Anything goes, have at it.

Beavgopher — feel free to invite Nebraska fans to the thread. I’d love to hear their thoughts as that game moves along. I’m going 20-17 Nebraska, accounting for the -7 Riley factor!

To the dudes asking me to admit I’m wrong: (a) why do you care so much, especially when I’m right 99% of the time and you never admit it lolz? and (b) when I’m convinced Collins can pass I’ll let ya’ll know.

Moving on, Collins made one big boy throw…and it was dropped. Anyone could have thrown the first TD to Bolden. Villamin bailed him out on the other TD. He’s a great runner, but very predictable in that he always wants to run over pass.

Some positives from Collins: he actually made good decisions in the passing game, for the most part. Obviously 152 yards running is a huge positive. Confidence.

Regarding McMaryion, I don’t get too hung up on his INT coming on a bad play call. He has to make the right play there. But I also saw him drop in a long pass right on the money that would have been a long TD, only to get hit with a PI call. It just seemed like he had really bad luck tonight, and now might not get another shot barring injury. It felt like too short an audition, and that’s what is unsettling.

What is more disturbing is GA backed out on his word after just 1 game. He said he wouldn’t pull a kid for a mistake because that was no way to play. Yet that’s exactly what he did. GA’s reputation is great coach who keeps bailing on schools. Now he went against his word again. If he wants a hyper-competitive environment where one mistake costs you a job, then he should say so. Then the players know what’s at stake. But to explicitly say that’s not how you’re going to do things because it isn’t fair to the kids, then you do it…to me that is a lack of integrity and also a manipulative form of motivation. Even though the Beavers won, I leave this game with a disgusting feeling, and it has to do with how GA handled that QB situation. It is like he used McM to motivate Collins, whom he had selected all along. Is that valid tactics? I’ll let you decide.

The defense stood out tonight. The scheme and aggressiveness. I don’t know how much of it was Weber State. To me, Weber State looked well coached, at the very least. It’s hard to know since there was no benchmark for either team — e.g. Michigan could make OSU’s D look bad.

The three big takeaways for me:

1. Gary Andersen backed out on his word after one game. To me, this is huge. Maybe it’s not to the players or you guys, but I hated that.
2. The D looked good, aggressive, etc. Schemes look so much better.
3. The jury is still out on Collins. He was pretty good in the 2nd half tonight. How does he translate vs D1 defenses?

So the adrenaline and buildup of the GA era is over, for both us fans and the players. The players were pumped to have a new coach and get pushed hard, and fans needed this, but now it’s all over. We have our benchmark, and now it’s about seeing how these performances translate versus better opponents. The night overall felt like a whimper, and I think a lot of that was how GA handled the QBs and backed out on his word. If that didn’t happen, I’d be feeling much better about this ugly win.

First game thread of the Gary Andersen era, bitches! Let the party start early.

Not much to add. I’m changing my 46-13 prediction to 45-13 because 46 is a tough number to get.

Go Beavs.

For those who watched the game tonight, tell me if this is what you saw:

1. QB can’t throw into any type of tight coverage.
2. Both lines look stout but not overly intimidating. Looks like they have problems with mobile QBs.
3. Skill position players look pretty slow.
4. Harbaugh doesn’t seem fully into NCAA football. Almost looks like Riley post 2009.

Michigan looked like a decent team but nothing special. Football changes week to week, and they’ll be at home for the Beavs, so a lot can change, but that performance has to give Beav fans hope. It doesn’t appear they’ll be facing vintage Michigan.

Hey, first game thread. How does this feel?

The depth chart is scary at a few positions. David Henry is the 2 deep? Chappell as the nickle is questionable. I rewatched his film, and he has those stiff hips I never like to see, but he also makes good breaks on the ball and seems like an aggressive defender. A few other positions as well, but let’s watch a game before getting too far into personnel.

With regard to Weber State, I researched them a bit, and it looks like McBride had them on an upswing, and now they’re on the other end of that. Jay Hill seems like a pretty good coach, and GA spoke highly of him, so maybe he turns things around. I haven’t look into any JC transfers they signed and teams like Weber St can change drastically year to year based on transfers. I’m assuming they’re not 2-10 bad again this year.

All that being said, I do have a feeling the Beavs will be able to hand the ball off and run all over this team. Maybe not in the first quarter, but as the game goes on and the OL wears Weber St down. That will be the key to victory. Now I think GA might be tempted to throw the ball a lot just to get the QBs reps for Michigan. That’s the danger and delicate balance here: the must run enough to wear down Weber St, and throw enough to give the QBs confidence going into next week. If the QBs start out with jitters and a bunch of incompletions, GA can’t force the issue trying to get them on track. He needs to resort to the run and short, quick pass if the QBs go into meltdown.

Hopefully the QBs come out firing on all cylinders, though, and it’s a non issue. I expect McM to have some early jitters and then play well. I don’t know what to expect from Collins passing wise, but I expect a few 20 yard gains on the ground from him.

I have a very good feeling about this game. Everyone is jacked for this era to begin, it’s at home, it’s a lesser opponent. How can’t you love the Beavs in a landslide, even with the QB “uncertainty”?

46-13, Beavers