1. My biggest gripe with Saturday’s game is that Riley didn’t pull the subs after the 3rd quarter. While at the game, I turned to my friend and assured him that would be the case, but reserves didn’t enter until well into the 4th quarter. Riley hasn’t offered a good explanation yet, simply saying (paraphrase alert) that they could have done it sooner but chose not to. The obvious followup question would be, “why, Mike?” or “What if Canfield and/or Quiz was lost for the year in the 4th?” These are important, valid questions that need to be asked and nobody is asking them. They aren’t meant to be antagonistic, but instead to hold the head coach accountable for bad decisions. Also, Katz, Wheaton, et al. need experience, so why not give it to them? And Riley ponders why his teams start slow. The only possible explanation I can think of is that Riley wants Quiz and Canfield to gain numbers for national awards, which would then boost exposure and recruiting. This theory gets a boost when you consider the defensive side of the ball subbed early in the 4th.
2. The Beavers scoreboard graphics are so cheesy. Again, my friend and I were laughing and scratching our heads’, this time at the animations. I know, I know, this has little to do with football, but the fact of the matter is we played so well there’s little to critique. So, if you haven’t been to a game this year, this is what you’re missing: a goofy, chainsaw-wielding beaver that makes Hanna Barbera look like a Picasso cuts down a tree and says, “make noise, rock Reser!” It’s just bad, man. Really bad. And begs me to ask a two part question:
a. Do the Beavers genuinely believe these in good taste?
b. Do the Beavers simply not have the money for better animations?
I really can’t say if this is a matter of taste or finance, but based on the goofy beaver on our helmet, the goofy beaver on the 50 yard line, and the bra fiasco, I have to think it’s a matter of taste, and that is scary. Growing up a NY baseball fan, for decades I had to watch Mr. Met, the lovable buffoon who sports a baseball for a head, as I rolled my eyes and looked across town at the class that is the New York Yankees. It seems every team I like has a bunch of goofballs in charge. This isn’t too surprising given my circle of friends, but there’s a difference between hanging out with dorky buffoons and rooting for them as a nation of critiques looks on. The Beavers just make you want to hide, from their team name to their school colors to their bras and now their graphics. The alternative is to embrace the quirkiness. I’m really really trying. And failing.
3. Reser still wasn’t sold out, and it wasn’t very loud. The former, I have no idea why that happened, but the noise issue was likely due to the Beavs having this one rapped up early. People seemed bored. To the fans’ credit, many didn’t leave until there were about 7 minutes left in the 4th.
4. The Beaver’s defense played a great game. The D has been the weak link all year, and I said in my pregame notes that the threat of the big play was still “omnipresent”…by this I meant that I felt they could be gashed for a 70 yard (blown assignment) TD at any second. My agita was based on the lack of pressure and guys like #28 lurking in the backfield…and honestly, I’m not sure I’ve ever gotten over the angle of pursuit that Pankey took on Gerhart last year at Stanford. Anyway, I’m still not comfortable with this unit nor am I ready to crown their coming of age, but I tell you what, I no longer think we lose by 50 at Oregon. To my credit (and I hate having to pat myself on the back) I did say there was no need to carve the prediction in stone as the defense could be an entirely different unit by that game. As we all know, these units always play best at the end of the year. I just didn’t see any signs of this one doing so, mainly because the right personnel wasn’t on the field. Now it is. Better late than never, Banker, but why do fans see things coaches do not? I’ll never understand that one.
5. Reser pisses me off. How is there no bridge from sections ~115 to the 21 and 22 sections? This is the second year in a row we had to exit the stadium, walk around its entire circumference, and wait in line to enter the bleacher area. I realize the stadium is a patch job and all, but a bridge, even if retractable, makes much more sense and wouldn’t be very difficult to implement. Just build it over that giant, cheesy helmet from which the players run out.
I wondered about leaving quizz and canfield in as well…. i do think he is trying to give quizz his numbers…. keep him ahead of the hatfields for recruiting and just exposure overall for the program and quizz… he could end up being pac-10 player of the year again, with a good showing at wsu and oregon… so, i give Mike a bye on complaining… Plus, we could not get a better coach in the planet… and we don’t pay him for shit either… best of both worlds… game was a blast, defense is coming along nicely… canfield continues to look great… hopefull against wsu, quizz gets 150 in the 1st half… then takes the day off.. go beavs
and the animations are cheesy… but, who cares…. our cheerleaders are hotter than hell, and they show them alot too… that makes up for the cheesy animations…. go beavers again..!
Word. The cheerleaders made it hard for me to stand without blushing.
I could tell the program had ascended into a quality program just on the visual quality of the Cheerleaders alone. Not meaning to sound like a pig, but it is true. I remember going to the Oregon/Texas Holiday bowl and getting tix to the tailgate party (lived in SD at the time) and the Duck Cheer squad was smokin’. Oregon State’s looked like they were basically JV, at least as far as looks went. Now they compete. It does say something, I’ve even mentioned it to my wife, who is not a sports person and was born in San Diego not being much of a follower other than wanting “my” teams to do well probably to avoid hearing me cuss and bitch all day long.
Angry, not sure about the coaches not seeing what we fans see when we watch the game. Did not play football long enough to provide a sophisticated answer, but my guess would be that the coaches see these kids A LOT in practice and on film after and between games. So they must be showing the coaches “something” in those arenas to either stay on the field or not get on the field. I walked away saying Poyer (#14) should be a starting safety just because of his ball instincts and speed. But so far only in mop up time. Must be #5 and #10 show up better on film and the practice field. I will leave it to Banker and Riley as they have shown they really do know what they are doing.
paulscpa,
You’d think that’s the case, but did you see the interview with Heyward earlier in the year? He said the coaches weren’t starting Hardin (over Clark) because he’s quiet in practice (he doesn’t look reserved to me in games). So, a shy, quiet temperament is a deciding factor. I believe they also talked about how loud #28 was in practice, yet we know Collins should have been starting over him since day 1. Intensity matters to some degree, but I can’t say I like how those decisions were made early on and now that we’re seeing the right players on the field we’re seeing the best results. Coincidence?
As far as Poyer, he looks great, but Collins and Mitchell have been very good and both have more experience. I’m alright with that decision for now…would like to see him return a kick again, though and get some mop up duty this coming weekend so we can assess him some more.
I’d like to see the 1’s go out early vs. WSU. It’s one of those games they win by 40 but lose starters to injury on. Plus with the possible bad weather you even get more injury possibilities. But it’s tough, with that week off before the Oregon game you almost get too much time off. The Ducks most likely have a 60 minute game vs. Zona and will need the time off. The Beavs could grow rusty. But who knows.
Also, Riley just doesn’t like taking people out. There were games with DA and even M. Moore where they should have come out and didn’t. He just doesn’t like to do it. Maybe he feels the same way I do. If anyone is going to blow a 28 point lead in the 4th quarter…it’s the Beavers. At least in my conditioned for the worst mind!
I would have liked to see more subs in the 4th quarter but Riley probably left Canfield in the game so that his last play at Reser would be a positive one (TD pass) instead of a negative one (sack + fumble). Quizz is still a finalist for the Doak Walker and a long-shot repeat as Pac-10 POTY (Toby G. @ Stanford will probably win it this year). We did have most of our 2nd string WRs in the game throughout the 3rd and 4th Qs, though, as well as a ton of defensive players.
I’m impressed that you spent so much time watching the graphics on the Dam Cam – normally I don’t pay attention to that thing unless there is a replay worth viewing.
As for the lack of noise, I’ve noticed over the years that Dad’s Weekend games are typically quieter than normal despite the crowds (probably due to students taking it a bit easy on the liquor and not sitting with their friends).
Play the starters for the first half against WSU, try to take a nice lead and assess. I imagine it is likely we will still want them for a series or two in the 3rd quarter as well. The win is a must and Katz and Stevenson have not proven that effective at moving the chains yet. I think the odds the Ducks beat AZ is about 70%. Then the Civil War battle will be about more than just the Platypus Trophy. It will be the greatest Platypus Trphy win ever potentially for the Beavs as it would take them for a sweet matchup against that other OSU in the Rose Bowl!
This year having the Ducks also needing the win for a trip to the RB adds to the hype, but unfortunately for the Beavers (not that I don’t think they can win), if they lose, they drop to about 5th. They go from RB to shitbowl in one game. I remember one time in Highschool when the top 4 teams in my league made the playoffs, and in the final game that went down to the wire, we learned that someone had won their game and it meant we either won the league title or we were out altogher. Not that they won’t go to a bowl game, but sniffing the RB again, and ending up in the friggin’ Emerald Bowl after losing to the Ducks is deflating…so go BEAVS!
Well, I believe the Sun Bowl *could* take the Beavs again. There’s a no repeat clause but it’s at the committees discretion. That’s my understanding.
They could take us. But you gotta also realize that USC will be in the mix around there for the Sun Bowl. I’m sure El Paso would love to get that exposure. And then the Emerald Bowl would take Cal. If we lose to Oregon, its lookin like a return visit to Las Vegas.
I read a comment on one of Kirkpatrick’s columns that mentioned James’ great return as a factor in not pulling starters. Personally, in a blowout you want the O to have one throat kill solid drive before you pull them. A TD from the 1 yard line is hardly a throat kill drive, that was the last piece of our offensive game missing. I was okay with padding the stats and the starters being in. I hope they don’t play as much this weekend though because we want to save them. Riley is great off long weeks so I am excited about this one. I will admit that a couple of weeks ago I was pretty pessimistic but I am not now. I know that our team remembers last years CW and will not take this one lightly. This year is about revenge, period. It should be a fun one.
As far as the stadium noise, it was pretty damn good in the part of the student section I was in (121). It was the best all year, nice part was the refs and UW players could hear us heckling them.
Angry, I don’t think they will ever build a bridge between the bleachers and the student section. If we ever can get the attendance up, I see them removing the bleachers all togethor. The glass above them is useless as that was the old weight room, it has been moved. I bet they would modify value and build real stands in there that rounds out between the student section and the old side (with a tunnel underneath). That improvement would add several thousand seats but as it stands we can’t fill the stadium now so its pointless.
OSBeavs,
I agree with crowd noise at least in the first half. Also agree that they should round out the South endzone(valley center) because the old weight room windows are pointless, except catching people who bring in a flask in that section. That’s where they have their “watch tower” at in the stadium.
But yes the stadium should look like this:
I agree, I like that image. It is about how I imagined it in my head. I would love to see Valley get totally redone when they do it and change that entire side of the stadium. I think it would be way better for our athletes if they had a tunnel to run out of, that is part of a “big” atmosphere.
Yeah, its nice.
Are there any plans to redo that area?
I’m not sure either. I’ve been real curious what the next plan is from here, myself. Given, you do need to have a need for expansion first, but you know they gotta know where they’re going with it. Would it be the old side mimicing the new? I’d almost imagine (in a perfect world, and in the end) the plan would be to mimic the new side to the old, and bring the south endzone (jumbotron) up one more level as well, and the do ‘something’ with the VC side. That sure would be nice to see that all completed and not such a hodgepodge… I’ve only casually searched to see if there is much out there for plans from this point on without really any info?
found this gem:
A guy named aaron who is on the Raising Reser project committee is quoted on an architectural blog, “being a beaver and on the design team for reser i must comment. first, this is this first of 3 to 4 phases for reser that will create a continuous horseshoe and take capacity to roughly 80,000 when all is said and done. we don’t have phil knight writing checks to be able to do the whole thing over a short amount of time.
and i will have to correct you on one point, we didn’t just “add an upper deck”. you all can see my photo stream here http://www.flickr.com/photos/zendiggo/ to see what was done. the pictures don’t do it any justice, it is spectacular in person.”
http://chatterbox.typepad.com/portlandarchitecture/2005/08/raising_reserto.html?cid=9003144#comment-6a00d8341c86d053ef00d83454d0c853ef
If this is true that the Reser Stadium will eventually house 80,000 fans when all said and done would be unbelievable! Only IF we can sell that many tickets to begin with. That’s why we do it in phases. It will be done in four phases and 2 have already been done. So I imagine that they will put an upper deck on the non-VC endzone and not the mirror upper deck on the Visiting side because of how many tickets they can sell to make up the difference.
I also saw on an OSU official website that the repayment starting back in ’05 and ending in ’11 will cost OSU $350,000 a year. Not too bad if they can make up that $….Which means, we NEED the Rose Bowl as a University to fund Reser Stadium! Thanks Huskey fans for helping us out in paying for Reser more than Cincy fans and such!
They should mirror the east side on the west for Phase 3. The south endzone is OK for awhile but could eventually get an upper deck. When and if you did that you could add suites on top of the VC (redo some of it) and perhaps move the jumbotron on top of that. Personally though I just mirror the west side to the same doubledecker and maybe add suites on top of the VC and call it good. That gives you a 60,000+ seat stadium with some nice suites, a great overall look, and you don’t overly obstruct the nice view on the north-northwest where you see the mountains, the practice facility and Weatherford. We would be stupid to not mirror the sides though. The new side can have less clublevel and more loge seating if that sells better. However, sales are just a matter of pricing.
Starting a new comment at bottom
So, how are you feeling about your claim that UW would be good this year? You told me in a blog reply to check back with you later when I doubted that claim early in the year, so here I am.
Speaking of which, why are a lot of your early posts no longer showing any replies — at the time, there were replies to entries that no longer show any.
What’s the matter – trying to hid some stuff?
Typo on “hid”… obviously should have been hide.
Just figured I’d clear that up before you use that as a distraction from the real point.
The entire blog was accidentally deleted months ago. Had to rebuild it via google cache and copy/paste. It’s amazing how little backup wordpress offers. When you rebuild the page, the replies are lost.
As far as Washington, it’s hard to say how good they are since they played the #1 most difficult schedule in the country. And yes, “Ted”, I’m trying to hide pre-season predictions from my “20 other personas who read the blog” because that’s what I do.
Ted, you just got Jacquizzed on!
Uh oh, Ted’s back, and that dude is pissed.
Here’s a fun idea. There’s been much made of Riley possibly going somewhere else if the call comes. I think his hat-in-hand return to OSU was genuine, and it would take one helluv an offer. But the system is in good stead, and we could probably find someone very good to continue our new found winning ways. Names that come to mind are an OSU connection like Bronco Mendenhall (currently contracted through 2011) or a Riley connection like Sylvester Croom (cousin of Howard and current StL Rams RB coach). We could spend a little more in the unlikely event that we could get Chris Petersen (contracted through 2011). Or we could spend less on a successful (but unproven on the major D-1 level) Bobby Hauck or Butch Jones. I’m sure DeCarolis has a list of contingencies should Riley ever leave. Then there’s the possibility that DeCarolis himself might go to Michigan.
But…
Who’s going to replace Chip Kelly when he goes to Michigan or Notre Dame or wherever he’s going to go? He has a clause to walk away from his contract if the waterchickens win 20 games including bowls (19 games w/o) over a two year period. It wouldn’t matter much since his buy-out could easily be paid by either of those two jobs.
It’s fun to think that both these schools have a high probability of having coaches with the surname Kelly in the next couple years.
I don’t see Riley leaving because of his connection this city and team. As everyone knows: he grew up here, his dad coached here, he won a state championship as a player at Corvallis. I do see DeCarolis leaving which worries me a ton, I really respect the work he has done for OSU. If Riley left, I would love to see Mendenhall or Peterson (although Peterson did coach at Oregon). Fun fact, Allioti coached as OSU in the early 80’s. It is possible that Peterson would come here.
As far as Kelly leaving, that wouldn’t surprise me one bit, he is a helluva coach and should get 10 this year. When I met him at a clinic the aura he had was obvious. I could see him going to Michigan more than Notre Dame. Would be an interesting story to see DeCarolis and Kelly both at Michigan.
Ya, I’ve envisioned an upper deck above the ramp. The other thing I’ve been thinking they ought to do is make a VISITOR LOCKER ROOM!!! I don’t know why they didn’t build the locker rooms on the south endzone.
As far as the VC goes, they should make a tunnel on that northeast corner, but they have to keep the ramp so the medical staff can get down onto the field. The Northwest side should be where the visiting locker room SHOULD go. That’s the only logical place left to put it and yes the 3rd phase should be the mirrored image of the East side. The reason being it would make the stadium LOUDER and it would offer the PRESS BOXES for the coaches and review crew.
I think there are many possibilities for this stadium.. I just hope they take a look at all of the possibilities, but we’ll see.
Ya, I’ve envisioned an upper deck above the ramp. The other thing I’ve been thinking they ought to do is make a VISITOR LOCKER ROOM!!! I don’t know why they didn’t build the locker rooms on the south endzone.
As far as the VC goes, they should make a tunnel on that northeast corner, but they have to keep the ramp so the medical staff can get down onto the field. The Northwest side should be where the visiting locker room SHOULD go. That’s the only logical place left to put it and yes the 3rd phase should be the mirrored image of the East side. The reason being it would make the stadium LOUDER and it would offer the PRESS BOXES for the coaches and review crew.
I think there are many possibilities for this stadium.. I just hope they take a look at all of the possibilities, but we’ll see.
I agree with the visitor side mirroring the new side. Ideally, the visitor side would need be torn down in order to facilitate this. The visitor side is entirely different in shape, it would be really difficult to add an upper deck to it. I don’t think they should build suites on top of Valley because it would be hard to sell suites with that kind of view. As far as the visitor locker room, I don’t know what the visitors use now but I like the idea of the visitors being uncomfortable before the game.
My dream would be two decks, a tunnel somewhere and fans that would actually fill a 60,000+ stadium. I do think that they need to drop ticket prices slightly to facilitate that, 75 bucks to see UW is outrageous. I am a student and go for free but after I graduate that will be hard to swallow.
OSBeavs,
I don’t understand what you mean by, “I agree with the visitor side mirroring the new side. Ideally, the visitor side would need be torn down in order to facilitate this. The visitor side is entirely different in shape, it would be really difficult to add an upper deck to it.”
That’s exactly what they will do to the visitors side. They will completely tear down the old grandstand to the ground like they did with the home side. They would then build the new side up just like the other side, but it will include press boxes and not loge and suites because it is “the visiting side”.
The current Ramp has to stay put unless the move the ramp/tunnel to the other side of the VC. Which actually wouldn’t be all that bad. They could add a visitors locker room to the the current entrance to the north endzone and make the tunnel going down to the field there. So there would ultimately be two tunnels, one on the Northeast corner and the other on the Northwest corner for the visiting team and the entrance for the north endzone would be either the West or East Grandstands. So basically the idea of having the south endzone have the away locker rooms has switched to the north endzone. They’ve been talking about building away locker rooms in the stadium somewhere and this idea would be perfect i think. The away team currently uses the Gill Coliseum locker rooms. I’ve never liked that because they walk down a ramp in cleats. That’s dangerous.
Not only is it dangerous, but you come off as a 2nd rate program.
I’m actually surprised no one has slipped and fallen down the ramp while wearing their cleats. That’s why I feel they can still utilize that ramp if they build the tunnel right, but they seriously need to build an away locker room closer to the field of play.
When I played in high school I remember walking a long ways away for 90% of our games the only team that had away and home locker rooms under their stands was Canby. That was the best place to play at in my book. I loved playing at Canby. Forest Grove sucked the worst as far as distance to a locker room goes. Best to have the locker rooms close to the field for a reason…that was the whole reason we built the VC!
Sorry I was unclear. I thought some people were implying that the old side should not be torn to the ground. I like your idea, it is fitting and makes our program look nicer. I think right now we are earning respect in the winning department but we aren’t elsewhere. Most people in the country probably think that we are a backwater program. Continually improving our facilities makes us look first rate. All of that said, I still like the idea of the visiting players being as uncomfortable as possible.
Probably the reason they aren’t SLIPPING is because no one really wears “cleats” on the turf. The old fashioned cleats are for grass. Not sure what turf shoes are these days, but i’m fairly sure they don’t have metal or a hard durable material incorporated into them. That’s what usually causes the slipping to happen.
Actually XCalifguy,
Since our season tickets are in the North endzone, we actually get to hear them walk down the ramp, and they wear either plastic tips on their cleats which now adays do have the medal on the bottom when they are originally purchased. On the notion of field turf, you wear the same cleats you wear for grass. Best way to tell is to look at the cleats the beavs wear at home and away. Oregon and Oregon State and maybe the Washington schools all have field turf. so take a look at the bottom of their cleats and you can tell what they’re wearing.
Tx
I stnad
corrected