Thanks to member “Bone”:
Another day with no pads and just helmets, so again there was no interaction between the offense and the defense. So for me at least, it is difficult to make a judgment on which players are standing out and who is not performing well, because pretty much everyone looks like a good player without pads and going against air. So today I decided to pay close attention to John Garrett to kind of get a feel for how he coaches and how he is different or similar to Langsdorf.
My first impression was that his coaching style is more similar to Brennen than Langs. Garrett brings a little more energy to the practice, not as much as Brennen, but noticeably more so than Langsdorf. Will his energy have a better effect than Langs? Time will tell. But I liked the energy and I am sure the players like it also.
Practice was very similar to what it has been in the past with a couple of small changes.
- Offensive players whenever they caught a pass or received a hand off, finished their runs all the way to the end zone, and all the players that were involved in the play went and celebrated the touchdown. Garrett got on a couple of linemen who did not run the whole way there.
- The term “Chin” was probably the term that was probably yelled the most often. Wanting the player to really keep the ball high and tight.
- A couple time, the offensive huddle to re-break the huddle to be a little crisper and quicker to the line of scrimmage. Possibly a little hurry-up action.
- The overall tempo of practice was a little quicker than I have seen in the past. But there would still be breaks in the action to have some teaching moments.
- Another change is the 15 minute ball security circuit. Position groups rotated to different stations and participated in various ball security drills. These drill aren’t new, I have seen these same drills or slight variations of the drill in previous practices I have attended, However, the 15 minute circuit is something I haven’t seen. THEY DO AND HAVE PRACTICED BALL SECURITY.
Quarterbacks were one position that was fairly easy to break down was quarterbacks. Mannion is head and shoulders above the rest—Stronger and more accurate arm, better command at the line of scrimmage. Del Rio has a nice quick release like, much like Cody Vaz had, I think Del Rio may have the quickest feet out of the quarterback. He was a little inaccurate and missed some receivers, most likely due to lack of chemistry and familiarity with the playbook/receivers. I liked his arm better than Vanderveen and Kempt, but needs time to get better acclimated with team and playbook.
Good to see players like Garrett Weinreich, Roman Sapolu, Michael Doctor, and DJ back practicing. Hamlet and Isaac did not practice today, but each of them stayed very engaged in the drills and offering advice to players. Brandin Cooks and Brandon Hardin were both spectators at practice today, Cooks looks to have added a little muscle from when he was suiting up for the orange & black.
No sign of Peko at practice today (although didn’t see much of the defensive side today).
Thanks Bone. I’d be curious to see if Will’s dad has any nuggets he’d like to share? I’ve always enjoyed his insider perspective.
Thanks for the report. Do they really have Boom trying to play DE?
Yes. That move was made in the offseason.
He should have an initial burst(?), and his height and reach may help in sacks, maybe clogging throwing lanes.
I would be concerned that as an inexperienced lineman, OTs will just get under his pads and control him, but it’s better than him dropping passes as a WR.
A move should have occurred two years ago, but as has been suggested by Angry and others, TE might have been a good move for mismatches. As long as he worked on the hands issue….
If he can get a hand on the QB he’ll drop him?
Boom was wearing a black jersey.
Good stuff, thanks so much bone.
It always amazes, how much info you, silver, and some AB’s I may have forgotten get from paying attention to practices. I’m beginning to think that many of the paid scribes often just stand around with their tape recorders whenever a media availability occurs and don’t actually watch closely the practice activities.
As to the ball security drill, I thought from the beginning that it was likely a statement from Woods which was easily misinterpreted. Thanks for clearing that up; guess he was thinking of this exact drill and time involved.
from my experience (I attend at least one spring and one fall practice session each year) what you surmise, old beav, is exactly what happens. The beat reporters from a little circle at th end of the practice field by the gate leading to the locker room (so they don’t have to run after anyone at the end of practice) and basically just kibbutz among themselves. They don’t wander about the field and more times as not have their backs to it. Basically, they just put in time until after practice when they can talk to a coach or player or two.
Sheesh! And they get upset with us when we complain about their writing as if it exudes precisely this work ethic?
I’ll likely be unable to attend practices this year, as I’ve graduated from OSU, and taken a job 90 miles to the southwest of Corvallis. I’ll try and run up there for some fall practices, but I may not get a chance depending on my schedule with work.
So you took a job in Florence? Dune buggy driver? Vrooom!!!! That would be a sweet gig. I could do that all day, or at least until my back gave out on me.
Yes. I am working in Florence, but not driving dune buggies :-(
Good guess btw. Nailed it.
Good luck on the new job, hope you can apply your experience and education in a way the boss appreciates.
Thanks OOB. It seems to be helping so far.
I guess I am belaboring a point, but I am confused by the statement above that they do and have practiced ball security. Have practiced it? Like in past years? Then why did Ward and Woods say they had never done that? ….never…done it.
For the past 3 or so seasons I have tried to attend as many practices as I can, and I have seen various ball security drills. What was different was that there was a 15 minute period dedicated to rotating to different ball security drills, where in previous years the drills were done during primarily during the positional group periods of practice. Trust me, ball security has been practiced.
Goodnuff…..thanks
OT: More evidence that competent, winning coaches are willing to come to Corvallis:
http://www.oregonlive.com/beavers/index.ssf/2014/04/jim_zalesky_named_pac-12_coach.html
“This is Zalesky’s third-consecutive Wrestling Coach of the Year award in his eight years with the Beavers.”
Coach Z is at OSU because he could not maintain the unbelievable expectations left by Dan Gable at Iowa. He won three consecutive NCAA titles in his first three years as coach there and then was overtaken in the conference and nationally by his old boss at MN, J Robinson. They fell off in his fourth year and although he was legend as a wrestler at Iowa they canned him. A good friend from high school competed against him at Wisconsin and has remained good friends with him. Says he is a great guy and one of the best collegiate wrestlers of all time. That being said, the team laid an egg at the NCAA’s this year. One of the good things BDC did was to hire him.
Not to nitpick but there are only 6 schools in PAC12 wrestling. 3 of those aren’t really in the PAC12. So not a whole lot of competition out here in the west.
Versus say the big 10 with all schools offering wrestling.
But yes, he has done a great job keeping the program as the top program in the west.
http://www.oregonlive.com/beavers/index.ssf/2014/04/numbers_suggest_declining_oreg.html
Interesting article by Connor. But to me it’s incomplete. I think there are macroeconomic factors there as well as the PAC12 network effect. If he compared the attendance level to the rest of the conference, then that would be a better indicator of why attendance is declining. Controlling for those variables would show the true CR effect.
I kind of think that the PAC12 network has hurt attendance at schools who are locating further away from large cities. For those who get the PAC12 network, it’s so much easier to just stay at home now than to drive to Corvallis.
You’re correct in a couple ways here. It is incomplete. But that’s because he makes irrational arguments to form a fallacy. If people have saved their money all year (like no other year), then money could be raised to buy out CR. The AD chose not to do so. That’s a lot different than,”A cash-strapped athletic department likely couldn’t muster the donor support necessary to fire the president’s brother-in-law.”
That’s a trash lead-in and highly unprofessional. That right there taints the rest of the article. Even if he’s correct with this low-odds guess, he needs someone to say so for him to report it. Otherwise, he’s us… doing this right here… and taking someone’s money to do it.
The other major fallacy is of his own making. Attendance can’t reach its nadir if the numbers suggest they will continue to wane.
Duh?
I’m starting to seriously miss Beaverbyte’s spam links about the size of his stadium and what he wants to wear compared to the content Olive is putting out.
Your handle should be pedanticbeav.
I’m not being precise in the least. I’m also not saying the conclusion is wrong. I’m just saying the article is junk other than the premise and the numbers because the writer decided to make it so.
Real wrestlers hit each other with folding chairs, ram their opponents heads into the turnbuckle and land on them full length flying from the corner ropes. That supposed “wrestling” that the college programs engage in isn’t even close to the real thing. No wonder its dying. JB
Rodent power!
First year coach wins the NIT with a very flawed group by playing to their strengths and having a super conditioned team that can play D. Sixth year coach with his hand picked players can’t win a CBI game. Hmmmmmm.
For you Blazer fans, Lionel Hollins kid, Austin, was tourney MOP. A bright, super articulate kid, who rebounded from a horrible slump mid season to play lights out the last couple weeks. Parents get an A+. The kid is a class act.
You’re #69!
That is a great # LOL. We should have been in the Dance ahead of Iowa. Better RPI and they were playing like dog crap the last month. Pitino Jr got them to channel their disappointment in a positive manner and get a positive vibe into the next season. Contrast to the walk to the gallows next year at Gill.
Just saying anything to generate clicks over at the oregonian.
http://www.oregonlive.com/beavers/index.ssf/2014/04/should_eric_moreland_enter_the.html
Connor needs to be clear about things. If Moreland has indeed entered the draft, then he’s done since he declared last year and withdrew.
The facts are that Moreland isn’t even in the top 100 prospects according to ESPN. There’s only 60 picks in the draft.
If Moreland wants to get drafted, he needs to return and dominate for the whole year. He has shown flashes of this at times. If he just wants to try make the NBA now, he should declare and when he goes undrafted, work his was up through the d-league.
I suspect he’ll come back and one of the recruits will delay a year if no one transfers.
Moreland has another option. He can transfer somewhere and be eligible to play immediately.
I’m sure Dana Altman has already called him
That would be such an amazing experiment. The variable would be different teammates and the factor of level of competition but what would/could Moreland do with a different coach?
Discover the concepts of footwork and/or spacing?
This might be a little unfair to all involved now that I think about it. Eric was a year ahead of (younger than) his classmates when he graduated high school. And he’s been removed from HS for five years now. If he wasn’t injured in is first year here we wouldn’t be talking about him returning.
He was a project out of HS because his growth came late in terms of what class he was. And is interest in the sport spiked as a result. He had a G mentality while trying to become a big. I think he’s done a nice job doing so in the three years he’s actually learned to play. But there are stories of others who had the same late growth (David Robinson? David Lucas… wait, they’re all David’s?) and learned to be a big. That he can be a 20/20 player on this level does not escape me. But his issues are spacing and footwork. And while they’ve developed, they have not developed enough.
He did find the short corner and crash from the high post quite a bit this past year. But he should be doing this as a rule and expanding is game from there. The 4-1 high on-ball screen does him no good. We always complain about our best rebounder being 25-30 feet from the hoop dribbling the ball. There’s a good reason for that. It’s like complaining that we don’t dedicate ourselves to run first in football. It has been proven over time that it hinders the team’s game.
I’d like to see our players utilizing board stunts (yes… just like linemen in football have stunts, so do bigs in hoops) and dominating with the really nice length Coach Rob has put together. It seemed sometimes this past year that LMW was the only dude who saw the lanes and used them.
Maybe the bigs take a cue from LMW, but when I hear Coach Rob talking about pounding it low* being the gameplan I assume he’s also taking O-boards and defense into consideration. And I saw too little of that this past season to make me feel it is being emphasized enough to warrant calling the gameplan a good gameplan.
I can make an excellent case for next year being a good or great year based on talent. I can even make the case to about 20% surety with enough confidence that the talent on the team will be good enough to overcome even perceived coaching deficiencies. But that I would have to do the latter says Coach Rob needs to step it up now.
*BG freebie
And then there’s another option not brought up by the thinkers in the media.
GP2 could always walk on. GP might indirectly gift the program in that way.
Anyway… when’s the last time you’ve seen a JV mixtape?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEipIyICFSE
http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index.ssf/2014/04/oregon_state_president_stands.html
Not knowing Ray’s loyalty (or not) to BDC – does this tell us anything about OSU’s president and how he might address the emerging dissatisfaction with the AD. From this little glimmer, I get the impression he won’t pay any attention to that dissatisfaction.