The serial treatment on HBO is outstanding enough for me to wait to read the books until after I see it. I hear they are outstanding as well.

          • Justified is sortof like a modern day western. Stars Timothy Olyphant. Maybe if we can relate these shows to Angrybeavs (see Walter/Walter Jr. analogy above), Angry will be ok with it. Otherwise, I’ll stop.

          • I can’t say, dude. Too creepy giving out personal info.

            Funny thing, though: I went to a Hollywood party with him a few years ago. Gotta say, it was preettty lame. Bunch of theater dorks patting themselves on the back over bit parts. Not a single one talked about the Beavs… I mean come on. Some cute girls, though. I’ll give them that. I pandered my novel to Charlie from Sunny in Philly most of the night. Then I listened to this 5’5 dude talk about how he nailed Lindsay Lohan. I think this was in ’09 when she was a mess.

  36. I have an article up on Oregon State vs. Minnesota Design Objectives. What Minnesota did with their redesigns won’t be far enough for OSU to compete with Oregon and also be seen as an attractive destination program for top recruits.

  37. Tyner on Sunday tweeted, “Questioning where I will be in a couple years now that this story is going around. Looks legit.”

    Seems if the Ducks don’t play their cards right he will be elsewhere, I wish OSU.

      • Oregon State has had multiple Olympic track and field athletes. Tyner could be very successful in track at Oregon State. He could relaunch the men’s program with huge hype and provide OSU an athlete that would regularly beat the Ducks in big meets. Tyner loves this state so I see no reason to hope he leaves it.

        • Don’t use our history, athletes don’t really want to factor anything past 5 years ago in for good reason. Just because Terry Baker won a heisman being a dual threat QB at OSU doesn’t mean the next Cam Newton will look at OSU when deciding. Thomas will compare the track programs and football programs as they stand today. And academics-wise, we are a science and engineering school and Tyner wants to be a journalist or something like that. So as it stands today,

          90% chance he goes to O.

          10% OSU.

          With those odds, I would certainly hope he leaves the state

          • Check his twitter. 99% chance he goes to Oregon. 0% OSU. Remember, the only game he came to this year was Sac St. and he left at half. This kid is frankly out of our league right now.

        • Yeah, I just went to his twitter page…looks like he’s fully back on board with the Ducks. Not sure why this tweet is relevant today, but that’s beside the point, I guess.

          • If he were fully on board with UO he would never have even considered a pro offer. Clearly he is not fully on board. If I were a Duck fan, I would worry.

  38. Shelton quoted as saying he likes playing man coverage. Also wants a college with academic support (bridge program?)…

    Sounds pretty good.

    One thing with him: there have been rumblings the past few days he might wind up being an academic casualty..

  39. Noticing the Purdue basketball court on ESPN right now is similar to BB’s design. Looks good. There is a trend lately of two tone wood paneling of those who use it many more schools are using darker for the middle court and lighter for in the 3 point arc. Purdue is one of the only ones I have seen that still looks traditional by having a color that is wood tone or close to it in the arc and has that be the darker color. Even Florida uses the lighter color in the arc. I think these two tone designs can be used very effectively if done right but you will stand out more and be more unique if you do it like Purdue IMO. Oregon State could then either leave the darker tone alone or add just a little orange to it.

    • The timing is going to make things interesting since this will come out the day before signing day. It doesn’t give future Duck commits much time to think about their futures with the program.

  40. He didn’t say statement he said “reveal their findings”……I’m driving I-5 right now so I shortened it for safety purposes.

  41. Please enlighten…. I see nothing but facts written followed by a comment about the timing of it all. I don’t even see anything between the lines.

    The sun rises in the east.

    The NCAA will reveal their findings on Tuesday.

    It’s raining here in Eugene.

    Context?

    • I think this guy is going to be the one who breaks the news tonight.

      http://twitter.com/CallMeTip

      Sounds like it’s between WSU and OSU. Lawler is a friend and told twitter followers he would break it on this guys site tonight if more than 500 people followed his friend Austin Blaylock. The most recent tweets sort of tease that maybe it is indeed OSU, but I can’t read between the lines.

      Not sure what this even means, but I like seeing the word “orange” in there:

      “Why me and @AyoItsND introduce ourselves to every last Orange Lutheran female basketball player after their game!!! #Wylinnnn”

    • yeah, totally, You should tell him that with Mike Leach as the new coach, he will probably spend all 5 years on the bench. Make it sound mysterious, like you know what’s up. Like “You won’t understand until your football career is already flushed down the toilet” and throw a lot of “nevermind”‘s in there when he asks you hard questions.

      no, but seriously, don’t. This is a young kids life we’re talking about. He should make the decision based off of what he has experienced.

    • I don’t know about the whole social media thing. I lurk because it’s like mainlining info. But I wouldn’t bother these kids with what I think they should do. I’m not their parent. I’m not their friend. I’m just some middle-aged ass who loves his school and all its teams. I think it would be madly disrespectful to any one of them for me to pretend to be something I’m not. I don’t go to their pages and say anything good or bad. It’s their life.

      And if they came here and said bad things about my team or school, then I’d go ass-hole pit bull on them like I did yesterday. Hell, that could have been Lawler himself that was tatting with my tits.

      Wait… that didn’t come out right….

      But I would have given him the same treatment because I respect him and everyone else enough for them to know that I’m not going to take shit for the hell of it. I’m at least going to deserve it first.

      I think these kids are savvy enough to probably pick out the liars in the crowd. If you thought my little test was fun, imagine what all the Wazzu and Beav people following those kids’ Twitter feeds would do at the first sign of naysaying. Actually, you don’t really have to imagine. You can just go to the O-live sports section and start reading the comments. There are hours of eye-bleeding fun on those pages.

  42. Leach is an idiot savant genious who will eventually implode again, Riley is “neat”………If I was Lawler I’d play it safe and take Mr.Mayberry.

    • Biggins is reporting that he is waiting to hear from Cal on whether he can visit this weekend or not. So it sounds like we will have to wait until NLOI day.

      other note: Sark the Nark will be doing an In-Home visit with Chase Eldridge this week.

  43. Cal already got Darius Powe, really don’t want to see Lawler end up there too. Both guys were high on Oregon State at one time.

  44. Coaching Changes.
    I read that 86 of the 120 FBS schools had coaching changes in the last 5 years. That is 72%. That includes ND, tOSU, Auburn, USC, Oregon, Florida, Miami, UWV, Stanford, Alabama, and now Penn State among others.
    All of those schools have played in the NCS or other major bowls.
    The schools like Wake, Rutgers, Troy, CAL and OSU have not. There seems to be a small correlation between success and coaching complacency.
    Since 8 out 10 of the original Pac-10 schools have made coaching changes and 9 out 12 of the current Pac-12 schools have changed, one wonders what is in store for those that sit and wait.
    If MR is going stay until he retires, do we have a Rose Bowl or NCS in our future?

  45. Throw out PSU, tOSU, Florida, USC, ND and Miami. None of the first four have won since their long-time coaches who took them to those games have moved on. And the last two have been jokes longer than OSU has after last playing in a BCS game around the time OSU played in one… which you also incorrectly state… along with your assertion about Wake. Troy will never play in a BCS game… well, not in my lifetime.

    And then you leave out schools like OU, Texas, Utah, TCU, Boise, oSu, VaTech and Wisconsin when you talk about BCS attendees. And you forget to mention Louisville, Kansas, Cincy and Hawai’i as BCS schools who have changed their coaches.

    I think there might be a valid discussion about MR’s attitude the last couple years… or his and his staff’s attention to detail. I think MR could do better with solid talent. But I don’t ignore that the talent present is his responsibility. And it looks to be upgraded significantly in the next couple years.

    But don’t go looking for something that isn’t there. Just go straight for your argument and see where that leads.

  46. So, to answer the question, if MR stays until he retires, is there there a better chance or worse chance of a Rose Bowl or NCS game for OSU.

    • I think it has to do with the talent, attention to detail and attitude. We’ve seen that MR can get to the brink with the first. But we’ve been talking about the other two for years now. The uptick in recruiting seems to be a harbinger for a change in those aspects. But we have yet to see it on the field. Until we do, I think the consensus is that we won’t see a RB or another BCS game under MR.

      Still, MR is proving us wrong in his recruiting activities. So I wouldn’t put it past him to do so on the field as well. And he seems poised to do so in the near future with the level of talent he’s bringing in to complement what we now have.

      In the end, it may not be up to MR. It may be up to Sean Mannion, Chris Brown, Isaac Seumalo, Brandin Cooks, Scott Crichton, Donnel Welch, et al. The new batch of kids may not allow MR to fail.

        • No, I called you lazy and disrespectful for saying that the talent level had everything to do with the players and nothing to do with the coaches who put the players on the field. You argued that Banker is a good coach, which he very well may be. But you gave him a COMPLETE pass on the other half of his NCAA coaching position… recruiting and development.

          And if I was to carry your talent argument further, then I undervalue those aspects of coaching in the NCAA by giving it only 50%. But that would then make Banker a poor coach.

          • “No, I called you lazy and disrespectful for saying that the talent level had everything to do with the players and nothing to do with the coaches who put the players on the field.”

            Which is why I said: “I’m not saying the bad defenses of last 2 years is 0% Banker’s fault…”

          • I admit to being a little harsh in my response, but the context of that discussion was Banker versus the world. He had just made his umpteenth smarmy snipe at the fans while blaming his personnel for just losing.

            In college, the name of the game is recruiting. If you don’t do it, you are not doing your job. If you’re not doing you’re job, you can’t be called a good coach. So the claim that the talent level has been poor is valid. But to even pretend to blame that same talent for even being on the field, let alone losing, is just wrong.

        • And now that I look back at those stats, it looks like we were likely giving Banker far too much of a pass for his poor recruiting and development. It looks like he had one great year with DE holdovers, started falling off, then had one more year after the first class he recruited matured. That first class was likely his best since there is always an energy which surrounds new coaching staffs which draws recruits.

          But the numbers fall way off after that, and there’s nobody to blame but the coach when that happens. If I go out and recruit Plans C and D forever, I’m not going to blame them for not beating Plans A and B.

          THAT is lazy and disrespectful.

  47. Or the question could be, has MR been given enough time to get OSU to a BCS game? Coaches like Peterson, Kelly, Chizak, and Shaw have all done it in a much shorter time, which begs the question of why, with all of his own recruits on board does a team go 3-9?
    If you think there is no one out there that is better than MR to get us to the BCS, then fine.

    • I legitimately believe that the deal we are paying mike riley is a very good one.

      He is a very high value coach. And the expensive coaches will probably want to coach for a superpower anyway, somewhere in the SEC.

      We have a good thing with Riley, and I would say that it is some of the assistant coaches that would be the problems.

      IF Riley took playcalling duties and did more himself, I would have no grounds to complain. He is a fine coach, and he has taken us places before.

    • The first two are just damn good football coaches. Chizik has had a less than stellar career except for one year when he was gifted the best player in the nation… and a lot of luck. And Shaw will likely not see another BCS bowl now that he loses the best player in the nation for this past year.

      I think most of us here think there are other coaches who can do better than MR here and now. And we fight the sentiment that OSU just can’t do better. That sentiment is thrown at us as if the world knows exactly what we’re talking about here… as if OSU will never be great under MR, but we should just accept our lot in life because nobody better will come to Corvallis.

      That’s just crap. The outside world doesn’t get to take a sideways glance at my school, make incorrect assumptions, then tell me what my expectations should be. If we’re talking about a business, which most believe college football now is, then my expectation is to be the best at that business. Period. I’ve never worked anywhere where we didn’t have the expectation to remain the best in our industry or to identify that best and surpass it.

      That being said, perhaps MR can do this. I always hesitated when talk of Mike Leach came up because he has never been able to get over that hump and go BCS either. Even in his one great season where he had luck on his side he couldn’t do it. But he also did good things for a program who didn’t expect as much as he did give them. Perhaps he can do more at Wazzu. We shall see.

      • Chizik is a HORRENDOUS coach to the point that Auburn fans were(and now are) picketing against him. He came from Iowa state with a 5-19 record.

        Cam Newton(Mack Truck) and Michael Dyer(Really fast, hard to bring down) saved him one year. But this year he went 8-5 with a literally AMAZING class. Michael Dyer, Quan Bray, Kiehl Frazier… and he goes 8-5?!!?

    • Riley has never even coached in the second place bowl game. Never has he seen a Holiday bowl or now a Alamo bowl. How can we expect BCS games out of this guy. Now we are looking at three years straight without any bowl! There is a natural progression of bench marks that that many beaver fans seem to ignore. Look at Oregon for example: Sun Bowl….Holiday bowl….Rose …. BCS….Rose…. OSU on the other hand: Vegas Bowl….No Bowl….No Bowl… Our goals should not be a BCS bowl at this point, we simply need the Kraft fight hunger bowl. Right now, I am not confident that Riley can get us there!

  48. I can give MR credit for taking us places but those places have not been the NCS, Rose, Alamo, or even Holiday Bowls. We get crap like the Sun Bowl in drug infested El Paso, which I will never go back to again. Or rainy and cold Las Vegas or San Francisco. MR has been here a total of 11 years and not once taken us to a good bowl. Dennis Erickson showed that it could be done quickly asdid coaches at other schools. My initial position is that complacency breeds mediocrity and that is where I think OSU football is at. While it looks like we are having a very good recruiting year, so are CAL, Stanford, Oregon, USC, UCLA, and UW. So I don’t see how we can move up with MR and this current staff. The league is getting much tougher and we need this type of recruiting just to stay even.

  49. Stinks on PO posted this morning “phils university has been contacted and briefed by the ncaa about their findings concerning possible violations..the consequences of the violations are not severe…no word about when the information becomes public..”

    Curious if his source is legit?

    • From Pelhament on ATQ:

      The NCAA does not leak information. They tell you by mass email or text that they have completed their investigation and will hold a news conference on such and such date at such and such time to report their findings.

      • As I understand the process:
        1. Someone reports a violation… usually the school.
        2. The NCAA does preliminary interviews to see if there were actual violations committed.
        3. If there were none committed or just secondary violations committed, they wrap it up and say, “Don’t do that anymore! We’re watching you.”
        4. If the NCAA thinks something serious occurred, they send a Letter of Inquiry to the school… which the school may or may not share with the public. Nikegon said they received their notice over the phone, which is just a lie.
        5. Interviews and investigations continue along the subjects outlined in the LOI. The NCAA officially has six months to send a Letter of Allegations. But they can extend that period to up to a year by informing the school of such an action. If they want to extend it beyond a year, they have to show that they are still actively pursuing leads, not just waiting for something else to happen. And at any time they may send another LOI if their investigations find something else.
        6. If the NCAA exhausts all leads without connecting the dots, they must send the school notice that the investigation has concluded. If they do find that major violations have been committed, they have to give the school notice that they will announce their LOA (24 or 48 hours… I forget which). The LOA will tell everyone what level of major violation the NCAA thinks was committed (failure to monitor, LOIC, etc.).
        7. After the LOA is received, the school has 90 days to respond. It’s usually in this period when the school self-sanctions in the hopes that the NCAA will be satisfied with the discipline.
        8. After the school responds to the LOA, the NCAA summons them to the Rules Committee (Committee on Infractions?). About a month prior, they hold an informal meeting to see if they’re all on the same page. If all parties are on the same page, they forgo the Committee meeting and move to the penalty phase.
        9. Penalties are meted.
        10. Appeals are heard.
        11. Final judgement.

  50. I sometimes feel like I’m at “Cheers” in Corvallis. Jack ( Norm ) walks in and takes his seat. Everyone in the bar says “Jack” to which he gives a witty reply. Angry ( Sammie ) is behind the bar serving drinks and drinking out of a bottle of water. On the opposite side of the bar is Dr. Silverstream055 ( Frazer ) caught up in intellectual conversation with Pettibonehead ( Klavin ). In this episode Fred Dryer playing himself challenges the bar to a bet that his SDSU Aztec team will annihilate the pathetic Beavers. And losers will parade down 4th st in Corvallis wearing just their shoes. Angrys say “Hey I don’t know about that. Pettibonehead calls Dryer a pathetic wimp. Silverstream055 says” wait guys look at the great class that is coming in this year” and Jack responds ” we certainly have the coaching staff that is the cat’s meow, so sure your on” Be sure to stay tuned for the exciting conclusion.

  51. I don’t know if the source is legit but a huge Duck booster says that the IT department at Oregon provided hundreds of emails and months of phone records to the NCAA over the last few months and they were going over them with a fine tooth comb. At least there was due diligence this time by the NCAA which seems to blow a different direction every time the wind blows. My guess is mild to moderate penalty but we will know in less than a week.
    Maybe KVAL or Aaron Fentress can mis-report something sooner.

  52. “… IT department at Oregon provided hundreds of emails and months of phone records to the NCAA over the last few months…”

    Somehow a variation of the saying “if you can’t dazzle them with your brilliance, baffle them with your bullshit” seems appropriate. Either that or money talks, bullshit walks. Could phil be throwing his weight around?

    • It is my understanding that the NCAA determined what needed to be turned over and not anyone in the IT department. They were task with making EVERYTHING accessible. I think the NCAA has upgraded their resources as of late and have very good investigative tools. If money could have solved things then USC and tOSU would not have gotten as much uncovered. Besides, no matter what your opinion of Phil Knight is, he is way too smart to get involved in this. He makes too much money off Collegiate apparel.

      • I completely agree with you on this one in the fact that Phil Knight is getting out of dodge and does not want anything to come to his Alma Mater. I would be surprised if he had continued to give money to the football program ‘directly’ and he does own part of Nike…sooo…he is very familiar with accounting and how to keep secrets.

    • I agree, 7 wins should determine a bowl, these mediocre-bowls are just getting really old. Plus, puts more pressure on BDC if Riley doesn’t get 7 wins.

      • My thought too. Getting an extra million for five wins and a FCS speed bump (if you’re that lucky) just doesn’t sit right with me.

        I think conferences should standardize nine game league schedules (which would obviously require conferences to have at least 10 schools), and set bowl eligibility at seven FBS wins.

    • This may be the only thing that I agree with you on. Get rid of the FCS games that no one wants to pay for or watch, unless you are in the SEC. Get rid of 5-10 bowl games that no one cares about or wants to go to. There were a number of games with almost nobody in the stands. But ESPN controls a lot of this so good luck.

  53. Interesting note from USA Today.

    A review of the NCAA’s own database of major violations finds that over the previous 10 years, 53 of the 120 institutions that now compete in the Bowl Subdivision broke major NCAA rules. That is one fewer than the 54 that committed major violations in the 1990s, according to the NCAA database, although the total number of cases in the 2000s — 65 — was actually one higher than in the 1990s.

    That’s because 11 institutions had two major infractions cases during the decade: Ball State, Fresno State, Florida International, TCU, Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Michigan, Oklahoma, Southern California, and Washington.

    While critics often complain the NCAA picks on less-prominent sports programs and goes easy on the highest-profile institutions, the results from the 2000s don’t necessarily back that up. More universities in the Big Ten (eight) were punished for major violations than in any other league, followed by seven in the Big 12 and Southeastern Conferences and six in the Pacific-10, all of which are among the six leagues in the Bowl Championship Series that are typically seen as college sports’ biggest players.

  54. So explain why greyshirts are good? and have we had one succeed?

    It seems like they come in undersized and/or need practice and they don’t get either since they don’t enroll until later, they don’t get practice time or the training table or the weight room.

  55. Sounds like Lawler is pretty split on WSU or OSU. Said he wants to do broadcasting which OSU does not have and WSU’s broadcasting program is top notch. So let’s see if Brennan can close the deal. This kid is going to be special. I saw his senior film, it’s good. The burst he gets off the line is incredible and only going to get better.

    • “Said he wants to do broadcasting which OSU does not have and WSU’s broadcasting program is top notch. ” Then he should go to WSU.

      • OSU has a New Media Communications degree. There is a full television studio inside Snell Hall, with a complete soundstage, large storage space full of props, and a control room. The possibilities are endless when you become involved in working for KBVR-TV and you will work alongside peers who want to be the best and make you better. Also inside Snell Hall is KBVR-FM, which is another way communications students learn the trade. Graduates have went on to work for major telecommunications firms such as Newsweek, Turner Broadcasting, Comcast, Portland Trailblazers, television affiliates, and much, much more.

        So, anyone to dispute that we don’t have this degree, bring it on. I can argue all day about it.

  56. Anyone else have this stomach flu that’s going around? It’s horrible, I feel like a drank bad water from a foregin country, that’s all that seems to be coming out of me!

    Angry, could you add a button or link that takes you to the last post? It would be awesome for us smart phone users.

  57. Fans need to move on from Lawler. Riley and co. aren’t happy with his character and have basically moved on. He has wrote some pretty ignorant tweets, and the final straw was one he wrote yesterday that had fans from both OSU and WSU pretty upset. We are honestly better off without the kid. His dad is using his son to boost his own business and is trying to use the media to pull him every which way. It’s pathetic really, because he’s not exactly the greatest athlete on the board, so to have that much of a circus be created is kind of a head scratcher. I’ve personally moved on and know a lot of other people have too, but it’s not something to be upset about because the kid and his parents have a lot of question marks surrounding them.

  58. Yes you hit the nail on the head when you said locker room cancer. He is a me-first type of person, not a team player. His dad has instilled that in him. His dad is playing some strange games with people. The whole thing is bizzare. In some respects, I feel sorry for Kenny Jr. because his parents have gotten so nutty during his recruitment. To see a father like Malik’s, who is a genuine, nice guy who is honestly pumped for his son, and compare it to Kenny Sr., it’s like night and day.

  59. I’m not worried about WR. It’s the only position I’ve never worried about under Riley. Walk-ons will become all-conference. Highly rated prospects will eventually be AA candidates… if they don’t get taken out by a late hit in the end zone.

    If there’s one thing MR does do well, it’s manage egos. Sometimes we think he does it too well, thus taking the edge off the team. So if Lawler buys into MR’s system, I wouldn’t worry too much about that. We don’t need him with the personnel already on board. He would be the salt and pepper on top of the gravy.

  60. There was a brief discussion that began yesterday about FBS ( formerly D1-A) teams scheduling FCS ( formerly D1-AA) teams. I prefer the old designations as more easily understood, but that’s another conversation.

    While this type of scheduling has been around for awhile it increased recently due to emphasis from the NCAA. At the annual coaches’s convention around 2001 (?), or thereabout, the NCAA began to “strongly” encourage D1-A teams to schedule D1-AA teams. The D1-AA teams typically play in smaller venues and smaller markets, hence they are often revenue challenged.

    D1-A teams were strongly encouraged to begin scheduling a relatively local D1-AA team. Purely and simply this translates to a huge payday for the D1-AA team. If this type of scheduling were not to occur the NCAA was willing to entertain a form of overall “revenue sharing.”

    As an incentive the annual D1-AA game was allowed to count against the minimum six wins required for post season play.

    So far the system seems to be working as the revenue sharing threats have pretty much ceased. The downside to the D1-A team is a non-attractive home game or worse the possibility of a demoralizing loss, i.e. Sac State or Appy St v. Michigan. JB

    • I understand the logistics and the incentive. But it just makes for crap football. And crap football is about as fun to watch as dressage.

      Perhaps the addition of a 12th game was to alleviate fans’ growing discontent over having to pay for crap games when they buy season tickets.

      But it’s the vastly underrated story when talking about how the BCS has just ruined college football. Play four patsies (three for Pac teams). Handle the poor teams in your own league. Play three tough games (maybe?). Win a league championship game.

      Those who aren’t lucky enough to get the patsies end up having to play in good football games… games they might lose. Those who get the patsies get the glory. And since the patsies are in high demand they can afford to get them back time and again with large guaranteed payouts.

      Drop the scholarship limit to the same as FCS (I agree that 1A and 1AA is better nomenclature), and I might be interested again.

      Oh… and it totally sucks to lose that game. At least Minnesota could say they lost to a good team.

    • It’s a poorly regulated market, and poor or no regulation in a market makes it no longer a free market due to predatory tactics used by those who control the market. The tendency over time is for the concentration ratio to trend toward 1.0.

      I wonder if anyone has run college football through an HHI calculation. I’d be interested to see where it ends up.

      • Hmmm… a little light reading on the subject:
        http://www.jsasonline.org/home/v2n2/articles/JSASVolume2/v2_i1_breakouts/v2_i1_Dittmore-Crow.pdf

        If you want to skip the number crunching, you can go to page 9 where the conclusions begin. It’s interesting that the “churning” within the conferences but below the conference elite is noted but not weighted as heavily as the seeming destiny of a certain elite winning the conference. The authors seem to be arguing for oligopoly (SEC) with no competition rather than monopoly (Pac 10) with vast competition. It’s also interesting that conference realignment was noted as a possible cure for that ailment.

        I would posit that money and marketing (or hype) have more to do with their perceptions being weighted as they are. It probably doesn’t hurt that the lead researcher is an Arky prof either.

    • The opposite occurs. Take any D1-AA team… they will play at least one D1-A team for a pay day and accept the probable loss as a cost of doing business. As any other football program the coaches survival is dependent on winning and, in the case of D-AA, advancing to the playoffs. They in turn will schedule down to D-2 and even D-3. Those games are also relative mismatches, so the cycle devolves upon itself. JB

      • I think there was an article about how difficult it was for the elite FCS teams to schedule those big paydays a couple years ago. After App St beat Michigan, it became apparent that the FBS team was the only team with anything to lose by playing the game. So the highly ranked FCS schools began having trouble scheduling those huge markets with huge stadiums. Only the lesser teams within the FCS were getting calls.

        Remember that schedules are set up to five years in advance… or more. So Montana at Tennessee would have been avoided in a post-App St world… as would JMU at VaTech and Jax St at Ole Miss. Teams like EWU and NDSU have no choice but to take lesser paydays against the OSU’s and Minnesota’s of the world. EWU got a double payday from OSU’s buy-out and the loss at Nevada. Then they went on to win the FCS championship. NDSU took the lesser payday and went on to thank the host by beating them… and on to this year’s championship. Montana took their huge payday and went on to lose in the semi’s.

        The losers in this arrangement will eventually be the elite FCS schools who settle for lesser paydays (which are more money than they would normally see, but less than they should command), and the D2 and D3 schools who will no longer be scheduled against FCS schools because the lower FCS schools who would play them will be in demand for the bigger paydays offered by fearful FBS schools.

        And it’s not like these paydays do anything substantial for the FCS schools anyway. There’s not a single FCS program who wouldn’t be better off from a revenue and expenditure standpoint by losing their football program. And half the FBS schools are in the same boat. Those who want to argue against Title IX only have an argument for the 60 or so colleges who actually break even or make money on football. That’s about 10% of all the college football teams in the US. And it doesn’t account for the likely 15-20 of those 60 who fudge the numbers just so they can claim they are making a profit.

        • It looks like this topic is too esoteric to generate much discussion, but I think it’s interesting.

          Most of the college presidents at the non-profitable schools would make an argument about football enhancing the overall college experience for the entire student body. In fact there are a few recent cases of football being reinstated because it’s absence changed the overall complexion of the entity.

          I personally am willing to buy it. Not everything has to be reduced to profit and loss. JB

          • That should be the point of all college sports. Not only does it increase camaraderie among the students and enrich their college experience. It provides the alumni to trek back to those events and mingle with current students and student athletes. Some of those athletics are insular in their fan bases, limited to die-hard fans of the sport, the family and friends of the competitors and the alumni. But because of diversity those can be some of the most important people you might have on your campus at any given time. And networking that resource can be an invaluable tool for all your students and alumni, not just the athletes.

          • Back in the really old days, it occurs to me that none of it was profit and loss. Football was all done for the sport and prestige of it. Is that true?

          • Back in the old days (early 70’s) at UC Davis, our frosh played teams like Stanford, Nevada and San Jose State. The varsity played Portland State (heyday of run and shoot), Boise and UOP. We played in a bowl game in a convention center in Atlantic City with a short field the day after a dog show. No scholarships. Excused from practice for lab classes. We once scored 16 points in the last 30 seconds of a game to beat a rival. Profit and loss not so much. The BCS system is corupt and should be burned to the ground. But why do we really need a national champion? Have we become so European that we really need a king? Are we so bored that nothing interests us unless we can bet on it?

  61. Here’s a hilarious signing-day article: http://www.sbnation.com/college-football-recruiting/2012/1/26/2737256/how-to-signing-day-part-three-the-signing-day-cycle-of-emotion-but

    This quote is SO Oregon State-fan:

    Statement: “I’m happy with this class. We don’t believe in oversigning. We did it our way: with integrity, class, and with a real focus on the student-athlete.”

    Translation: “We signed 14 players including two kickers. I am on the verge of crying at every moment of this day.”

  62. On the Scout message boards there’s a story saying the Beavs are in a recruiting battle royale for a player from America Samoa. Anybody know who this is they’re talking about?

    “AMONG THE PRIZES still remaining to be claimed in the 2012 recruiting class, a highly sought 6-4, 260-pounder who hails from American Samoa. He has double digit offers, including four from Pac-12 schools. And the Beavers are way up high on the list.”

    • I know a guy from Tonga and he was telling me that there are a lot of Oregon State and Oregon fans over on those islands. He speculated that it was probably because they were two of the first schools to really recruit hard over there and offer them a shot to play in the NFL some day. I didn’t know any of this so I thought it was pretty cool.

  63. Destiny Vaeao is who they are talking about. He visited the Beavs last week and visited the Cougs prior to us. Outside of that I know nothing about him. The other American Somoa committed as a greyshirt so maybe that will help get him?

  64. Is the staff done? I am not seeing much going on right now, there are no visits this weekend. I am getting the feeling that the staff is done for 2012, and are just going to work on the targets they have right now like Martin (vists ASU this weekend), Young, and Vaeao. Maybe some more greyshirts? I see more activiatty on offering 2013 recruits about three from Oklahoma and one from Texas. I think I saw one from yesterday from AZ.

    Meanwhile, Sark has rented a hotel room in Sacramento and brought down 7 other coaches to help him recruit 5 star players Shaq Thompson and Arik Armstead. Seems desperate, but showing a go for it attitude.

  65. Angry, could you add a button or link that takes you to the last post? It would be awesome for us smart phone users.

    Not sure if this is easy to do or not…

  66. According Biggins”:
    Greg Biggins @GregBiggins
    · Close Open Details Final decision is in for San Jose DB Cleveland Wallace, “I’m a solid commit to the Beavers.” Huge to keep Wallace, he’s a baller

    • Biggins also reported that it was Banker and Read who closed the deal in the in-home visit…..what!!! and a UW coach not named Heyward did the in home visit with Wallace.

      From everything I’ve heard, it sounds like Heyward is keeping his word that he wouldn’t actively recruit players committed to OSU from UW.

      • Actively being the key word.

        I really like Wallace.

        With all the DB’s coming in, who thinks Banker is finally going to shake things up? I think we’re going to a 4-2-5 or something even more radical than that starting next year. It has to be done just to get Wallace, Hasty, Shelton, Brice, Young, Hill, Noland and Robinson on the field with the likes of Watkins, TZ, Murph, Ash, Poyer, RR, Martin and the Commish already here.

        Hell… put them all out there and tell them to just avoid the big lumbering types to get to the ball.

        • I think we see a bunch of these guys on special teams too. Gotta let these guys play and becoming solid on special teams would be one way to do it.

  67. Well, they have not lost anybody, so there’s no reason to think they will lose Shelton now. However if they do lose him getting Wallace is a nice insurance policy for that position.

    I would like to see them keep and get, Chis Young and Steffon Martin, respectively.

  68. This class will look pretty good if we close Shelton. We still have room for improvement, though.

    Actually, if there is one player we actively hunt down and close, it is Kentrell Brice. Not Lawler, like you people think.

    He may also be easier to close. Lawler’s twitter appears to be about hoes and ballin. Brice’s contains references to god in every other tweet.

    You don’t have to be a man of god to see that Brice certainly seems the better dude. And being from SEC country, he probably will turn out a fair bit better in terms of how much he actually cares about football. He will more likely put in long hours and improve throughout the years. Lawler will probably be a problem child.

    We also have a better chance of landing Brice than Lawler for several reasons. First, there is no strip club in corvallis. However, there are a plethora of churches in Corvallis. And Brice is far more likely to earn playtime than Lawler. Lawler also has better prospects in the Area he is considering. Lawler can play at most schools in the Pac-12. Brice barely got offered by the one overtly racist school in the SEC, that went 0-8 in the SEC and 2-10 overall, losing to Louisiana Tech(really, their band plays Dixie before games. And fans wave the confederate flag during games.)

    I, for one, will be appalled if Riley picks up Lawler over Brice. Riley should make it a no-brainer at this point.

  69. I too have soured on Lawler, all he would do for us is increase our team ranking. He seems like he could be a problem, but again it is hard to tell threough twitter. If Brandin Cooks likes him then I would take his word for it.

    • Not hard to tell through twitter. Not in the least bit.

      Funny you mention Cooks… Cooks has a twitter profile that reads somewhat similar to Brices. A lot of references to god, and while it does not demonstrate a grasp of english in the least bit, it reflects a kind-hearted kid.

      Actually, Cooks should see Lawler as competition. Although Cooks will likely beat him out. I guess they just became friends. That doesn’t say anything about whether the kid is good for the program.

        • That’s BS. I haven’t seen any comments which remotely lead me to believe BM is a bigot. In fact, I think he spoke against bigotry on Lawler’s Tweet earlier in this thread.

        • Pretty sure i’m a brown agnostic… hard to be a bigot in that capacity, isn’t it?

          I’m just saying that men who have twitter feeds talking about how they are so good and that all the skanks want them tend to have a higher rate of character issues than people who have twitter feeds talking about god. This applies to Islam as well. If a recruit was a devout muslim, then he might be even better. Islam keeps a very tight watch on what you can and cannot do(haram)

          • Big*ot

            Noun

            A person who is utterly intolerant of any differing creed, belief, or opinion.

            No mention of what colors can or can’t be a bigot. Not saying you are one,just clarifying that just because you’re brown doesn’t automatically disqualify you from racism or bigotry. For example,if you’re Hawaiian and you hate Japanese people you are a bigot even though there are no black or white people in the equation.

            Carry on.

      • Cooks isn’t friends with Lawler on Facebook, but he is friends with our other recruits. Cooks seems like a very nice guy with a kind heart, I would trust his judgement.

    • I say if we got an extra ship for a WR, we should close up the recruiting shop and just give it to Mitch Singler.

      I’m only half kidding. I get the feeling that he would succeed if he were to play. But he never plays, so my feelings are unjustified.

      Does silver or anyone else know about the scout team players?

      Another kid in that same mold is Torrey Rogness over at Silverton. I’m sure the coaches are fully aware of everyone on that roster considering who their coach is. But I like the kid’s game.
      http://www.hudl.com/athlete/859282/torrey-rogness

      Who knew losing Espitia early would cause all these headaches?

    • I could get a good look at a T-Bone by sticking my head up a bulls @ss, but, I’d rather take the butchers word for it.

      Or the Tommy Boy version:

      I could get a good look at a T-Bone by sticking my head up a butchers @ss, but…wait it’s gotta be your bull…

  70. The CW basketball game is not big, it is a MUST win or we will be delegated to buying our way into the CBI again. There are way too many teams ahead of us to make to the NCAA Big Dance. People are saying probably only 2 teams from the PAC but 3 from the WCC (Gonzaga, BYU, and St. Marys).
    Even the NIT wants teams with 20 wins and unless we start winning immediately and on the road it will be a cold and dark winter.

  71. Per Gazettetimes.com

    “The recruiting of the six potential offensive linemen ranks the Beavers No. 5 in the country at that position, and the eight defensive backs have the Beavers ranked No. 9 in the country.”

    Read more: http://www.gazettetimes.com/sports/beavers-sports/football/osu-football-hardin-adapts-at-shrine-game-recruiting-continues/article_5ad048ae-45f6-11e1-a75a-001871e3ce6c.html#ixzz1kgmopk2t

    This is awesome news…seeing how we’ve struggled with recruiting for those 2 positions in the past! Top 5 OL class and top 10 DB’s class! SWEET DEAL!!!

  72. Both will be heavily recruited. But I like that our coaches have made O-line the priority. With the class we have now, the young QB’s coming in and up, and one outstanding RB in Brown, these kids might really enjoy it if OSU gets back to a grinding run game.

    I look forward to the near future when play-action will be a good call, not something to laugh at.

  73. Okay so I don’t really like tape, they all look good, but I can’t judge competition. They all look much bigger than their opponents. So, tell me outside of thier size and complete domination, what are the things they do well?

    Our OL class is nice, Stanfords is even better. I like the emphasis too, but can we close on these guys? This is where it is in football is getting guys in the trenches, been yelling for that for years. We need to get back to the Devan, Levitre, and Perry days.

    Hopefully the DL will be worked on this upcoming season.

    • Hopefully Tonga works out like maybe one William Vea did back in the day. But there needs to be another Booth and Coker to rotate with him. Are we going to find those players this year or next?

      The o-line looks decent to good next year. Then it looks downright nasty for years to come.

      What I see right off on all those kids’ tapes is that they are all athletic.

      I wasn’t thrilled in the middle of Harlow’s tape that he decided to get chippy with some DB, and the DB took him and threw him down. Kyle Murphy got flagged a couple plays later for doing the same thing, but he ended up flicking his DB like a fly. But getting chippy well after the play does not make a mean streak. It makes you cheap. All correctable I’m sure.

      Now Lacy has a mean streak. And he has some real speed as well. He looks a lot like an ASU LT who played back in the mid to late 80’s who I just can’t remember right now.

      But I like Falah the best. His first step is outstanding. He can keep his man back-pedaling with constant punching and a constant stride. He rarely gets stuck on both heels at one time. He doesn’t have the speed Lacy has, but his first step puts him way ahead of the defense. And he just doesn’t let up. He’s less Jimmy Connors or John McEnroe and more Ivan Lendl or Roger Federer. The kid’s just a machine.

      • Thanks just what I was looking for.

        Yeah one more like Booth would be ideal, guess we got spend some more time in the rough to find that diamond.

  74. I was listening to a SIRIUS college sports recruiting show tonight. A Nebraska fan called in about Shelton, basically looking for some hope that he would end up there. Recruiting expert still thought NU had a decent chance but he could have just been blowing smoke. I do remember that the last NU/OSU battle did not end well for the Beavs. It’s the Beavs turn.

    • It definitely seems like its crawling here. I am getting a sense that the Beaver staff is done, and have switched their focus to 2013. There are still a few recruits out there they are working on, but for the most part I think 2012 is over and they will just wait and see who signs.

      I wish they would announce the coaching replacement.

      • Me too but Riley won’t even hint until after signing day. Let’s hope he brings in a DC and bump Banker to another spot…. hey… a guy can dream can’t he?

    • I knew this guy would get a shot, he is special.. not to take take anything away from Quizz, but James is I think in more regards talented in the fact he can do so many things with great skill: running, catching, returning. The whole 9 yards.

    • That’s great for James. Hopefully that knee is back to pre-injured form by the combine. That’s a tough injury to come back from.

    • I hope all goes well in Rodger’s case. But it may be better for him to go into coaching, as that is what he wants to do.

      The ACL injury is possible to recover from if one is lucky, but the unhappy triad is highly unlikely. Adrian Peterson also, will likely never be as fast as he once was. The unhappy triad pretty much destabilizes your knee entirely.

      • Yeah.. the triple CL is unimaginable to try to come back from. I guess if anyone can do it, it will be James. But i don’t hold out much hope. We’re talking about a sure-fire All-American being reduced to just a good receiver. And credit James for getting to be “just a good receiver.” If he didn’t have the finest health care available and a set mind, he probably wouldn’t be walking today.

        • Yeah, definitely. The hard work he put into rehab must also play a part in it. It is certainly unfortunate. But we have had the fortune of having both the Rodgers brothers at OSU, and they have been a class act.

          Good luck to both of them wherever their pursuits take them.

  75. Ok… I know you all think I’m crazy for my four month man-crush on Dalis Bruce. I can’t apologize. i think the kid has something special for the next level. And I wish our coaches were the ones to figure it out.

    My dream class last summer was Wallace, Hasty and Bruce at CB. I know our coaches are aware of Bruce, but Hasty filled the position. With Brice’s de-commitment, do our coaches finally see the light and bring Bruce into the fold?

    I personally can’t believe they might have half-assed any kid. I don’t want to think that of any of our coaches. But maybe KH had favorites?

    All I know is that I can’t find fault in the kid’s game.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trp1WXe5eaI

    • Dude! Signing day is a hoax. The period for signing a National Letter of Intent ends in mid-April. so one could conceivably wait for a couple months before signing a NLI.

      But worse than that is that any one of these kids could ask any of these schools to give them a guaranteed scholarship should they enroll. But few to zero kids do so.

  76. One day Jack and Angry were walking down the street in Corvallis, and they chanced to meet Mike Riley, walking his dog…

    Angry said…. (continue the story)

  77. Yea… awesome to have such a great game name after you…. “You don’t know Bill” just doesn’t have the same effect….. are we at 600 yet?

  78. With a couple of days before we all start evaluating 2012 class, I’d like to hear input regarding the 20 kids that were redshirted in 2011. Who will make an immediate impact?

    • I would think that the rules about time spent practicing with coaches has something to do with it. Since they are part of the track team they can work with the track coaches.

      • What I meant was, why don’t the football coaches incorporate the track sprinting workouts with football workouts? Wouldn’t that increase the players’ speed for football and allow them to be able to be agile at the same time?

    • I thought that was a joke site. I don’t have cookies automatically enabled, so it didn’t open for me. I still have the original version of the game on disc. But I didn’t know they had it online.

      I think I found something to do today.

  79. Does anyone know if anyone asked Payton what happened to that $3M he was supposed to donate for the basketball practice facility?

    As far as I know it never happened which makes me a bit surprised he’d have the balls to show his face at OSU.

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