Home Football Gary Andersen Quotes

Gary Andersen Quotes

297

“Right now, offensively, we don’t have a tremendous identity.”

“Our plan works. I know the plan works. I’ve seen it work many, many times. I’ve been in this spot.”

Andersen said OSU will look at some schematic changes this week. “Those offensive coaches have good minds. The ball’s in their court.”

From Gina:

Andersen said Ryan Nall “would have gotten a lot more touches” against Minnesota if Oregon State had run more than 18 plays in second half.

No comment.

Full interview here.

297 COMMENTS

  1. He’s clearly super pissed at the offensive coaching staff, more so than the defensive coaches at least. I like that he’s not exactly being evasive about that, but would prefer he be even more direct about what specifically “the plan” is. Would have loved to have been a fly on the wall for some of the coaches meetings over the weekend.

  2. “…“Those offensive coaches have good minds. The ball’s in their court.”…”

    Perhaps GA should consider dipping into that $2M+ that he’s making and getting rooms at the Holiday Inn Express for his offensive coaches before each game.

    “Are you an OC?”: No, but I stayed at the ……..

  3. It always infuriates me when coaches talk about how many times or what percentage they’re going to run the ball, and then they don’t do it and lose the game. Look, if you’re losing, what is the universal fear of trying something different? What’s the worst that could happen? You lose by 20 instead of 10? Who cares?
    The only thing more maddening is when reporters won’t follow up with questions like this. I’m ignorant and probably naive about that, I’m sure they don’t want to piss off the coach and therefore lose any chance of interviewing him again in the future, but to us fans it’s frustrating.
    At least GA owned the problems and said the buck stops with him.
    Such a major step back this year so far.

    • “The only thing more maddening is when reporters won’t follow up with questions like this. I’m ignorant and probably naive about that, I’m sure they don’t want to piss off the coach and therefore lose any chance of interviewing him again in the future,”

      If that’s the case, Casey should have cut off all access to D Moron.

  4. These “journalists” aren’t asking good enough questions. We hear the same vague bullshit over and over again.

    Gina needs to ask why the offense never takes a snap under center, or why on first down we are more inclined to throw the ball, or why we never run a bubble screen to stretch out the defense. These are the questions Beaver Nation wants answers to, not the obvious softball ones.

    • I think it’s likely that GA doesn’t have all the answers. What I would like to see is a group press conference with GA and his coordinators. Then those guys can answer the tough questions. After all, the ball is in their court, right?

  5. Agree with GA the offense is more a problem. Turnovers and not sustaining drives asks way too much from a thin, young D. Tried to explain that after CSU and why I wasn’t as down on the D as many. Tons of yards yeah but constantly put in their own end and worn out at the half each game because of the O’s play.

    • CSU gashed us early and often. I’d agree if there was resistance early than floodgates late.

      It was a sieve early and floodgates late.

  6. Here’s an excerpt from an email I sent GA yesterday…

    “It’s time to get the dumpster fire under control! Get rid of Luton first, then your OC & DC.
    If that doesn’t work then maybe it’s time for your resignation.”

    and another from today…

    “Your stated requirements for the QB in years 1 & 2 was brain/arm/legs. I’ve seen nothing in three games that leads me to believe that the current QB has any of those qualities. However the QB that did, you let transfer away! WTF?

    What is the philosophy today for the position?”

  7. It would be interesting to see the Beavs do an experiment against WSU and run 65 times, pass less than 10 strictly on play action, and never pass on 1st down. I think the preset ratio for pass/run is a limiting factor in viewing the game as a stand alone contest. Each game has a changing dynamic within the adjustments by each team as the game develops. If GA genuinely wants a 60/40 run to pass ration, then begin the running early and settle in to that mindset. It is unbelievable that we are at game 4 and the staff hasn’t been intentional about running the ball from the start. If this were the case, there would be plenty of touches for Nall, Pierce et al.
    That Nall had 7 runs and Pierce only 8 nears grounds for firing McGiven to me. I don’t know how that is even possible and GA’s answer blaming lack of 2nd half plays misses the point of game planning and intentions from the start of the game.

    Garretson should start at WSU and it should be a full house backfield under center and a steady diet of Johnson at FB with Nall running downhill. Let the WR block for a while and don’t throw until it is a great play action opportunity on 2nd or 3rd down and short. Even if it becomes a predictable pattern, Minny knew what they were doing and why they were doing it. WSU is thin and susceptible up front, attack it and wear them down, shorten the game and help the defense.

    If GA can salvage something out of this season, make some key adjustments to the staff, have the young guys mature, keep Hufanga in Corvallis, add to the depth and get some traction with a D-line, then things will look better next year. Also, get out of the Ohio State game next year asap.

  8. Where is this seasons scott Crichton? Or Jordan poyer? Or Steven Nelson?

    What I mean is defensively who has developed that leader spot? The guy you don’t want to throw at, or the guy you need to double team?

    Offensively, what in the world kind of a scheme are we trying to even have? Let alone having a stand out. I feel that togiai, nall, pierce, and hodgins, and Collins when he is back are all difference makers, but there is no letting them show that they are difference makers.

    This season thus far is baffling. Seriously not a clue what our coaching staff is doing with the players

    • As most improved player should go to villamin. I’m impressed with his turn around in becoming a WR that he actually catches the ball now.

    • Part of the problem is that our upperclassmen are Riley recruits from the apathy years. Ugwoegbu and Willis are the closest to having shown anything special early in their careers. I think David Morris can turn into a difference maker with a little more experience. I’ve been impressed by him thus far.

    • Bright seemed poised to be the leader on D to start the year. Finally started to look alright last week.
      I know you’re supposed to go out there, forget about your problems, and knock some heads in. But maybe his families home washing away in the hurricane right before game one has been affecting his play. Can’t really fault him if that’s the case. It’s a lot.

      Elu was another one that was supposed to be a dominate leader. Seems like he hasn’t fully recovered from the spring injury, and is obviously not in game shape. Without Elu being 100% we don’t have the personnel to run a 3-4. Coaches should have modified scheme as soon as they knew he wasn’t healthy. They finally started the adjustments last week. They were probably overconfident against the “lower level” opponents.

      Crawford is struggling being the #1 corner. A bit of a sophomore slump.

      David Morris has been a beast of a true freshman. Kid will be anchoring the d for years to come.

      Offense: 100% on the coaches. They have fucked this team up this far. Stupid, stupid, stupid sums it up. I have never like McGiven. They only good game he’s coached was the civil war which was more dictated by the rain them he. Becoming obvious he rode Chuckie Keetons coat tails and somehow parlayed it into the title: QB guru. He should have turned down the oc job for not being ready ala coach K. I always feel the OC is supposed to be the smartest guy on the field. He sounds dopey in interviews like a deer in the headlights. No bueno

      • Regarding the Chuckie comment: if McGiven is just bad at coaching or picking QBs. I wonder what would have happened to Chuckie if he had had a competent coach behind him? He made them look good. Like he either was smart enough to overcome their stupidity or just a physical specimen that willed his team to victory. I’m not saying he was on a Luke Falk level, but with right coaches he may have been.

        • If I actually dig back in the Memory archives (don’t care enough to look it up) he may have actually gotten the guru moniker because USU kept winning one year after being down to their 4th string qb. They had one of those crazy games where I think Chuckie, and then maybe 2 other QB’s got injured? Something crazy.

          Maybe he is a good qb coach. But for sure is a shit OC.

          It’s like he doesn’t know anything about his personal. Just sends out players via physical attributes and says go make good touchdowns.

          I don’t get it…

    • I like Jalen Moore, Jonathan Willis, Titus Failuaga, Xavier Crawford, and David Morris as defensive leaders. We’re too reliant on Hungalu. This D still can be good.

      • Per the punctuation guide, the exclamation point is a terminal punctuation and the question mark in your sentence unnecessary and incorrect.

        • Touché. My point wasn’t that you have to be grammatically correct all the time, especially in a blog. However, when you type out a public statement and write think instead of thank, this tends to be the trend these days.

          • I don’t know about bad grammar being a trend. We just get to see everyone’s bad grammar on the internet. Before, they just didn’t write after getting enough red pen of shame from their English teacher.

          • Well, he’s a football player.
            If you’re talking about this blog, it’s mostly all off the cuff with 1 draft/stream of conscious. If a post is important I might proof it a few times.

            There’s nothing worse than grammar police; they’re worse than the actual grammatical errors. So obnoxious and desperately looking for reasons to feel superior to others — when you’re down to grammar as a way to feel good, you don’t have much going on.

    • It sounded like he was going to be out for a while. Maybe not? Or he’ll show up for the 3rd quarter and go 30 for 32 and 450 yards and 6 touchdowns and win by 14. Suerte los beavs.

      • What is the Pirate’s concussion protocol? alk got slammed to the ground by 3 Broncos and landed headfirst on the back of his head then bounced up about a foot after impact. It didn’t look good. I thought he would be out next week for sure.

    • Last year’s game vs WSU. Our offense looks completely different than last year. It was more methodical and patient. This year we’re just trying to rush everything and play outside the talents of our players. 3M while not the prototypical Pocket QB, gets the job done in this type of offense.

  9. Sounds like heads are gonna roll if the offense keeps being terrible. Good IMO. I don’t see it getting to an acceptable level so hopefully GA can hire some good coaches for next season.

    Bowl game or bust for GA next year.

  10. Holy fuck, I just realized the problem! In the coaches meetings GA is yelling “Kevin, we need to get 30 sacks and 30 takeaways!” So Kevin McGiven realizes we can’t get any sacks if we run the ball, so he tells Luton to just hold on to it until someone sacks him. Then in another coaches meeting, GA is yelling “Kevin, we need to run the ball 60% and pass 40%!” So Kevin Clune tells his D line to let the opponents run the ball 60% of the time and he tells his secondary to let the opponents pass 40% of the time. I guess they’ve been underperforming in the first half but making up for it in the second half.

  11. The biggest problem that GA has is that very few of the JC transfers have made big impacts and the so called top recruits don’t make it into school. He rolled the dice and they’ve crapped out on him time and again.

    2015 (won’t put a lot of weight here since it was a short recruiting cycle)
    – Cook – probably made the most of his time but hardly an impact player.
    – Fuimaono – medically retired
    – Porebski – pretty disappointing start to his sr year
    – Navarro – long snapper. 2 year starter.
    – Decoud – best player GA has recruited to OSU.
    – Tauaho – special teams player only.
    – Garretson – never lived up to his prior play at Utah State.

    2016 –
    – Napoleon – part time starter. Not starting this year on a bad dline.
    – Landry Payne – backup. not listed on the 2 deep.
    – Wesley Payne – backup
    – Hernandez – backup
    – Fanguopo – never made it into school
    – Savea – starting de

    2017 –
    – Luton – so far it’s been bad.
    – Short – not even listed on the 2 deep
    – Sattelmeier – not on the 2 deep.
    – Cordasco – Backup tackle
    – Evans – not a real person

    So the track record on GA’s junior college transfers is pretty poor. JC guys need to have immediate impacts for them to justify the offer. Currently only 3 of them are starting and all are playing poorly.

    The JC WR’s are wasting everyone’s time. A backup can run around and not be thrown the ball like those guys. If underclassmen are beating the JC guys out, then they need to be nudged out of the program.

    Then there is the issue of rolling the dice on top recruits. It has blown up in GA’s face every year.

    2015 – got Lucas who had academic issues and is now gone. Folau never made it to school like a few thought.
    2016 – Thompson and Garcia never set foot on the field. Wallace is not on the 2 deep, has not played this year.

    No doubt GA has recruited some solid players but all his bigger gambles haven’t worked out.

    I think Luton will be taken out for Garretson at some point this year. Luton could be a solid QB with a good supporting cast but he doesn’t have that. I’ve heard talk of comparing him to Matt Moore’s first season but that’s apples and oranges. Moore coming out of high school was a top 10 QB who played 2 years in the PAC12 before coming to OSU. Much more solid background to bounce back.

    Also on the roster if you can see him – Champ Flemings. 5’5, 130 pounds1…um yeah.

    • Luton isn’t being held back by his supporting cast. He’s being held back by his inaccuracy and his questionable decision-making (which could be a product of his extreme lack of game experience in a passing offense).

    • I agree wit your point on JC guys and I think the JC guys they were close to landing but didn’t bring in are part of the issue too. George Moore at tackle, Kongbo and Evans at DL, Kesean Nixon and Jaylon Lane at DB. When we missed on those guys it doesnt appear there was an adequate back up option at those positions that the Beavs are weak at this year.

        • Still… GA is a total failure because he didn’t bring him in.

          It’s still too early to call Moore one way or the other. But I’m always skeptical of O-linemen who had to go Juco. There are the rare few who go because of size, not grades, and end up having a growth spurt. And there are always a couple who are there for a year because of their transfer situations. But intelligence, not girth, is the best indicator of an O-lineman’s upside.

          We have a great bunch redshirting this year. Keep adding depth like that, and we’ll be good for years to come. I feel like Juco O-linemen are too much a waste of time and effort.

          • We may have failed to land Moore but I wasn’t calling GA a failure for that. Part of it is on the recruit to be able to see where he can get PT vs just going to the highest profile school that offers him.

            Glad to hear there are some good young OL in the program. The tackles were getting beat badly vs UM which limited both the run and pass game. I guess my question is why are they not better at those positions in year 3 of this staf. Is it the bad luck with guys like Clarkson and Kearsley or is it missing on recruits? I thought early on GA said he needed to redistribute scholarships so they were more even on both sides of the ball. Riley was heavier on offensive scholarships and O line as I think I remember it. The turning point in the season last year was Harlow coming back. I don’t think any players on offense are drastically different this year except for some spots on the O line.

          • Our O-line is decent to good, not quite consistently good yet. You can’t judge them wholly on second half runaways where the opposition just gets to pin its ears back, and the coaches are doing nothing about it. There’s no O-line that can hold back the water once the levee breaks. The two weaknesses in pass pro have been the RBs missing their blocks (Nall most of all) and Luton holding the ball too long.

          • Gophers were jumping the snap count and/or offsides on virtually every snap. There were multiple times they were over the los and if the ball had been snapped would have been a shit ton of free yardage.

  12. Jonathan Willis looked good at inside backer, 12 tackles, he needs to stay there. Hungalu underachieved again, missed gaps a lot, seems to seek out blockers, totally whiffed on their RB once at the goal line. Wesley Payne looked good the short time he played inside. Ah Hoy didn’t do anything bad.

    Unbelievable that Arnold gave up another long TD past him. Didn’t see him on the field at all after that. Morris looks like a star anyway.

    If Togiai doesn’t drop the ball in the 2 min drill, we have the lead at halftime.

    Beavs were right in the game until Nall fumbled at the 10 with 9 mins left in the 3rd. Everything snowballed after that.

    Porebski had one good punt, with 1 min left in the game. The rest were bad.

    McGiven calls runs to the edge too much, they never work. Way too much 1st down passing, it worked a few times but when it didn’t it killed the drive. This offense is set up for running between the tackles and then play action. It looks like McGiven saw the tape, saw Minnys best players were at DT and LB and just decided he was going to focus on the pass game and runs to the edge. After Nall fumbled he abandoned the middle run game completely and the offense was a clusterfuck.

    • I think McGiven (or the offensive braintrust as a whole) is still too focused on playing to the opponent’s weaknesses rather than our strengths. They thought the secondary was CSU’s weakness, so we passed a ton. They thought Minnesota’s strength was up the middle, so we avoided running up the middle.

      This happened the last two seasons, too, but it was more justifiable because of how overmatched our offense was at times. I don’t think that’s the case anymore, but the coaches are still playcalling like it is.

      • This (and running play action without the threat of a running game) have been issues for years at OSU. Since I rarely watch any other college football, I’m going to guess it’s prevalent everywhere teams struggle to win.

        Remember 2012 against UW and UT? Those run Ds were that year’s equivalent of Zony and Nikegon last year. You could trip for a four yard average against those teams that year. But what do we do?

        It killed me in the bowl game when Mannion came in for one series and did nothing but hand off the ball. That really easy TD didn’t show the coaches anything?

        Running the ball forward should be our bread and butter. We should start with it and end with it. If our bread and butter doesn’t work, work harder. We’re not going to win without it.

        What games ad highlights I have seen this year, teams can run up big scores without it. But when they need to lock down the game in the second half, their opponents’ Ds are still fresh, and their own Ds play on their heels. It’s almost as if I would rather have our team down 24-7 at the half because we were just putting their D through a grinder for the whole first half. All the runaway scoring takes place once you have the momentum in the second half.

      • Not just this year, wasn’t against Stanford where they essentially decided that their defense was going to be too tough to run against, so Nall had no carries and was used as a receiver. They’ve come up with some bizarre shit.

  13. Look like GA gone off the railz! He can’t even try to explain all this mess. Poor guy. Seems nice. Like a sailboat with no rudder and no sailz.

  14. OT: For those of you that can’t get enough Rodent on Rodent action, and who can’t, check out Rodent Bowl volleyball edition in Boise on Friday.

  15. This may be old news to you guys, but it seems to me that Goe, et al. have really gleefully jumped on the Beavers situation — not just “This is happening….” but more like “Te he he.”. Maybe they’re trying to get payback for us jumping on them over the baseball coverage.

  16. Regarding the Luton discussion above, he’s due for a good game that will lure everyone back in. Like the HR prospect who goes 0-20 then hits 2hrs in a game (e.g. Joey Gallo). Everyone’s natural reaction is, “he figured it out!”

    With hitters, I look for walks, contact rate, and approach to see if they figured it out. With Luton, I’m looking for accuracy and decisions over a stretch of games. I think I/we might see it for one game here and there but he’ll be unable to string together several good games in a row.

    • I’ll meet you half way. EVERYONE will not be back on the bandwagon — most of us here on Angrybeavs will be skeptical at best. Agree Luton doesn’t look sharp nor is he consistent, but he will have a pretty good game, say 3-4 TDs and <2 INTs at some point this year — most likely against Cal, Zona, or ASU. Until the coaches put this kid in the right game plan for the WHOLE tteam to succeed, it is on the coaches.

      • To clarify: I would rather see him “succeed” by leading the team to a win even if he doesn’t throw one TD. But that requires the coaches having done their homework to put him in that position.

      • I’m with Jockitch here. Luton will look a lot better when the OC calls enough runs to make the pass less predictable.
        Even if his own personal personal decision making and throwing ability is unchanged, he’ll get completions when the D has to respect the run.
        ADDED THOUGHT: Even a gunslinger is likely to make better decisions with an extra second to make them.

    • Gallo’s power is real though lol, He just will never hit for average. Luton looked so bad last game with timing and accuracy that he probably can’t play any worse. Maybe this was rock bottom? Maybe after running 18 plays in a half or whatever it was GA will finally demand that Mcgiven runs the rock?? Maybe Minnesota was waking up in a pile of your own puke next to what appears to be a naked woman with no teeth ( could also be a man)??

      • Minnesota’s game-plan was exactly what the Beavs should have done — mostly running with well timed slant routes/hot-reads for the blitz. Ironic how that game played out.

    • The harshness of the schedule, Angry, will definitely require Luton improve in those two areas rather quickly. This or he will flame out badly.

  17. Also, looking through nuggets…someone in a prior thread said Beaver fans were getting on him for standing and cheering. It’s why I stopped going to games. Got tired of hearing them complain about my standing up for touchdowns. The majority of fans are total blow hards and either 80 or cranky/anti-social lumber jack looking dudes. Student section is the only fun.

    I was thinking about coming up for a game this year, but given they’re still like that + how bad the team is…no thanks.

    • I grew up going to SC and UCLA games (not exactly the most raucous stadiums) and I’ll never forget my freshman year at OSU for some reason about 20 of us sat in the regular section (likely alcohol related) and these two old dudes were riding our asses to sit down and stop being so loud!! Lol I was like WTF are we at a Soup Plantation or a football game?

          • Maybe I’ll try it next time.

            Do they go crazy with the soups, or do they stick to the hearty basics? It doesn’t sound like that crowd would put up with a spicy tomato basil.

            Oh… and the bread and cuts… out of bags or sliced on site?

  18. Another nugget: why did we have Big10 refs for this game?

    So we go to CSU and get their refs, then at home we allow MN to bring Big 10 refs?

    I guess the overarching question is why is OSU so stupid?

    • He should redshirt. With the year going the way it is, he won’t make a difference. And the illness he’s coming back from was very serious. An entire year spent practicing would benefit him more in the long run.

      He’s the one guy who really needed to redshirt to improve his game. Was rushed from the start.

    • Probably not much of one if Luton can’t throw an accurate pass his way.

      What I really want to see is a few of the “2 QB” sets we used with MM and SC last year. The way this team is headed, we need all the trickery and confusion we can muster.

  19. Two weeks in a row where a player is willing to publicly state that some on the team are coming out flat for the second half. Andersen snaps at Crawford and doesn’t dispute Villy.

    How much of this is needed to convince any sane observer of: 1) Chemistry problems, and 2) Andersen tends to operate in a vacuum?

    • >Two weeks in a row where a player is willing to publicly state that some on the team are coming out flat for the second half. Andersen snaps at Crawford and doesn’t dispute Villy.

      >How much of this is needed to convince any sane observer of: 1) Chemistry problems, and 2) Andersen tends to operate in a vacuum?

      I believe the first time, Crawford was misunderstood/misquoted. The question was asked and Andersen didn’t like what he heard, freaked out, talked to him and came to understand what he meant or what he actually said and Andersen agreed with it.

      That all came out in a later interview after the first one.

      So, I think it’s a matter of Andersen making the (incorrect) assumption that Crawford was quoted accurately.

      • You are probably right about GA’s initial remarks/misunderstanding, I didn’t see any later interview.

        Point is, and we could include Hungalu’s comments as well, players are willing to publicly call out others on the team and GA doesn’t seem to consider the validity of their statements as relates to the performance on the field. His public statements lead me to believe he thinks everyone is trying to put on their big boy pants and his own “system” will lead to success.

        His words place responsibility on the coaches, that’s fine, but should have already led to changes in the Offensive play calling (at a minimum).

  20. Not sure if anybody else already mentioned it, but looks like Drew Rasmussen is having a 2nd TJ surgery.
    Didn’t we have a freshman pitcher transfer out(Church?)because Drew was coming back? Or was that more related to LH coming back?

  21. I thought Andersen saying – he knows it works, he’s used it many many times or something like that was hilarious. He is not a “fail, while daring greatly” guy. Nevermind, look up my old film and I’ll show you what I’m going to do.

    • Yeah, that was a bit alarming. He’s essentially saying there no good reason why it shouldn’t work now, so no reason to try something different. It likely means his comfort zone is pretty narrow. But the real question is “what” is he referring to working before? If he’s talking about run/pass 60/40, then it might work if they actually tried it

  22. I just saw the new US News Rankings and they’re only one set but why is OSU the lowest in the Pac-12 considering all the engineering and science research at the school? How is UO 42 places higher? Makes no sense.

    • I recently read a book – Weapons of Maths Destruction – Cathy O’Neil devotes a lot to how these rankings came into being – and ties in the era of big new stadiums, etc. It seems the data is amazingly screwed up, but few care.

      • Most Western schools use/d the ACT. It was standard. Some started using both precisely because of this ratings porn. All it did was cost prospective students that much more for the whole application process.

        No biggie.

        Most schools are now de-emphasizing those scores because a lot of studies show their deviation makes the thresholds set by schools are flawed. I think the Ivies have started phasing out certain parts this year. Then the ratings porn “methodology” will be adjusted so that these same schools won’t take the hit for doing so.

        • Does OSU even have an ACT requirement? I thought they had no standardized testing requirement.

          Not that I think highly of standardized tests, but the harder a school is to get into (and the test is one metric) the higher it’s going to be on these rating systems. I think not having a law school is a big knock, too. IMO these are why Oregon is higher than us.

          • If some school sends you a letter telling you that you (you or me) are officially accepted to their school as an undergrad, and you ignore it because you already have a degree and a life from some other school, it would count in the whole metric of “harder to get into.” Obviously, that would be seen by all as outside the intent. But it’s just as valid. And they do it by sending such letters to prospective students.

            It has nothing to do with standardized tests. As I mentioned, the deviations on those entrance tests make invalid any study for comparison of inter-scholastic groups as small as universities and colleges themselves. That’s why the Ivies are starting to dump them–starting with compositions, I think.

            In short, the data says their students are just as dumb as State U and End of Nose Tech. So they need to jettison said data before anyone notices… so they can charge a shitload of money to rich parents of rich kids… who will also spawn rich kids.

            Ivy graduates are .4 the total graduates year over year. They own more than two-thirds of the wealth in the US when you count debt and collateral as assets. Two-thirds to three-quarters of their graduates end up being employed by Wall Street or related “services.”

            It’s just a circle jerk. Frankly, I’ve given up even trying to justify any ordinal ranking for schools. I’ve learned that a student only misses his or her potential because of self nowadays. There is now unprecedented access to information, and it’s going to get a lot deeper in the near future.

      • Several years ago (I think it was 5-6 years ago), the Oregonian had an article about these rankings, and proved they were garbage — at least from a quality of student perspective from the state of Oregon. OSU had more valedictorians attending the school than all other Oregon schools combined. To me the quality of prospective students is more important than program ranking (Forestry #1, etc), quality of professors, although all these things help — a place like Stanford has all of these, where as place like OSU may not, depending on funding etc. I would rather have competitive classmates that push you to do well rather than a high ranking program with low quality students (major American schools that are listed in the USNews don’t have this problem, but schools overseas can vary drastically with their own propped high “ranking”).

        • The point then was that even valid rankings based on somewhat sound methodologies still do nothing of value.

          Neat… that college is ranked higher than that one. But it’s in Bumfuck Megacity, where I just don’t want to go to school. I want to go to this lowly ranked school where I was comfortable with the profs and look forward to the activities available in the area.

          Poor me?

          If student does enough research, say about two days’ worth, s/he is already way ahead of any of these rankings in making a real, informed decision. And when you get people who have made these kind of decisions together, they learn to inform and work with each other.

          There’s no competition. It’s always been about collaboration. And when we used to collaborate with different schools, we had to mail physical papers to share info. Then we briefly had faxes before we got emails. Now we have the cloud, and it’s just going to explode in depth and access.

          Schools will be fungible because information will be ubiquitous.

          And we have a whole generation of people who grew up using the tools that connect them to that information. Everything is their fault. They need to get off my grass. What’s a luddite?

  23. I keep hearing Minnesota had only 8 passes against the Beavs. So how about we ask the coaches to look at Minnesota’s offensive game-plan from last week — that’s exactly the run to pass emphasis the Beav offense needs to have every game going forward until Luton and OL show signs of improvement.

    • Luton should be limited to 2-3 passes a quarter, of which should be slant/hot-reads — Minnesota’s 63 yard TD early in the game was perfectly executed.

    • Seriously, at this point they have nothing to lose. This coaching staff is too impatient. They need to run the ball every down of every offensive play in the first half. We have three great RBs that we can keep rotating to keep them fresh. Even if we don’t score once, the opponent’s d line is going be gassed by the second half. Then we come out in the second half and start mixing in a few passes to keep them on their heels and holes should start opening up. If we lose at least they tried something different.

  24. Also, not much has been made about GA’s first foray into head coaching at Southern Utah, where his team had a mediocre 4-7 season in 2003. I lived in Utah at the time and can’t remember the circumstances, but as I recall he ran back into the arms of Whittingham. Some successful head coaches put in the time building FCS programs and then move on and up. Another weird little blip in GA’s coaching trajectory.

  25. Gina tweets:
    Asked Oregon State OC Kevin McGiven about what’s immediately correctable:”Probably a better question was what DOESN’T have to be corrected?”

  26. Another excerpt from Gina’s Q&A with McG.

    McGiven also slightly bristled at the term “identity” when describing the state of the offense, noting instead “we’re just not very productive.” He mentioned nine OSU drives have gone three-and-out over the past two games. And he emphasized the difference between schematic miscues and physical errors.

    “You miss a protection on a 1-on-1 block — does that mean your protection schemes are bad? Not really,” McGiven said. “That guard missed on that play. A quarterback misses a wide-open target. The scheme was pretty good. The kid was wide open, but we missed him. We drop a crossing route across the middle. Well, he was open, but he dropped it.”

    It’s not me! It’s the players!

      • To be honest, there have been comments during games about wide open receivers not being thrown too. And missed blocks and drops from several players. He’s basically repeating what was said on here 4 days ago. Now will he fix it?

        • Still, GA needs to get his assistants in line. If you believe in accountability and not throwing players under the bus, then you should be coaching the people you manage not to do it either.

          • I will give McGiven credit for one play. The play where Celestin speared Pierce shouldn’t have been run. Luton should have called an audible. If he doesn’t have the green light for that, then guess who that might be on.

            18 plays in the second half: Subtract the last three which were garbage time hand-offs to Johnson. Of the other 15 one was that aborted play, and only two others were hand-offs to backs.

    • Luton continues to brown nose McGiven, IMHO.

      “Our coaches are doing a great job,” Luton said. “If you go back and you break down the film, I think it speaks to that. They’re getting the right play calls. They’re getting us in the right situations.
      Us as players, we’re just not executing…”

      Then he one ups GA’s scoring target, saying, “We want to score 50 to 60 points every week.”

      • The QB thinks the OC calling way too many passing plays is calling the right plays? There’s a shocker.

        Seriously, through. What do you expect him to do? Throw his coaches under the bus? If you want to criticize him, criticize the fact that he’s not very good. That was a perfectly fine answer.

        • What do you expect him to do?
          Well, Luton did exactly as I expected. Especially after his recent quote where he praised McG by name.

          Now, what do I think a player in his position could have said? How about something like, “I believe our coaches are working to help us win/improve each week by developing appropriate game plans and helping us to identify weaknesses in our execution.”

      • 50-60 points…. Ha! Does that include points given to the other team. This is basic risk analysis…Mcgiven needs to evaluate the game plan and the risk vs reward for each play. Hell, you would think this would be GA’s job to come in and scrutinize the offensive scheme with What If scenarios, weaknesses in the plays. It’s amazing that the 5 second draw play hasn’t been flushed out before game time. You can see opposing Ds getting closer and closer to timing as the games go on. I thought the coaches dumbed down the play book, instead they made it predictable.

        • Supposed to be thumbs up. This is an excellent point. The play where pierce got the handoff from Luton right as the defender smacks into AP and Luton for the tackle. Yup, the play calling and the schemes aren’t an issue when this happens.

      • It appears he has the attitude of, ‘these coaches do a lot more planning and scheming than my previous team, therefore this staff is doing great!’ Also, ‘I’m just happy to be here and happy I can do whatever I want to and not lose my job!’

    • ‘I’m really glad to be here!’ Is what Luton is really saying. I can also see that he feels he’s invincible and can do no wrong. This also screams, Luton is our guy no matter what because we need to just stick with a guy and show we can stick to this guy. We need to believe in the players we choose from the beginning of the season all the way to the end of the season barring injuries.

      Well, that last sentence explains why we have more guys hurt now than we did at the beginning of the season. They lack the energy and don’t play with adrenaline; therefore, they’re more susceptible to getting injured.

  27. No big changes are coming. GA has already said his process works and has worked. They are grinding and working like crazy to get these kids in position to win games blah blah blah. If McGiveth isn’t demoted I don’t know why we should continue to follow this mess. He is the main culprit on gameday and GA is the main culprit in game planning by not being involved enough. How do the coaches not understand the basic stragety for the team’s benefit. How can an up-tempo offense that is turnover prone be helpful to an overmatched defense? We don’t have Alabama’s defense to make up for glaring mistakes on offense. Run the ball, shorten the game, take time and take care of the ball.
    Wazzu is going to be in the backfield all game if they don’t prepare some screens, motion, double tight ends, multiple rbs, and quick slants. Luton will get sacked about 7 times in the 1st half, at least 3 turnovers and it will be ball-game before half.
    The offense won’t be able to cope with an aggressive front and the defense won’t be able to make the first tackle in the flat to bring down WSU running backs catching the dump off routes. It will be torturous to watch and I thought the Beavs were going to be tough and aggressive this year. They are barely whimpering so far. Sickening.

  28. Perhaps, no one actually wants to score, solely to avoid those embarrassing, amateurish, stupid fireworks.

    If that’s the case, kudos to you McCrapen.

  29. It occurs to me that Luton sees himself as a movie star type quarterback. He looks good throwing the ball so what happens at the other end, inaccurate passes and interceptions are not important.

  30. Decided to give GA an email break so sent one to Danny Moron @ Olive asking if he did his background check prior to the Rasmussen article.

    Like GA,he doesn’t respond … go figure.

  31. So I predict a major blowout loss this weekend. I will record and watch the game later. Vegas favors WSU by 21 points. I say fianl score WSU 63 Beavs 13 points. Hope Im wrong about this. Anyone have a feel for the locker room? Does anyone think a player munity will happen???

    • Beavs should score more than 13, if nothing else because WSU will likely empty the bench in the 4th and even if OSU plays a # 3 or #4 RB they should be able to score. Maybe a big OSU KO return in the 4th to get some field position…

      • We shall see if we can establish our running game and stick to it. Luton doesnt seem to perform hand offs very well. It really sounds like when Luton was named the starter over 3M the team was split. Again only OSU offered Luton a D1 QB scholarship. I think even the players could tell who the better QB was. As Nall stated “this guy.” Yep, we are stuck with this guy. If the players do give up on the coaches wonder if this will force OSU to fire GA.

      • I’d say the backups will be in halfway through the 3rd quarter.

        WSU has Nevada the following Saturday. Nevada is 0-2 this season in losses to Northwestern 31-20 and Toledo 37-24. Ya, I don’t see WSU over looking us this week.

  32. Hypothetical:

    I know they won’t but lets say they did fire Andersen after they get destroyed Saturday, who would you want as the interim head coach? Its gotta be someone on staff right?

    I am thinking Baldwin myself. I think he would embrace the opportunity.

  33. If a person has a dislocated finger is it easier for them to play LB rather than RB? Do the fingers come more into play for the RB rather than the LB? In case you hadn’t noticed I’m the one who thinks Nall would be more beneficial to the team if he was playing LB cuz to me it’s obvious the D is in serious need of some help. BWDIK

    Re the point spread: Is this because the Cougs are that good or is it because the Beavs have been playing that bad?

    • Play him both RB and LB and see which one he does better at this game. Worked for Remember the Titans. Blitz em all night and don’t let ’em gain another yard.

      I’m sure the cheerleaders could beat this team based on pure excitement alone.

          • To further that thought, Marecic would run up the middle and stop the run in the middle with force. Nall can run with strength in any direction, shed a tackle, put a foot in the ground and accelerate. I just figure all that would make a nice edge rusher… where the OT is supposedly not allowed to hold you, let alone try and tackle you.

          • We didn’t have the depth. He’s always been one of two reliable or experienced backs. He was probably the best LB banker was going to ever get. That’s why he ended up where he did.

  34. “Re the point spread: Is this because the Cougs are that good or is it because the Beavs have been playing that bad?”

    Books are trying to get somebody, anybody, to put money on the Beavs.

  35. Two more troubling quotes:

    “The Minnesota game saw a reverse in the offensive line’s production. The pass protection that had only allowed one sack through two games gave up three against the Golden Gophers. But Woods called the Beavers’ performance in the run game their best this season “by far. It wasn’t even close.” OSU totaled 80 yards on 26 carries but only had three designed rushing attempts as the game got out of hand in the second half.”

    – Really TJ!!!??

    Gary Anderson:

    “Mike’s done a great job recruiting to his scheme. The unsung heroes are the running backs… they make their reps count. Not those kids who worry if they get two reps or 20 reps…

    Some shade at Nall, Tyner, Johnsohn or AP?? All of them?

  36. All hands on deck CYA from the coaches, but throwing mixed messages to add to the confusion for public consumption. It is a different approach than Riley’s Aw schucks schtick but effectively creates too many targets to nail anyone down and locate the source of the problem.

    Coaches I like at this point are theones that have kept their mouth shut and just do their job.
    GA- Too much after the fact “on me” nonsense when he should be leading and demanding the correct gameplan to begin with
    McGiven- Nonsense coach-speak without accounting for his lack of running in the play calling
    Klune- SImple tough guy defensive coach speak with too much “almost there” garbage when they give up another 600 yds of offense
    Woods- I thought he would be trustworthy but if he is saying the run game was excellent against Minny, he is either fuming at McGiven and taking a subtle shot that the Oline was ready, or he is in denial of the state of the Oline
    Hall- Said today that he doesn’t even concern himself with what happened on offensive possessions…what?? Should I believe that defense is played in a vacuum and unaffected by their offensive teammates?

    Who is coaching special teams btw? Punting, punt returns, kickoff returns have all been suspect and not helping with field position at all.

    It is pretty easy to be down on these guys right now. Maybe it can be turned around and not reflected in the record. But the effort and execution are atrocious so far and that is my biggest concern from last year to this year. They should be regressinmg so badly and in so many areas. Did the coaches just look at the offseason strength reports and think a bowl game would happen based on the off-season lifting program, and not by on-field play?

  37. OT: BASEBALL
    Eggers has a nice piece up, outlining the likely lineup for Casey’s next run at a trip to Omaha.
    Seems certain Luke will “lead the staff” and mentions several of the new freshmen.

    Then there are a half-dozen new arms, led by Kevin Abel, whom Casey considers “one of the top recruits in the country. He had the chance to go almost anywhere.” Guess Abel isn’t hung up on airports?

    http://portlandtribune.com/pt/12-sports/371888-255845-beavers-largely-intact-as-fall-baseball-begins

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