Last August, after the second scrimmage, I wrote this:

This is the problem: you need the defense to be dominant this time of year. Not good, not adequate, but dominant.

Why?

Because the defense knows the offense's playbook. It's that simple. They practice against these guys daily and know the plays, yet they still can't stop them. The defense has an advantage; they should be stifling.

We know how that season turned out.

In hindsight, it is fairly fascinating to go back and read the comments. Peter Osborne from Beaverblitz visited and threw a tantrum, trying to justify the defense's 700+ yards, yet he never came back to admit he was wrong. Shocker. You can read the entire thread here if interested.

Anyway, I stand by the opinion that as a fan, what you want to see is a dominant defense in scrimmages (for the reasons mentioned above). In that sense, the first scrimmage this year was more promising than any last year.

But, moving beyond results, there is a huge (philosophical) paradigm shift that stands out this year: Riley is allowing, even encouraging, intensity and hitting during scrimmage.

This was not true in seasons past.

The reason for the change becomes transparent once you take a moment to think about it: the Beavers don't have a Stephen Paea or Jacquizz Rodgers on the roster. I don't want to insinuate that those guys were prima donas, but they were definitely coddled by a coach paranoid of losing his best players. Riley did not give his star players enough high intensity reps in practice to be successful once the season started.

I believe this is the prime reason for slow starts. It is unreasonable to believe a team should come out of the gate hitting on all cylinders when they never practiced in that manner. Remember how Stephen Paea and Jacquizz Rodgers were MIA @ TCU? If the same thing happens every year, coincidence becomes an invalid excuse.

This year, since there aren't any clear superstars, Riley is cutting it lose. I'm sure the media will spin this as Mike's personal growth or some other puke-worthy, feel-good crap, but realize the reason you're seeing violence is because the team lacks superstars. Every starter can be replaced with a player of equal talent. The following quote from Riley, taken from The Oregonian, backs up my observation:

The other was by WR Kevin Cummings, who had the ball jarred loose from a big hit by LB Cameron Collins.

“This team has been flying around,” Riley said. “We needed to do this to cut loose. I was just worried about that one hit on Kevin. Those are legal hard hits. That is what we want to be.”

Does Riley really care if he loses Collins? No coach wants to lose guys, but I doubt he'll lose any sleep so long as he has Welch, Akuna, and Te'o on the roster. What about Cummings? Nope, again, there are players behind him who are better. What about Jovan Stevenson? Not a chance. Riley knows the three backups are equally average.

So, you see, by lacking unanimous, all-conference, NFL prospects, the Beavers might actually have a better team come opening day. At the very least, they will be a more prepared team that has hit and been hit.

These notes were taken by AfghanBeav, who attended practice today. I wouldn't post observations from just anyone; I trust this guy's opinions based on a year of following his posts.

I was going to edit the writing to make it pretty, but screw it, there's good insight as-is, which is all that matters.

Special Teams

P Hekker: Nuff Said.

K Romaine: Kicked the ball well, deep and high several out of the back of the endzone. Only made 2/5 FG outside 30 yards.

Coverage: Looked alright, no tackling so it's hard to tell.

Return game: Looked good Poyer and Wheaton are still really good. Both made shifty moves.

Offense

QB Vaz(1st string) Does not look comfortable in the pocket. Gets happy feet quickly. Overthrew a ball right to the Safety.

Mannion(2nd string) GREAT footwork, good release, good arm strength, REALLY needs to work on the Center exchange (4 fumbles, only QB to fumble the exchange) IMO look for Mannion to become second string, with a little more time i bet he pushes Katz next year.

Lomax(3rd String) Looked Decent, tbh i was focusing more on other spots when he was in.

RB

Jovan Stevenson(1st) Running with more power than he did as freshman, drug Cam Collins about 5 yards on a run. Hits holes quickly, good vision, decent shifty moves, but is not Quizz

Ryan McCants(2nd) Big strong runner, hits holes hard but with his eyes closed. Has a decent first move, but can lower his shoulders and move piles (should have turned into a LB 3 years ago)

Malcome Marable(3rd) Looks good, he is quick hits holes well and can get the edge. Needs to get stronger, was getting taken down by contact and not tackles.

Terron Ward(4th) Looks like our next workhorse, shifty (but not as quick as Quizz was) and he is strong enough to break tackles. I like him.

IMO we look good at RB not great. Any of our 4 are not quizz but i think we are in good hands, we will get some production out of them.

WR

Wheaton(1st) looked great fast, good off the line moves. Still our fly sweep guy with James out.

Gwatchem(2nd) Looks promising he has decent speed. TALL looked good on endzone fade routes nice soft hands

Darrell "glass jaw" Catchings (3rd) I wish he could stay healthy, he actually looked good today, burned Poyer and Hardin a few times deep.

O-Line

Looked decent today, did not give up any big sacks.  Did not impress me in the run game either though. Darryl Jackson was playing LG today and looked good. Phillip looked good, settling in a RT well. Overall our line looks about average (better than last year).

TE

The tight ends did not get much work receiving today, but looked good in the blocking drills. They were handling our DEs nicely in the 1v1 drills.

DEFENSE

D-Line Looked Decent today, our Oline is not over power so it is really hard to get a feel for who is better. Did not give up alot up the middle.

LB  

MUCH faster to the edge this year, Cam Collins and Mike Doctor are MONSTERS did not see any plays by the MLB that stood out. The Unga brother looks like he may win the starting spot he was trying his best to lead the D making calls to shift the D around.

CB 

Poyer played well, got burned deep once by Catchings but Vaz overthrew him by about 10 yards. 

Hardin looked decent but still has the same problems as last year. If our coaches pull their heads out, Sean Martin should be starting over him.  He looks great had a pick6 and is FAST.

Safeties

Lance Mitchell looked good, good run support had a nice pick on a ball overthrown by Vaz. Did not see any other plays that stood out great or bad from the safeties.