Home Football State of the Union Address

State of the Union Address

310

So, let’s hear it.

My feeling is the D showed improvement today. I know people want to hate on the D, but 3 sacks, and in position to make game changing plays (3 INTs all dropped) is an improvement. I can’t reiterate enough that if the offense and ST are doing their jobs, the D will look much better. Versus CSU the D gave up in the 2nd half for sure and it got ugly, but the offense was responsible for 27 of those points based off turnovers. Just think that over and realize all these things work together. Synergy of all three units.

Offense’s biggest failure once again was not converting 3rd downs and keeping the chains moving. This is imperative to efficient offense. 3rd and long conversion % is the best sign of a good/bad offense. I don’t know the Beavs’ numbers offhand, and I don’t feel like looking it up, but they just never seem to convert those downs. I remember just a few today. If the stats prove me wrong so be it. I just think the O is awful with regard to moving the chains and keeping the D off the field, which along with scoring points, is right up there with the most important traits in an offense.

On offense, the only positive I saw was Nall running for over 100 on limited carries. Play calling was bad as always. McGiven needs to go this week. GA can use the 2 week bye to figure out his OC situation.

Long-term: OSU has to go play Ohio State next year with, presumably, Luton at QB assuming GA & co still love him. They need to get out of that game. Pay whatever. I’ll donate. You guys donate. We need out. We can’t have a 1 win season and then go get destroyed by Ohio State. Just can’t happen without shit hitting the fan and head’s rolling. Another long-term issue: we need a QB. Garrettson might be a stop gap for this season. He’s better than Luton. Petras is the only possibility I see. Willard is awful and a mirror image of Luton on tape. If the staff had any ability to coach up QBs that’d be fine, but they don’t, so whatever the HS coach has instilled along with natural talent is what we get with Willard. Petras is the only one who seems naturally gifted.

Regarding McM, people are mad I’m harping on it. Yeah, because “Forget about it man he’s gone” is not a valid argument to the problem, which is the coaches believed he was the worst option (i.e. 3rd string). If that’s our coaching staff’s QB analysis then it’s a major problem.

310 COMMENTS

  1. I’ll say it again. We were the only school to offer Luton a D1 schollie to play QB. That is a problem. McGiven needs to go and maybe Clune. I dont think Clune can recurit either. Get a new OC. Bengals fired there OC after two games this season.

  2. “We can’t have a 1 win season and then go get destroyed by Ohio State. Just can’t happen without shit hitting the fan and head’s rolling.”

    Well, I used to be against the Ohio State game, but I’m reconsidering after reading this…. Heads rolling is a good thing, unless we’re talking about players’ heads literally rolling. Which could happen against the Buckeyes.

  3. I think we can beat ASU, AZ, or Cal with a good run game and Garrettson at QB. Civil War is a longshot this year but possible given the emotions. I do think we get 2 or 3 wins now that Garrettson will start. Nall will get more carries. Garrettson should move the chains a bit better. D will look better because of all this, and because I think much of this team was upset Luton got handed the job. Team chemistry might improve.

    Sad 3 wins is best case.

    • concur. Garretson’s first play, coming off the bench after Luton got hurt, was the most crisp run play of the game. Decisive decision-making; held the ball in the runner’s belly, pulled the ball and ran for a first down. Also, I know we’re looking for silver linings, but his throws looked better than most of what we saw from him last year

      with the defense improving, and lousy weather in November, I really like our chances vs. ASU. I think we might have a chance vs. Colorado, also because it’s a home game. I always thought 5 wins was our number this year. almost certainly can’t reach that but avoiding the 1 win season is vitally important

  4. Fire Mcgiven, promote Dave Baldwin.

    Put TJ Woods on notice as he can’t recruit, he didn’t have to at Wisconsin since they have such a tradition of O Line. This staff needs recruiters, there is way too much dead weight, especially for the coaches that recruit the trenches. I think GA may have to go the way of Taggart and just hire recruiters with the understanding that the coaches he hires may be poached if he goes that route. I think this team is worse than 2015.

    • Interesting take on Woods. I don’t know enough about him to say. He can’t recruit for shit, but does he “coach up” the line? The line actually looks good to me given the situation. They have a good average rushing yardage on the year and have protected the QB pretty well (how many sacks have we given up? Doesn’t seem like a lot).

      • I like the O-line more every week. The sacks are mostly missed assignments or mystifyingly weird missed reads by Luton. Houston did get pancaked on one today.

        The 4th and 1 where Nall was stopped was possibly the dumbest play call I’ve ever seen. The set was trips to the strong side, and we ran over the weak side.

        ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????

        A mildly disciplined D is going to sniff that out. These are the plays which make me think there really is something to having an OC from a MW team leading the way. Does that shit work in the MWC? That wouldn’t even work against our D on a bad day.

        Our O-line smashed their D line on that play. The only problem was there was nobody to block the two backers who immediately filled that side. I think Nall is awesome and has a ton of talent, but asking him to beat that many defenders is just dumb.

      • Yeah but he had Seth at QB and was trying to overcome that. He put up huge numbers as an OC the year before that. It all comes back to QB, though.

        I’d give Baldwin another shot over McGiven. Good opportunity to see what Baldwin can do since this season means nothing. If he’s bad hire someone this off season.

      • That was my take on Baldwin the first year as well. I did think Baldwin deserved one more year given all the changes the offense was going through.

  5. Its tough right now for us Beaver fans. Our old AD’s screwed us (see contract through 2021 for GA and playing at tOSU next year). GA making a poor choice of OC and DC hires. This is on GA. I read that finding the right fit QB is the most important position to get correct. If you miss badly you get a poor season.

  6. I remember when GA was hired, I said he’d be good for an extra 1 win per year just based on coaching ability. Fuck! GA blew at least two huge replay calls today, in addition to the QB situation. Unlike the Riley factor, which was only -7 per game, the “GA factor” is like -8 wins per year. Mostly due to QB analysis. Holy shit. Now I understand why WI was so happy when he left. I thought they were butthurt and sour grapes.

  7. The defense showed some improvement, but always felt like they followed up a few good plays with a big letdown on a 3rd and long. They didn’t force any turnovers either. Not sure what the turnover numbers were, but Beavs lost that battle for the 4th straight game. Partial blame goes to both O and D for that though.
    Offense almost always looked like they were lucky to get much if any positive yardage. The contrast of DGs first series vs all of Luton’s series were proof enough that we are not playing our best option at QB. His throws were more accurate. He made better reads of the defense. He was a threat to run. He just looked like he knew what he wanted to do and he controlled the game on that series. The rest of the game I felt like we were running uphill.
    Totally get why players would be upset at the coaches for starting the wrong guy. Luton was our 3rd stringer this summer.
    Hope he’s doing ok after that nasty hit. If I were his parents, I would try to convince him to retire. I would feel guilty if I let my son get hit like that again after seeing it happen right in front of me. He has nothing to gain at this point. He’s not going to have an NFL future, and school is already covered. Would be the smart move.

    As for offensive coaching and GA, I feel like circumstances save them from themselves more than they create their own fortune. The rain in the civil war forced the playcalling which led to victory. Luton getting injured may lead to them scraping together 1 or 2 more wins this season than they would have gotten had Luton remained healthy all season.
    GA puts together terrible game plans, makes bad in game decisions (taking a 5 yard penalty on 4th down to punt from 30 rather than kick a FG? Fortunate a safety meant trading 3 pts for 2 rather than 3 for 0) Rolls over and concedes bad calls rather than requesting review twice today, yet didn’t use all timeouts anyway.
    As fans, we are again stuck with this product unless they choose to make the change themselves and leave for another gig.
    Saw Barnes on the sideline, looking the part of the concerned GM. He won’t do anything though. It’s just an act while they all collect their paychecks. Ed Ray should never have hired GA’s buddy. There’s no check/balance relationship now, so we as fans are stuck…..again…

    • From memory, didn’t you advocate Luton as the best option after the scrimmages?

      What made you change your mind?

      Should the coaches have changed their mind earlier? Since you liked Luton in camps and then changed I’m just trying to understand this. To me, I saw bad INTs in both scrimmages on the limited film, and any self described “gun slinger” will never be good. Just trying to piece this together and see if there was ever any legit reason this staff would conclude Luton was the best option.

      • Nope, after the spring game I said Luton looked like the best passer watching the game live, but he made bad decisions (interceptions in spring game that i hoped were just due to the setting and not an overall mindset) I also said after the spring game that Luton was outperformed by both DG and MM in stats, and that was with DG coming off a broken foot. I said that Luton looked to be on track to get the starting job based on the staff playing him as 1st string in spring.
        During the summer i was on team MM, and predicted he would transfer if he was passed over for Luton. DG I didnt have a ton of faith in because of last year, but also saw hardly any activity from him in scrimmages. During fall camp I said MM had earned the right to start the CSU and Luton would have to come along as the season progressed if he proved to be the better player.
        Also was the one who pointed out Luton throwing a big pick in that defensive highligjt film the day he was named starter. Bad omen.

    • You’ve determined DG’s accuracy is superior based on 2 throws in this game? He only completed 50% of his passes last year when the sample size was 146 attempts. Luton has completed 61% of his passes this year for more yards in 100 attempts than Garretson in 164. I like DG’s running ability but I wouldn’t expect to see a more accurate passer than Luton.

      • Yes, he threw 3 passes and all 3 looked accurate and all 3 were caught by the receivers for decent yardage (1 was negated by offensive penalty)
        Also had the most efficient Spring game of all 3 QBs.
        The offense looked confident with him out there and he has a more complete game than JL.

        • Meh… you’re going to lose the argument that DG is a better passer. He barely beats MM in arm strength. He just has faster reads and motion than MM.

          Where I will agree is his (maybe) pre-snap reads and his quickness with his hands. DG is the only QB besides SC we’ve had with any moxie. But he can’t throw a deep out without getting our receivers killed. MM just couldn’t throw a deep out. So there’s that.

  8. I feel by now it’s pretty obvious that Luton is GA’s hand-picked recruit, and that he went out and got Philips and instructed him and McGiven to design the offense around Luton. I think he fell in love with Luton’s stats and JC film and thought he’d found his ticket to a bowl game ala Beaver-raid, even equating Luton and his skill-set to Falk. That’s the only thing that can explain why Luton has stayed in there for so long, because it’s been so obvious from week 1 that Luton just isn’t a D1 QB.

    He’s tall. He can throw it hard. But he processes the game soooooo slowly as an athlete, it slows the whole offense down. He’s behind on every throw and they come out hot with no touch on back shoulders. He’s hesitant and thinky when he plays cause he’s trying to catch up with it all so he doesn’t step into any deep throws and they all sail. He frequently misses big on routine plays, not necessarily easy throws, but basic package stuff that you practice to death and need to execute in order to operate the offense. They don’t let him make any pre-snap decisions and revert to the sideline for every adjustment/audible (terrible sign). Etc, etc.

    D1 ball is toooo fast for Luton. It’s pretty super obvious. It’s like that for A TON of really really good football players. That’s why FCS and D2/3 exist. Luton feels to me like a D2 QB. He’d be great running an offense like he did at JC at like a Western Oregon. That’s just who he is. That’s who most coaches thought he was. GA obviously felt differently. It also puts him at risk to injury because the game is happening so fast for him that he’s gonna have a hard time protecting his body, as we saw today (hope he’s aight).

    I’m really curious as to how the internal dialogue between coaches went down when they decided to offer Luton and build the offense around him. Did Philips/McGiven agree with GA that Luton is the guy to run the Beaver-raid? Was there any internal resistance on the staff? Is there infighting on the staff now as a result? Did McGiven/Philips agree that it was time to name Luton the starter?

    To me, it feels like GA is having a really hard time owning up to how bad he personally missed on Luton. It doesn’t feel like he instructed the offense to change course at all heading into WSU, it feels like he told them to quadruple-down for another week and try to make it work with the Beaver-raid and his QB pick.

    It’s so obvious how badly they missed, however it is that happened, because it’s just so bad and such a clear regression from last year with both Garretson and McM that it’s obvious to even the most casual fans. So, they have to do something.

    But what does he do? Does he fire the offensive coaches that he hand-picked to design the whole thing around his hand-picked guy that he missed on so bad? or does he fire his DC who’s been handed this turd-sandwich of a situation with a very young and shallow roster and being forced to play in shitty situations all game long because the offense is super broken?

    It’s definitely the worst of times.

    “Move around” the staff. Give Baldwin the Offense for now and have him design it around Garretson and Collins in the Wildcat. Use the bye week to change up the playbook. Run the football downhill with Nall, Pierce, and Johnson, get the ball to Piece/Collins/Tyner(lol?) in space, take advantage of how wide open Villamin, Hodgins, Togiai, Hernandez, and Bradford are when teams have to commit to defending the run. This isn’t rocket science with this roster. It baffles me.

    Then you make a big change at the end of the season and go get a real Offensive Coordinator/assistant head coach with a long-term philosophy and vision for his offense and you hand him the keys to everything on the offensive side of the ball, admitting your mistake and correcting for it.

      • Except for the fact that the offense looks nothing like an air raid and none of the coaching staff has any experience with an air raid offense.

        The biggest problem is exactly that, the offense never had any kind of identity. I think we all assumed that the offense would be the same as what was starting to click pretty decently last year, with the addition of a legitimate down field passing threat. That was obviously not the case.

        • During the off season I was worried about the “Beav Raid” talk I was hearing, and people here assured me we weren’t running that. Maybe we aren’t. I don’t know what we’re running. It looks like schoolyard “go out for a pass.”

          What a mess. GA fell in love with Falk/WSU last year and now we’re in this mess because of his every changing impulses.

        • I agree.

          I wasn’t meaning to use “Beaver-raid” to say that they are trying to do Air-raid exactly ala WSU/Leach but I get how it came off that way. But you gotta give a name to whatever the weird mashup is that they are trying to do and that’s the funniest one I’ve seen so far. Personally, I think the “Beaver-n-shoot” is probably more accurate to what our offense is best described as. Maybe more like the “Shoot-the-beaver”. Yeah, I’ll call it “shoot-the-beaver” from now on.

    • Well said.

      We can rag on all the other coaches all we want but this situation boils down to GA attempting to shoe horn in a guy and a strategy that isn’t panning out and doesn’t fit the roster.

      The state we’re in is fundamentally on him.

    • I disagree with the hand-picked aspect. He’s just the best we have or have had on the roster since Mannion left.

      Luton actually looked a little better today. I don’t know why he can’t read an edge blitz. He’s not perfect by any means. And we knew he would have soe growing pains on this level. He looked more decisive today than I’ve seen from him yet. He’s still a work in progress, and his OC sucks my sweaty balls. But he is the only QB we’ve had in three years who can throw an out with pace.

        • LDR literally couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn. It was so disappointing to find that out, because he does have a live arm.

          LDR would never have started a game if Bikey stayed. We would have had to put up with our next savior, Zach Kline.

          • Was he really that bad? I had always thought if he had stuck around this wouldn’t have needed to be a complete rebuild by GA. Is there more to the story of him saying he was told he would never play here? Something never added up there when they were giving Nick Mitchell time and he couldn’t hit the barn or even the corn field.

          • He might have been better under Riley, but he completely sucked at Florida. I don’t know where he transferred to after that, but he was just not good. I would have rather had Katz on a bad day.

  9. watching the end of the game tonight and looking at a mostly full stadium during the course of it, I remember WSU’s athletic director, Bill Moos, and how he rationalized going against the grain and hiring Mike Leach. The basic rationale: if you want to win in Pullman you have to get bold. It’s no coincidence that our “shining moment,” the “Camelot in Corvallis” was the bold hire of Dennis Erickson. If this gets as bad as it could, meaning a 1-10 season and maybe 5,000 fans in Reser for a night game vs. ASU in November, Ray and Barnes might get the same epiphany that struck Moos and do something bold. What’s the craziest thing possible? Chip Kelly

    • Yeah no money for that.

      But anyway, Chip hates boosters. He’ll never coach college again. Tressel has been out of football since 2010. Hard to imagine him returning at OSU. Leach was a good fit for OSU. Ironically people laughed at me and told me he wasn’t a good fit when he was out there, and I mentioned I wanted him as a Riley replacement. Leach is flawed and has a cap, but he’s also solid and has a clear vision that he recruits to. GA’s big problem is he has no vision. Changes his mind every year about what O/D he wants to run.

      • here’s the thing, though, Angry: there wont’ be any money in the treasury with a 1-11 season either what with an empty stadium the rest of this season compounded by plummeting donations and ticket sales next. That was Moos’s point: if you want to compete you have to do something beyond what seems possible. Can you imagine the ticket sales for Reser if Chip Kelly was hired?

    • Chip would be my #1. That is how you go Bold and get Oregon State noticed nationally for winning games. Beau is my 2nd choice right now and is obtainable. I’d consider that NIU coach too. He atleast has the right mentality of sticking to his purpose and plan when coming in as an underdog. Team was straight busibess on the sideline. They came to beat Nebraska and only lost to #1 Ohio State 20-13 when they played them last year. GA will lose to Ohio St something like 56-7 on the other hand.

      Have lost almost all faith in GA. Too many warts he doesn’t care to do anything about.

        • Rod Carey. Had led Northern Illinios to wins in 4 of 5 attempts against B1G conference while coaching a MAC conference program. Only loss was to #1 ranked at the time Ohio State 20-13 in the Horseshoe.

          Besides Chip Kelly, I think Carey might be just the kind of guy Oregon State needs that is gettable. Would sign in a heartbeat for 2 million. Seems to be a good recruiter as they had multiple players I noticed that appeared more athletic than OSU players, especially on defense. Then on offense he seems to believe in steady fundamental football and avoiding dumb mistakes. Will use the run to setup the pass and not be too reckless. Understands beating your opponent requires smart play and valuing possession to earn a victory over 4 quarters from wise game management and team cohesiveness and purpose.

          ROD CAREY >>>>> gary andersen

          • I thought the discussion was dumb before I saw this.

            Now it’s just out of hand stupid.

            It’s stupid because you have yet to tell us if our unis were good, or if they can be better.

    • It would actually be 1-11. And that is a distinct possibility, I doubt the oddsmakers will have them favored in any games the rest of the season.

  10. I wouldn’t mind moving back to Baldwin to see what he can do with the new group. I would advise caution though. He ran a lot of gimmick sets and was also prone to passing a lot. I personally was really happy to see McGiven get the job last year. Things appeared to be on the right track at times. I suspect that the undercurrent was TJ Woods calling the run plays. Maybe he needs to be promoted…

    Regarding the defense, I agree the broad concept that offense needs to help them but lets be honest they still suck. Watch Texas D tonight vs USC. That D is creating opportunities for their offense. Our D does not do this. In sum, our entire team is really rough. Our talent seems to outpace our on field product.

  11. McMaryion is looking solid tonight in second half action. Just outmatched overall.
    Anyone here wonder how we would look if he got the starting nod at OSU?

  12. McMaryion finishes 10/16 for 96 yards, 30 rushing yards, no TDs or Turnovers. Lead the team to more points than their starter in less time. Washington kept their starters in most of the game. Pulled them with like 6 minutes left. Missed two TD passes by about a foot each. Good/safe throws that only the WR could get.

    Their starter was so bad you have to think McM is now their starter.

    • Washington did not keep their starters in for the whole game. Their third stringers were playing midway through the second quarter.

      Their O starters were in for too long, but that’s today’s Heisman mania crap. You gotta rack up the numbers when you have pathetic in front of you.

        • I watched the game. I also saved it on DVR because I knew this conversation was coming.

          Why do people in this day and age think they can say whatever they want despite actual video taping reality? Is this a part of that fake news shit? I heard Trump supporters didn’t believe tape on him saying anything contrary to his stump speech even while they watched tape on it.

          I suppose it’s a Zionist conspiracy, or some bananawhackadoodle shit.

          I just don’t get it.

          On that we can agree.

    • “Missed two TD passes by about a foot each. Good/safe throws that only the WR could get.”

      So he was inaccurate and over threw his receivers, go it. How is that any diffrent form Luton doing the same thing and you complaining about it? At least be honest. And Washington pulled their starting dbs about midway thru the 3rd.

      • No, he was very accurate and put the balls where either the WR would get the TD or it would be incomplete. That’s accuracy. You could argue the WRs should have made the plays, too. The first ball to K. Johnson was a brilliant throw.

        He wasn’t statistically better than Luton, but he was in how he managed the game, and how that would fit in the offense we should be running. What he did tonight would have been perfect for the OSU that finished the season strong and was expected to be a running offense.

        I don’t think McM is a great QB, but I do think he was the best one on our roster and especially the best fit for the players and scheme we should be running. With Luton they’re trying to fit a round peg in a square hole. Though, honesty, I’m not sure any offense fits Luton.

        • He was playing against defenders who were in because this was their chance to get a letter for this year. Those passes you tout would be picked by the real players on that D.

          That being said, you are correct. They should have been TDs and might have been with receivers who had better spatial awareness and hands. The first guy had to jump more than a yard just to get out of bounds.

          • To me, McM played well given he’s new there, and he’s a better fit for our offense. That’s what I’m saying.

            When I harp on McM, it’s more about our staff and their inability to analyze a situation and put the best guy in for the betterment of the team rather than their pet toy or own experiments with a player who intrigues them.

            I’ve always hated coaches who play politics and put “their guy” on the field over the merit play, and it’s making me hate Andersen. McM is just a very obvious representation of that, so I bring him up a lot. He’s not a great QB and he’s not awful. He’s serviceable and the best fit for our offense. Anyone looking at it objectively should have seen that. Meanwhile, GA missed badly on a JC recruit who nobody else wanted. It’s so unfair to the fanbase. People are spending time and money to support the Beavs, and GA is fucking around with these C level QB prospects (Moran, Willard looks like shit) and his wet dreams about what they might be under some best case scenario that never pans out.

          • When you harp on MM, you remind me he ran away when there is an almost certainty the third string QB will play at least four games this year.

            That chickenshit can suck in that Fresno air and remind himself he had a good situation which he just decided to leave.

            That kind of leadership can go fuck itself.

          • I apologize if I get irrational when thinking about a weak-minded person who otherwise would have been… um… good at handing off the ball.

            I also should not continue to do this, because a man would have explained himself already. But I reserve the caveat that he has family issues that are more important than sport going on. That would erase all my irrational feelings that he is beyond a failed leader and scared to face his potential.

  13. Let’s all be honest Colorado state has a way better offensive scheme plus an elite receiver and qb we don’t. We lost to the, on the road this specific year 9-10 times.

    We need to figure out our fucking quarterback situation! What the fuck are we doing? Beat them with arm, legs, and mind? Or just arm? I.e. Luton(I hope he is ok) or just legs(Collins, as a true freshman non the less). Or just mind?

    In order for Oregon state to be successful we need an identity as far as what’s expected, and how to win games/put points on the board as a quarterback. For example if I was a football player/quarterback being recruited. My biggest question is, what is my goal? How is this offense gonna score, and how do I help lead towards that?

    I just don’t understand which direction we are trying to take offensively and that is a major flaw. I hope ga can figure this out. I.e. Cal, rookie qb, under Baldwin, you can see exactly what their system is and imagine what “you” could do as a qb. Or uw, USC, basically all other PAC 12 teams have a true system. Maybe one day we will decide which one we are and progress that way

  14. I would love to have a guy like SDSU’s coach. Old guy most of our fan base would love who is fundamentally sounds and as tough as nails. Each year he produces the best product possible with what he has to work with.

    • That old guy, Rocky Long, was our D coordinator under Pettibone. He also had Brady Hoke and then bronco mendenhall as his D line coach. Long left to become UCLA’s D coordinator before becoming head coach at New Mexico. I want to say there were some that wanted him to get the head job instead of Riley I, but I may be misremembering.

    • Me too. He was actually the Defensive Coordinator for Oregon State back in the 90s for a few years. He runs a 3-5-3 defense which is not the norm, but it works for him.

  15. Meanwhile Cal who is supposed to be worse than OSU with 2 guys that would have been better hires than Andersen is up 4 late against MSU and 2-0 in year 1.

    And surprised I didn’t see anything about UO’s throw with 14 seconds left vs. Wyoming. Jesus, I’ve never seen a more classless play on the football field. Wyoming’s coach would have been in the right to punch Taggart in the face.

  16. Andersen’s reason for sticking with Luton, even with a lopsided score,
    “the Beavers were “trying to play to get the offense better.”
    “If we can do anything to keep them in a position to keep moving forward, we’ve got to keep pressing it,” said Andersen, adding several defensive starters also played until the end of the 52-23 loss. “That’s where we are right now as a program. Our kids can use every rep that they can get.”

    But, only some of “our kids” can use every rep they can get??

    • I guess we’re stuck with this shit because admitting error isn’t in GA’s playbook. At least Garrettson seemed better able to run the shit show.

      • That’s my take as well.

        GA says, “it’s on me” but he also says he knows his system works and has seen it do so. By saying his system works he precludes admitting error.

        His, “it’s on me” mantra must mean that he thinks he has to simply try harder to ingrain his approach with the team. I guess.

          • I won’t disagree with that.

            But what was said by GA is dead on, and if you played team sports you know what he’s saying. But I will forgive baseballers for not understanding this, because you yank poor performance when you can. It’s the epitome of great management, yanking poor performance before it actually becomes poor. I would say it’s an art.

          • In hoops, you let it ride for a couple plays. But you eventually sub in for everyone… some more than others.

            I always wondered why football was so different in that you couldn’t yank your QB aside for a couple plays and give him the business while your O continued down the field. I think Aunt Patty does this. I don’t see his team missing assignments on the O side.

          • But a fair amount of the time he’s spot on in my opinion. Except the time last week he told me fvck myself on a bed of nails or something like that.

          • And the belief that self-satisfaction might one day be possible… well… that has nothing to do with my pejoratives.

            That’s now a visual that I must remove.

            Dammit!

    • He’s not wrong.

      You played yourself into this. Play yourself out of it. There’s zero reason the back-ups need to get embarrassed once you set it up for failure.

      Again, though, Luton was getting reps at the expense of getting good reps. This is because some dumb jock who gets paid a bunch of money has decided that just getting him reps regardless of quality is the most important thing to do.

        • See?

          I got negged because I said you wouldn’t understand.

          There were two dynamics occurring.

          The starters got them into this. The starters can pay the price of getting them into this. In baseball, there is shame in being removed. In football, there is not that same shame. But what value is there in replacement? That guy fucked up and can use more practice. Why put in number two when you need number one to go next week better than he’s doing this week? And the only way for number one to get better is to just get reps.

          I argue that reps are meaningless. I argue that quality reps are what count. I don’t know if I have any way to express how I would do that. I’m unsure of what method I would take when formulating on offense. But I might know enough that if you made your bed, you need to sleep in it.

  17. So Wilcox and Baldwin have a freshmen qb, a team that struggled to stop anybody for 4 yrs and no winning culture, yet they have a road win over an ACC team and a home win over an SEC team. All we get is more coach speak. We need a Barry Alvarez to corner GA and demand he run the ball then maybe he will leave here also.

  18. Pettibone coarched at Northern Illinois if I remember right.

    What we need is a coach who has NFL coaching experience. Both Erickson and Riley had that and it helped both pull in good players who had an reasonable shot at making a Pro roster. Riley hung around long enough that his NFL experience probably became less of a pull.With all the things going on in the Pac why does anyone want particularly to come to OSU and play for Anderson? Especially now. Whatever capital he had from coaching Wisconsin is gone. And whatever capital OSU had from Erickson and Riley is gone. We need a coach who kids talk about wanting to play for (assuming that wont get a call from Alabama or Ohio State of course). A coach with recent pro experience would be the surest route. Otherwise we are probably taking chances on lower division Heads or second tier coordinator candidates who say all the right things, hoping one of them is actually the real deal.

    The hard truth might be that a Mike Leach is as good a candidate as we can expect from the college ranks, barring a Ryan Null out of nowhere scenario. And with the exception of one 11-1 season Leach is basically the Skeksis to Riley’s Mystic. So we wait for a team that has enough talent that if everything went just right for one glorious season . . .

    Remember it was a Crabtreee tip toe down the sidelines that was the difference between a BCS bowl and the Holiday Bowl, the BIG 12 version of the Sun Bowl

  19. Beau Baldwin might have been a better hire after all. I wasn’t sold on him because he recruited a lot of P5 rejects and tweeners and bullied teams with them. No doubt in year 3 of his rebuild we’d have a legit QB.

  20. Beau would have been much better. Beavs would be inna bowl almost certainly this year with him. At the time it was GA, Baldwin, Wilcox and Wells getting interviews. Many wanted Baldwin for the success at EWU and a clear offensive identity that looked good. Others got swayed by the Wisky facttor even though GA really lucked into that. Normally he would have had next to no chance at that job but it came open aftet GA’s one good year at USU and Alvarez neing cheap worked in GA’s favor. He inherited a stacked team and nation’s premier RB. Still managed to be blown out 58-0 to Ohio State on a neutral field in B1G Championship. Alvarez had major concerns at that point.

    BDC of course did not ask Wilcox who he would bring in as OC or ever consider a Wilcox/Baldwin combo. It looks like a strong pairing that utilizes both coaxhes strengths the best. Wilcox is a good tecruiter and liked ny players. Beau gets to be the offensive mastermind and set up the HC for success. Cal now 3-0 and has two nice resume wins in that set.

    I wanted Beau at the time but realized Wilcox had some positive traits especially for recruiting and pretty good Pac-12 defensive scheme exposure.

    All GA had was fact that he wss Wisky coach for two years who was stacked when he got there and WAY underproduced on his most recent big stage opportunity. Didn’t like that at all but knew the Wisky angle would get BDC excited.

    Many local writers thought Beau would be a solid pick for Oregon State. By himself in the Pac-12 he may not have been quite as effectively utilized as what we may see at Cal over the course of a few years. Right now they have established a strong winning culture wirh an identity in just the 1st few games and you already have a pretty good idea of what and who they will be.

    Meanwhile in Corvallis GA is going backwards and never has had a winning identity for longer than a 2 week stretch for 3 years. Bad habits that are losing habits are sold as reps for the process when it is clearly a clusterf**k mess. No identity and what he says he wants is not what they ever actually end up choosing to do on gameday. Beavers chose poorly. BDC went out with a lemon which isn’t a big surprise.

    Don’t think GA will ever turn it around. Bad habits, thinking and stubborn to protect the bad rather than enhance the few good areas. Cal got their staff at a great time. Beavs would have been better with either. They still could go after Beau and should but he needs to have an ace recruiter on his staff for it to be a real good hire. That said he would easily win a fee more games than GA in just about any year because his offensive philosophy is light years ahead and he practices good habits and believes in quality reps over poor reps that are just cementing bad habits like is GA’s trademark.

    • When will the west side be done?

      You can’t leave us hanging, oh tartan one. We long for the tartany tartan of your tartan tongue. Whatever people do when they say they’re praying, that’s what I’ll put in my tweets for someone to do for you. I luvz you manz! You make life worth living.

      Or you’re just a speed bump on a boring day.

      Whatever it is, you are someone… yeah… someone.

    • Fuck me.

      Can’t you remove this?

      This is just Duck garbage. Honestly, I don’t even think they think this is funny. But it is just their garbage. Slap a swoosh on it.

  21. I don’t think that the coaches be able to fill out the recruiting class unless the team gets a win or two. This would be catastrophic for the program.

      • Look what happens if McGiven is fired. I am certain some of these kids will decommit when they find out his “scheme” or whatever the hell it is is gone. Same story for if Clune goes. The weekend versus U-Dub is a big recruiting event; what happens if the team gets blown out in that game? Two blowout losses on major recruiting weekends?

        Plus, who else is going to be convinced (from high school) to come to Corvallis? Maybe Andersen will be able to find O Line and D Line prospects from the JUCO ranks, but what happens if they don’t pan out?

        This Ohio State game scheduled for next season is going to be an embarrassment for the program as a whole. A good reason for that is lack of depth, which all starts with recruiting. I would definitely donate and encourage others to do so.

  22. I think it’s time to address the white elephant in the room…..

    No, I am not talking about Angry wanting to fag it up with MCM. Sorry, couldn’t resist that dig Angry….

    Take off the orange colored glasses. This program cannot compete at the P5 level in this day and age in college football. For a multitude of reasons. From money to recruiting to lack of prestige. It’s time to drop down to the Mountain West Conference. Corvallis is a shit town to attempt to recruit competent football student athletes to. Beau Breedlove would not win here. Justin Wilcox would not win here. Jonathan Smith would not win here. Unless you can snag a coach with some pedigree that needs a job (Dennis Erickson), we’re fucked. In the unlikely event someone gets fired and needs a job, OSU is a steppingstone not a cornerstone.

    At least they’d get to 6 wins or close every year and the Vegas or Hawaii bowls in the Mountain West. This program isn’t even close to sniffing respectability.

    • This shit’s gotta stop.

      This MWC talk is the stupidest thing to come out of angrybeavs since the “sprained vagina” debacle. Want to watch the team play a non-gauntlet of Who Cares U every single freaking year, no matter the ability of the team? If you think OSU football seems irrelevant NOW… oh boy. Might as well just shut down the program if you’re going to go that route, seriously.

      Things look bleak currently with Anderpants at the helm, but they looked even worse for WSU when Wulff was there. You think they wish they went MWC? And they’re in a flat-out Podunk town with even less money.

      I can’t believe what I’m reading from some reasonably intelligent people here. Unreal.

  23. Are we ever going to talk?

    Or do we just live in this pretend wonderland?

    I mean… Kid Rock running for Prez doesn’t phase me… sorry… faze me.

    I challenge one (or many) of you to at least come with the standard conservative garbage.

  24. Angry, regarding your comments about Willard looking like Luton Jr., I just went back and watched his senior film and I don’t see it.

    Willard can clearly run. There are multiple clips of him lowering the shoulder on LB’s and you can tell his offense was designed to take advantage of his athleticism. His ability to improvise looks good, which gives me hope for the mental side of his game. Accuracy looks decent, but not great.

    I could see the comparison in that his game is predicated on accuracy and decision making. He’s not a game manager, but he seems to have more tools to work with than Luton.

    • Yes, he’s definitely a better runner.

      As a passer, his skill set is the same as Luton’s. Only positive is he’s had time to develop. That, and his running, makes him a better prospect than Luton, but not sure he’s the answer due to throwing problems and inaccuracy. I do think due to his wheels he’d be able to move the chains on 3rd downs more than Luton.

  25. What ya think? San Diego State beating ASU and now Stanford. Not a big fan of Rocky Long for head coach, by may want to look at some of the assistants — doing more with less.

  26. Lots of teams will use JC transfers to fill gaps on their rosters. The Luton experiment notwithstanding, maybe that is the route to go next year. Except let’s go big and get an entire junior college team to come to Corvallis. East Mississippi Community College is a home for wayward D1 level athletes. It’s full of transfers from SEC schools all looking for a shot back into the game. The talent level can be incredible.

    So how about an entire roster swap for 2018? East Mississippi Community College transfers their entire roster to Corvallis and the 2017 Beaver roster transfers there to play a junior college schedule.

    The Corvallis community may need to brace itself for a spate of low-level misdemeanors as these boys can be “a little rowdy” but that’s a small price to pay to bring winning football to Corvallis.

    You can catch your future team in action on NetFlix under the title “Last Chance U.” Maybe second to last chance if they all come here.

    Sounds like a win win.

  27. Did Kalani Sitake take the process with him to BYU? It seems to be working about the same there.

    08/26 Portland St W 20-6
    09/02 LSU L 0-27
    09/09 Utah L 13-19
    09/16 Wisconsin L 6-40

      • That’s an interesting point. GA hit the jackpot at Utah State with both Chuckie Keaton at QB and Dave Aranda at DC. He hasn’t been able to duplicate either at Oregon State but up until last week he has given his DC’s a lot of freedom. I expected more out of Kalani’s D when he was here but was willing to overlook it as he signed the Mormon mission all American team.

  28. What gives me no hope for GA to turn this around is the things he says. Like telling the players and media that the program will just “flip”. “Flip” needs to happen every single play, the way the players are coached, the fundamentals. It’s not a switch, that all of a sudden you’re doing things right. success is in everything you do.

    Just because his “plan” has worked for “27-28 years” doesn’t mean it will work. That’s just bad business planning – it reminds me of those leaders in business who resist any change, irrespective of the signs that contradict them. You need to be able to adapt and use the resources (players) you have to plan and build around them. You can’t force square pegs into round holes.

    It’s almost like GA is trying to buy time and hoping something changes before we all figure him out.

    If something like this happened in the business world, you’d be fired.

          • Having met many players and coaches, smart is a relative term. I’m starting to believe they spend hours watching tape because they’re too stupid to see it the first, second or third time.

          • Maybe I’m exaggerating a little, but doesn’t it seem like time after time freshmen or inexperienced QB’s have stepped up against the Beavs over the years and had career games? Are we ever going to have a freshman light up a P-12 opponent? The excuse in the Riley years was that the system was too complicated for freshmen.

    • It’s ridiculous to think GA is just pulling one over on us. He’s convinced they have the right plan in place and won’t admit that he’s wrong. He’s either justifying things to himself to avoid admitting that or just not very smart.

  29. Wow.

    It looks like Mariota has been figured out.

    Where’s Duck fan to explain this away? Thankfully, I didn’t play him. But now I have to go find a real NFL QB for a back-up.

    • + 1,000,000.

      Been saying that for years and why I had no interest in Luton, Willard, or Moran. GA has pretty girl syndrome. “Terrible personality, but she’s attractive, so I’ll make it work.”

      Really surprised that Jack thinks arm strength matters. Only to the point the guy has average strength, which any NCAA recruit will have. After that it moves to the bottom of the list.

      • The team needs a fucking smart, fast, kick ass dual-threat QB. They actually need two or three of them. I just don’t know if this team of recruiters can attract them and will they truly be P-12 caliber?

      • Arm strength does matter when your accurate pass is shit because your timing is so fucking slow that it makes you inaccurate. Making basic football throws is a necessity. You don’t get to talk about accuracy if you don’t even make basic throws first.

        • Nobody is going to recruit a player to the Pac-12 who can’t make a basic throw. Well, nobody but Gary Andersen.

          Not sure who you’re talking about with slow timing. Yeah a QB winding up to throw would be a problem, but no QB at OSU has ever done that, so it’s moot.

        • Heh heh… he agrees with what I just wrote.

          You can teach the kid to be good on short passes, but that doesn’t make him accurate.

          Think of it this way. If you have a P who throws it 50 mph but places it over the plate every time, are you going to pitch him instead of the guy who throws it 95 mph but only puts it in the zone half the time?

          Your argument is for the 50 mph arm. And the difference is that drastic.

  30. This is a DUMPSTER FIRE in need of a full re-boot.. Each additional GA year will take twice as much of time to fix.. I call it the “GA-SQUARED” theory.. If GA stays on through his contract we won’t have a winning PAC12 record until 2032 plus/minus a year..

    The only thing worse than our defense is our offense… and the only thing worse than our offense is our coaching… and the only thing worse than our coaching is our recruiting.. Although one could argue the last two are one in the same..

  31. I’m not taking much solace, but I thought this game was actually a little more competitive than the final score indicated. Two turnovers, 14 points. Blown coverage on 3rd and forever, leading to a TD when the game was still within striking distance. 21 points given to Wazzu through carelessness, missed assignments or whatever. I’m interested to see if anything positive happens once the team gets to the other side of the current brutal schedule. And will the team play better with DG at QB?

  32. I didn’t get to watch the game but did listen via internet radio on my phone on my drive from Santa Clara to Yreka. I had a few drop-outs of coverage. One notable one was immediately after the second-consecutive sack and 3rd and 22. When the feed came back on a minute later Parker and Wilson were describing the touchdown. It took me a while to get past the WTF moment.

    Later after Luton was laid-out the WSU fans (and Leach) were booing the targetting call. Parker was pissed and he showed it. I’m not much into homerism but it was good to hear. I know the review went against OSU (as all the others did in that game). What’s the consensus here? Was it targetting?

  33. What is it with Gary Andersen and quarterback injuries? Whoever he chooses as “the man” gets injured so often. It happened at Utah State, it happened at Wisconsin, and it has happened literally every season he’s been at Oregon State so far.

    And those are only the instances I can definitely recall, too. It’s like there’s some karmic force out there saving him from his own mistakes at choosing quarterback.

  34. Having 24 hours to digest the game and the season, here are my thoughts:

    1. I’m a GA fan, but he’s losing me quickly. I still think he’s an upgrade over Riley, and don’t want Riley back (sorry, but he peaked with OSU). But he’s got to find a way to fix this, and quick. Otherwise, he runs the risk of losing his own team.

    2. This season is lost. Disappointing that we’re four games in and it’s already lost.

    3. Coaches–This is on the coaches. It’s year three, and if the players are still having miscues on offense and defense, that’s squarely on the coaches for not helping the players learn the system. Oddly enough, I feel like we have the athletes to compete in the PAC12 at most positions, but it’s clear that the schemes aren’t working. The offense is a disaster, and the defense is always out of position. McGiven and Clune’s seats should be scolding hot as far as I’m concerned.

    4. OL/DL/QB are weak. I don’t think we need to say anymore here.

    5. Defense – As much as we have talked about the problems on offense, the defense isn’t doing us any favors either. They constantly seem out of position, and Clune’s scheme seems to break down rather quickly against an offensive coordinator with half a brain. The DL has gets no pressure on opposing QB’s, and the DB’s are always 2 steps behind the WR’s. At this point, our 3-4 scheme doesn’t work.

    6. Recruiting – Too many misses, not enough production.

    If I’m GA, I’m seriously questioning a lot of things in this program, from the players, to the coaches, to myself. I wouldn’t be surprised if he walked away from OSU.

  35. At this point I believe that whatever Garypants (don’t remember which of you came up with this name, but I think it fits) can do to salvage the season is beside the point.

    He needs to go. No excuse for losing the locker room from day one of this season, here in the third year of “rebuilding.” That’s just unprecedented, there is no room for that.

    Any bandage that makes a difference would only make it more likely the pants-boy can stay, and I don’t want that. I don’t want that at all.

    I do wonder, though, with all the complaints about coaching: How much has ‘pants lost the faith of his coaching staff, never mind the locker room? How divided has the coaching staff been (very quietly, of course), as they watched merit-based decisions go out the window?

    If the top man doesn’t make crucial decisions based on merit, then suddenly football is not the only game you have to play.

    • What merit are we talking about? Are you talking about assistants and coordinators not deserving their positions? Because GA doesn’t place anyone on the depth chart. The assistants and coordinators do that. He may have had influence on the D side this past week.

      • The merit decision I referred to was the QB one that has been discussed deeply already. And I don’t believe GA when he says he’s uninvolved in such decisions; I even believe they’re his decisions more than McGivens’s. This is a GA problem, echoed from his days at Wisconsin, when the same sorts of “games” were being complained of by Badger fans.

        And if GA will drop merit from that kind of decision, then the people whose careers depend on him have to start thinking if football is the most important game they need to play right now.

  36. MR is one blowout loss from living full time in San Antonio and getting his offseason get togethers with Paul Chryst back on the calendar.

    • presuming Riley survives this year (I heard speculation on college sports nation that W’s aftert the next two weeks vs. Illinois and Rutgers are going to be hard to come by) he can’t possibly survive 2018. Get this: AT Colorado, At Michigan, At Wisconsin, AT Ohio State, and Michigan State and Iowa at home.

  37. I’m not so sure we’re better off with DG at QB.

    We’ve been down that road before……yea, he can scramble, but his pocket passing ability is suspect…..he’s just never looked like he at Utah St. And since he got creamed at Minny last year, he really gets squirrelly in the pocket lie 2 seconds after the snap

  38. So OSU passed on 53% of plays and ran on 47%. Yet again McGivInt and GA are unable to execute the 60/40 run pass target gameplan. Myself and others called just about this exact percentage. We are able to see tendancy and call it for the fail it is. 13% short of target and much like all the other games we have lost. We know what doesn’t work.

    Beavers averafed 4.7 a carry. Rushing it 3 straight could maybe produce first downs on 80-85 percent of sets of downs if they stuck to it. If Beavs went for it on 4th that should climb to 92+ percent of aets of downs.

    Only thing that can be concluded are that GA and McGivInt don’t understand basic math and are fools.

    Beavs likely would still lose but are essentually repeatedly choosing to have a statistic chance of winning if sub 10% instead of the 30+% chance they could have in several Pac-12 games. These ciaxhes are making it worse by a factor of atleast 300% by calling way too many stupid plays that don’t fit our strenths. GA and McGivInt basically keep choosing to lose by 28 instead of 7-10 by being incompetent leaders and not able to execute what actually does give us our best chance which is 60/40 run pass.

    Same thing next game and the game after that until GA pulls his head put of his butt and makes McGivInt stick to the target and see the result, which would be a far closer game that fans don’t want to turn off at halftime. GA is really sinkingbthe program by not keeping to his target plan.

    Some home games coming up may only have 7 or 8K after halftime if things don’t change quick. The pass happy ways need to stop before it becomes regular for Reser to be 3/4 empty on gameday.

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