Just a head's up, spring practice starts 4/3.
I was looking at Mannion's line. Pretty impressive (sans the turnovers) for a freshman.
http://espn.go.com/college-football/player/stats/_/id/504786/sean-mannion
Here's an interview where he discusses improving his game: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3Dc89rGdNQ
And here Markus Wheaton mentions he added 10lbs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWDggQL2yEU
Some of these freshman lineman will make a push…this offense could be potent. Guys I really like are Grant Bays (C), Seumalo (OG), Gavin Andrews (OG), and Garrett Weinrich (OT). Caleb Smith should start at TE–this seems like a no-brainer. I'd love to see a Patriot style dual TE attack with Smith and Stanton (or Perry). It'll be interesting to see how spring pans out because the aforementioned may be better than the incumbents. Something else to watch is if Seumalo switches to defensive tackle. I hear he's open to the idea.
The lack of running game padded his stats, so let’s not get too excited. I do hope those INTts come down.
I feel like the lack of running game also partially fed the high INT rate. Defenses knew we were throwing and didn’t have to commit as many players to stopping the run.
True. The more attempts, the more chances for picks. I think Mannion is a pretty smart kid, so he should be better next year in terms of TD/INTs.
Lack of a running game and having to play matador with guys comin after him, also had to contribute to INTs. Sidestepping someone has to break your concentration some.
But then I didnt keep track of times he just tried to force one into coverage.
Remember how high we were last year at this time, on Katz?? How he was going to be sooo much better, just having had a year’s experience….lol…..and he could run some. Oh, well.
I agree the lack of a running game padded his yardage stats, but his completion % was very high for a freshman in Riley’s system. And that included him throwing some balls deep.
you said balls deep……
“this offense could be potent” agreed. The D as well COULD be potent. The key IMO is Riley; he has not seemed involved or properly focused for two years (quite possibly due to the CW beatdown as Angry has suggested however, other things may have distracted him).
I see the addition by subtraction on the O line, the new level of experience brought by Mannion, Creighton, Wynn, and Unga, along with the leadership of Poyer as factors which should result in a 5 to 6 win season without any coaching/scheme changes. Sadly many fans will view this as an acceptable improvement over a 3 win season.
Watch and listen to Riley, by the UCLA game we will know if this team will win the 7 to 9 games of which they are capable.
BTW….I am anxious to read Silvers practice session comments.
I don’t see how the D can be potent with no Pac-12 level DTs on the roster (unless Isaac moves)…I actually see a lot of runs up the gut and 5-10 yard downfield tackles by LBs and S.
Agree
Potent is too strong a word, I should have said adequate. Masaniai and either Isaac or Hasiak coming from the O side could clog things in the middle (haven’t we heard some good things also about Andrew Seumalo).
I am looking for the occasional (at least) 3-4 set, again this all depends on Riley being focused and open minded. I think he has the FB IQ, just like the recent story about off season training he needs more “want to”.
Is Fernando ready for something beyond pass rush DE? Like MLB?? He’s within about 10 lbs of Feti Unga, just sayin.
Anything you hear good about Andrew Seumalo is hype at best. That kid is consistently pushed off the ball 2-3 yards. He doesn’t have the size or strength of Isaac. He has decent speed and can cause problems when he finds a crease but that only happens a hand full of times per game. There was a reason that Frahm started over him.
Andrew Seumalo (based on current play) graded out to a 1-AA project. Even more confusing is why he is wasting a scholarship in the coming year. Why didn’t Riley offer Joe a raise and use the scholarship on another athlete? I know that is a little shady but come on, that guy isn’t worth a scholarship. At least with Isaac you know you are getting talent.
Hey, adequate will be a big upgrade!
Penalties should be way down now that we won’t have the 3-4 false starts by Remmers.
3-4 per game.
are any of the incoming freshman going to play this spring?
I think I heard that Caleb Smith enrolled early.
OT, Pat Casey’s brother Chris named to head re-birth of George Fox FB.
http://www.newberggraphic.com/news/2012/March/02/Sports_Sports.News/gfu.taps.newberg.native.to.lead.football.program/news.aspx
“We’re going to play to excellence — we’re going to flat play to excellence,” Casey said. “What I mean by that is relative to where we’re at, with implementing a brand-new program, and a brand-new system, and the experience of our players, I expect us to play to excellence and nothing less. That may mean that we don’t beat a Linfield or somebody the first year, but we’re going to play to excellence.”
Notice, not “I want to play to excellence” but “I EXPECT…..” Must run in the family.
I think grabbing an Oregon HS coach was a good get for George Fox. He knows the local areas and should be able to recruit talent well fairly quickly. I think the hardest part of starting a program from scratch is finding enough players to fill your roster that won’t also get destroyed. In the initial couple years, your roster will be significantly undersized (due to class size limits) and younger than the competition. At least GF will get a head start by being able to pick quality athletes from around the Metro area (and probably the state) that otherwise might get overlooked. He should also be a factor in recruiting from day 1 because he can offer playing time and will have an “in” with most coaching staffs.
They should have picked Willie Lyles. Think of all the Texas talent.
Moving Issac is silly. He should start at LT for 4 years. That is far more an important position. With all the new talent at OL why not move walk-on Jake Welch. Strength coach says he is the strongest kid on the team, great size (6’2 308) and wrestlers footwork. We don’t need dominate DT’s, I would settle for Seigart (save the jokes) or Wells. Take up blocks, don’t get knocked on your ass and let Unga, Welch and somebody else cleanup (not sold on Doctor). Remember Lewis and Hughes at first, now their in the NFL. With a year under his belt and Rod Perry Reynolds will be fine. Depth at safety. I think Angry is far to pessimistic about the D.
LT and DT are equally important. They’re structural positions.
I’m not pessimistic on the LBs, DE, or secondary. Just the DTs. They’re bad, and therefore teams will just run up the gut.
The D should improve, the offensive has only one way to go and that’s up.
I think both TE’s will be here in the Spring but thats it.
I think Spring is going to be pretty disappointing with the number of non-participants. I would have loved to see Hasiak here for Spring ball (even though that would have mean a longer academic year and he could have fallen out like Glover did). Having said that he does have experience wihich hopefully helps, but unless he’s in shape and ready he won’t play, and redshirting him doesn’t seem like a good option, he’s a JC player because he flunked out at Ucla. Hopefully, he doesn’t here, and maybe he sees the light, but just be prepared that many JC players don’t make it, but the ones that do usually are worth it (Paea, LaRoche, Ellison etc).
IF we have enough from the new guys where Isaac could move to the DL I think that would probably be best. However, I just don’t know if we want to rely on more Freshmen than upperclassmen. Again, it will come down to how ready they are, and the big thing on Isaac is that he is the most “ready” to play at the next level, so I say let him stay on the OL.
I think the most interesting thing in the Spring will be the OL, but it may not be hampered with who plays and who doesn’t. If they play around with the center position I think that would be best, Garner is gone. Some think Bays could compete with Supalo for the job. I wonder if Juice could move back there, I know they didn’t like his shotgun snaps so I don’t know if they have ruled him out or not, but I think it would be very strong line if they had something like this.
Hasiak, Seumalo, Juice, Phillipp, Kelly (possibly Weinreicht). I am not sold on Kelly but he does have experience, but with the freshness of the positons it might be helpful to have something constant. But if Hasiak can come in and start it might give us the option of moving are best lineman inside which would really improve run blocking. Then we could give Kelly help with a TE or a RB. The thing I don’t like about it is that there would be new positions almost across the entire line, so how fast would they be able to pick things up?
The other option would like this
Hasiak, Seumalo, Supalo, Juice, Phillipp. With Kelly the next OT in if either Hasiak isn’t ready or up to speed. The only question here is Center, and if we keep Kelly and Phillipp at tackles it could be a little sketchy. I don’t like this as much, but I don’t know how good Supalo is.
I like the potential of Darryl Jackson at tackle at 6’6″ 323, and he’s had some time in the system. I question the coaching staff’s ability to get true freshman ready to play, or their willingness to do so (Semaulo expected).
Don’t forget Chris Brown at RB. I think he could really force defenses to respect the play action pass. Brown won’t be as shifty as Rodgers, but he’ll likely have second level speed that tops any other RB on the roster. He’ll likely be the fastest OSU back since Jackson. He can make a few moves to make people miss, than use his speed to separate. I think we’re really going to enjoy watching him run. I hope that if he IS the best RB, he gets the carries. I like Agnew, but his hamstrings and fumbles are obvious problems. Woods didn’t seem to distinguish himself last year, I’m hoping he does this year. Stevenson’s a good all-around back but seems light. Ward is putting on muscle weight, be interesting to see how he does. I’d like this competition at RB if were allowed to play out on demonstrated ability, and not just favoring of upper classmen.
The DII defensive tackles will continue to be a problem, I don’t care if they have put on weight. Most of them haven’t been playing.
Mannion, Wheaton, Cooks will be fun to watch, plus there’ll be Trosin and Mullaney to see, and interesting tight end options. Throw in Chris Brown at RB, and this team could score in bunches.
I just don’t see the offense being very potent as long as Danny Langsdorf is calling the plays for OSU. The offense is too predictable, too one dimensional, and it doesn’t execute by scoring enough touchdowns.
Could it be possible that we have enough talent on offense to make Langsdorf look good and thus be hired away as someone else’s head coach?
Hopefully, but likely only after two seasons with this group.
We mentioned this on another thread but I’ve heard they are probably going to have Josh Mitchell switch to DT. I think that would be a great idea. He’s 285 lbs and a big time wrestler in the state of Washington. That makes me think he’ll have good quickness off the ball and is likely pretty a aggressive guy.
*a pretty aggressive guy.
If the correction was “a pretty, aggressive guy”, we would be worried.
I agree that’s a positive, and he may be good in 2013, but I doubt he’s Pac-12 ready in 2012.
Overall, I expect more of what we saw last year from the team (overmatched D line, inconsistent Oline), just with better offense and scoring due to the skill players.
Maybe we won’t see the reliable, ugly, punt shanks anymore though, that should be good for an “O!” “S!” “Uuuuuuuu!” on its own…..
We will suck again! OSU football really hard to get excited about right now.
Haha. You may be right.
I think on O it will all come down to the run blocking. If Cav can get these guys to actually get a push on a consistent basis, it will open everything up. If not, it will 2011 Part 2. I hope they have worked on Mannion’s long, looping release. Soooooooo slow. Should have much better reads after getting thrown into the fire last season.
D is going to be all about the DT’s. I’m with Angry on this. Our Achilles heel.
This is the time of year where all 12 teams talk about how much better they are. Everyone is excited about how the redshirts and incoming freshman will make the team so much better. If the 9th or 10th ranked recruiting class is going to make us so much better than can you imagine what the first or second ranked classes will do for USC and Stanford. And poor Oregon and UCLA, how can they possibly be improved with the 3rd and 4th best classes. After the spring game all 12 coaches will say, “we improved and we still have a lot to work on”. We will have no clue as to whether we have truely improved until we play a good, but not great Wisconsin team at home and after our first road game. Team chemistry is so important that making all the new parts fit together can make or break a team.
I agree with most of your points, especially re: team chemistry.
Wisconsin, without Wilson and some very good O linemen (Oglesby and Zeitler), and with new coaches, should be a competitive game. Especially at home.
As to not having a clue till Wisconsin and UCLA; pretty much agree BUT if SilverStream files practice reports as last year we will have more clues than those who only read the print media.
Nope. Wisconsin will destroy us again. There is a huge talent gap between us and them. My optimistic side says that we put some points on the board this year, so in that respect the game may be better, but the chance of a Beaver victory is extremely slim.
Wisconsin will run up the gut over and over.
Imo the best thing the Beavs have going for them is Wisconsin will be taking OSU for granted. And that’s about all I can come up with as to why the Beavs would have a chance.
I say a good Wisconsin team because they will not have a very good QB like Russel Wilson and so I can not see how they can be better than last years team. And we don’t don’t want to say that Oregon beat a great team in the Rose Bowl, so I am going with good.
Ted Miller on OSU
http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=7653545&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter