Baseball: Oregon State @ USC

I went to the Fan Fest with my youngest son (14 years old). The scrimmage started around noon and lasted for a couple of hours. Before the scrimmage, from 10 am to 11 am, most of the Beaver players were seated at long tables in the Reser Stadium lobby, available to sign autographs. To me, the autograph session was the best part, because it gave me a chance to talk to individual players for a few seconds, to ask them a question or two, and sometimes to get an interesting response.

For example, I asked Reuben Robinson whether he had been moved back to MLB. He said “yes”. I asked him why. He said he didn’t know (!) I asked him whether this was a good change from his perspective. He made clear by his facial expression that he didn’t like the change, and then said it was “up to the coaches”.

For another example, at the end of the autograph session, I saw Rashaad Reynolds leaving (heading towards the Valley Center to suit up for the noon scrimmage). I walked up to RR, and asked him direct questions about what is being taught to the defensive backs about looking back for the ball. RR told me that the defensive backs are taught to look back for the ball only if they are “even with the receiver or ahead of the receiver”. If the defensive back is “behind the receiver” (that is, chasing the receiver), then the defensive back is “not supposed to look back for the ball”. I asked RR whether Rod Perry is making changes in this area. RR said Rod Perry is making lots of small technique improvements, but not so much in this area.

With Sean Mannion, I mentioned the 18 interceptions last season, and asked Mannion what he has been doing in the off-season to address this problem specifically. Mannion said he has been watching a lot of film this off-season, including film of every one of his interceptions, multiple times, to try to see what he did wrong, and to avoid making the same mistakes again.

I asked the new punter, Tim McMullen, whether he is good at rugby style kicks, and whether he plans to use rugby style kicks this season. McMullen said “absolutely” to both questions — he considers rugby style kicks to be one of his strengths, and he will be employing rugby style kicks during the season.

Justin Addie and Josh Andrews were sitting side-by-side at an autograph table. I asked them whether they were getting sick of Cav and his yelling. Addie shrugged his shoulders at first, and said “not really”. Addie and Andrews then looked at each other and laughed, and said, “yeah, sometimes, he really is unbelievable…”

Andrew Seumalo and Rusty Fernando were also sitting side-by-side, at another table. I asked them whether the Beavers would be doing anything new or different to stop the run this season, given OSU’s obvious lack of success at stopping the run last season. Seumalo said that OSU was putting in “a new package” to stop the run, and also working on some new techniques. I’m going to send a note to Cliff to ask him to follow up about this “new package” and what it might be (but don’t really expect Cliff will do it….)

As for the scrimmage itself, I didn’t find it that interesting or revealing. The first and second string ran about 60 plays in total, but it wasn’t that realistic or hard-hitting. The G-T and Oregonian will report all the stats from the scrimmage, but they probably won’t mention that many of the passes were completed only after defensive linemen broke through the line, and pulled up in front of the QB, to let him throw the ball. I thought neither Mannion nor Vaz had a good day. Each misread coverages and threw a number of bad passes (some of which were picked off, others of which should have been). I hope Mannion keeps studying film, and gets better at reading coverages, because — at this point — he doesn’t seem to have improved that much in this area from last season.

At RB, Storm Woods looked pretty good. He got to the line quickly, made one or two nice jump cuts to avoid tacklers, and ran hard all day (running over a DB on one play, and rarely going down on initial contact). Terron Ward and Malcolm Agnew looked okay, too. None of them is a bad RB. None of them seems great, either. Fingers crossed that the hype about the new incoming freshman RB — Chris Brown — turns out to be correct.

During the scrimmage, a RS Freshman named Micah Audiss was making plays all over the field (including an interception, a blocked FG, and a few pass break-ups). Don’t know if he’s the real deal or not, but he certainly had a good day today, and bears watching in summer camp.

The kicking game looked good in today’s scrimmage. Tim McMullen hit a couple of long punts (conventional style, not rugby) and looked solid. Trevor Romaine’s already strong leg appears to have gotten stronger in the off-season. TR boomed the first kickoff out of the end zone, hit another kickoff into the end zone, and also hit a 40+ yard field goal with plenty of room to spare. Under good weather conditions, the Beavers should be in field goal range this season as soon as they reach the opponent’s 35-yard-line.