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From Cliff:
Ol Michael Beaton and DT Mana Tuivalala left the OSU football team for personal reason.
As the kids say, "slater!"
Good to see competition beating them out and trim the fat, or a sign something isn't right inside the program?
angry says: I’m not sure.
Some people said Beaton was making a move. Personally, I never liked his film. Tuivalala…he looked undersized, though people said he was strong. He got married, I believe, so that likely played into the decision.
I’d rather see two scholies freed up for better talent, but it might hurt the depth chart short-term.
Mud&Sticks says: Sorry.
My response was meant as a tongue in cheek, smart ass remark.
OSU is so thin on OL they couldn’t even run a full scrimmage the other day so losing an OL, even if he isn’t Pac-12 caliber, can’t be a good thing.
And the team is thin on the DL too so if they get hit with a rash of injuries then Tuivailala might be sorely missed.
bwdik
alex says: Still, not counting true freshmen, we’re down to 6 scholarship O-line, plus two walk-ons. (!)
Of the 6 true freshmen, one is out for the season, one is WAY too small to play right away (Eldridge is at 230 last I saw?), and another is battling concussions.
So we’re looking at all 3 healthy, eligible freshmen likely burning redshirts? Suemalo, Bays, Mitchell? What a waste.
alex says: I’m kind of baffled as to why now of all times we would have experienced linemen leaving over lack of PT?? I mean, you’re on the 2-deep by default..it really couldn’t be a much better opportunity.
Garner left for the same reason in the offseason. Don’t these guys have the drive/confidence to think they can compete for PT without having it gifted to them?
beaverkman says: I don’t get this at all, does it speak to the coaching staff? Are they running this kids out? I mean Garner and Beaston were pushing for starting roles, did they feel they weren’t getting a fair look or treatment? The marriage thing doesn’t make sense either, if you know you are not going to be able to work it out shouldn’t you mention before halfway through camp, how about finishing what you started?
Are they leaving school or keeping their schollies?
lovebeaver says: Lets not sugarcoat the departure of two more players from the program. Remember two months ago seven other players quit the team for “personal reasons”. That nine so far this year. It appears we will continue to fill our gaps with “walk-ons”. This situation continues to reflect disarray in the program and lack of leadership and respect with the coaches. We continue to trail badly all of the other Pac-12 schools in recruiting this year. I am calling for immediate change in the football program from the top down to the bottom .
capitalcause says: disagree completely….this is a move that is being driven by the team not the coaches…this squad is different then the last couple of years, trust me. It’s the team that is pressuring those that can’t or won’t contribute to get the hell out…they’re sick of losing and they don’t want folks that aren’t committed to ride along.
It’s not that these guys are bad kids…they just aren’t football players.
Onward.
beaverkman says: So it that is the case, why did the players want them off? By all accounts beaton was backup and pushing Enger for the starting job. Tuivalala was in the rotation on the line. It doesn’t sound like they were not football players? Could you explain?
Beaton and Mana wanted out on their own. Beaton has another calling (theater), and Mana has always been conflicted about football. Now that Mana has another priority, his love/hate for football isn’t enough to keep him around.
The others at the beginning of the summer just weren’t committed to the team. They skipped voluntary work-outs. They were late to meetings. They skipped study halls. Etc., etc., etc….
There’s no reason you and I need to be paying for these kids to chew gum and wear baseball caps on the sideline on game day. They were asked to commit or leave. Guess what they did.
And lovebeaver?
Come with something real or halfway intelligent. You sound like a Duck dropout. I know life is hard with only half a sociology degree on your resume, but you don’t have to sound like an inaccurate wiki page.
BizBeav says: I was talking about this with friends across the west coast on Friday and my concerns were with depth when something like this happens. The general concensus what basically this:
Both guys were pushed to 3rd string after the scrimmage and either decided to leave on their own, or were pushed out. Couple of points:
(1) Weird that two guys made the same decision on the same day
(2) Both have done nothing on the field to date, even though they’ve been around for a few years. Both were slotted as 2nd string going into camp, which was based mostly on seniority. Both have highly considered freshmen and red shirt freshmen behind them the could have very easily passed them over on the depth chart.
Tuivailala was a lightly recruited DT and is currently a RS soph. Seumalo and Masaniai are the starters. Braun is on the 2-deep. Collins and Bennett are both highly considered RS freshman. Not to mention another 3 dudes (Robins, Aluesi, and Tago). I think he just got passed over.
Beaton was also a lightly recruited OL and is currently a RS soph. Andrews and Enger are the starters at guard. Behind them include Addie and the solid group of freshman. I can easily see this as another passed over situation.
Between this and the mass exodus after spring practice, it feels like Riley is finally growing some balls around getting rid of the dead weight.
oneoldbeav says: Or, we could pay them to chew gum, wear baseball caps on the sideline AND use chapstick!
Seriously, I have no first hand knowledge of the situation, but tend to go along with Jack and capital on this one. Call me a kool-aid drinker if you must but Riley’s core is fair treatment of players (Katz an anomaly here).
Remember when he was asked about playing for Bear Bryant? His memory was of the fairness and respect with which Bear treated his players. Not the victories or the passion Bear brought to the game, the fairness was the first (pretty much the only) thing mentioned. While I do wish Riley practiced the passion and focus of the Bear a lot more, I do think he has the family/respect thing down as a solid principle.
waggle says: It is no surprise that Beaton is moving on- as you said Jack his heart is not totally committed to football. I know something of his history and quite frankly was surprised that OS stayed with their offer after his senior season in high school. He had a much better junior year and got the offer and then was at best mediocre. He is a fine young man and solid football player with a D-1 body- just not the desire needed to play at that high of a level.
beaverkman says: Okay I have read and talked with others about the situation and it is been a consensus that the reason is that the players didn’t have the drive or desire necessary for the team. It seems apparent that this is of little surprise to some. So, why couldn’t this have been done when the others were let go? Great it frees up a schollie now, and what we have 31 scholarships available for next season? We have recruited just 5 players (3WR), I could see the move if we knew we were going to recruit an awesome class, but just to replace these guys with other 2star lightly recruited younger players makes me really scratch my head. This is what happens when you take flyers on guys, they end up hurting the program later on. It wouldn’t be so bad if we were at the limit and were trimming fat to stay below, but now we are down 6 schollies. It does nothing to help our depth, and as we saw in the Spring we can’t even run a full scrimmage cuz we don’t have enough linemen. It looks pathetic
They were probably talked into sticking with it back when the others left in the spring. Their positions are of need, and time and effort had already been put into their development. They might have been told if they feel the same way halfway through fall camp, then coaches wouldn’t keep them from their lives.
oneoldbeav says: FWIW, Jon Wilner in San Jose looks at SOS and says, “While floundering Oregon State has to deal with Wisconsin and Brigham Young, powerhouse Oregon gets Arkansas State and Tennessee Tech.”
He has the Ducks with the softest schedule, Beavs 4th hardest in the conference.
ObjCritic 
mckalk