General PreGame Thread
The other thread was hurting.
Game thread goes live around 7:15.
Seth Collins Temper Tantrum
This email found my inbox this evening. From a source who was at practice:
So I have never been a fan of Seth Collins, always thought he was a jerk but never did anything to really justify that label. Today he did, as you already know Nick Mitchell has worked himself into potential playing time. When I walked by Collins threw a temper tantrum after practice when asked to do interviews (the one day he is available) he yelled at Steve Fenk something along the lines “I ain’t talking to the fucking camera” and then throwing his protein shake down on the ground before storming off the practice field without talking to the press.
Four-More-Years!
I didn’t see if he actually did not do the interviews because I was interviewing another player when that transpired. But based on the lack of Collins quotes from today, I don’t think he did.
That is some kind of leadership and poise, huh? Nick Mitchell could play meaningful time this Saturday. Let’s hope Nick can complete 10 yard passes and conduct interviews.
Fascinating Sitake Article
Has this been posted?
“Just so everyone knows, we don’t teach our guys to just dive at the ground and not see what you hit,” Sitake said. “We teach our guys to be aggressive, close the grass, keep your eyes on the ball-carrier and strike.”
And then:
Sitake is sometimes unsure if certain players are deliberately being defiant because they don’t believe in the scheme or if they simply “get freaked out” when the pressure ramps up with thousands of onlookers in the stands.
It sounds like they are getting stage freight. It’s lame Sitake thinks they might be purposely defiant. They should have given the actual quote on that one. Maybe now that the pressure is off and the season is lost, they can relax and show the improvement we’re all expecting.
Chandler Connections, Recruiting
So as we know, Darrell Garretson was a QB at Chandler.
It turns out his father is the OC at Chandler. The Beavers have three Chandler prospects visiting this weekend: Moran (3-star), Chase Lucas (4-star), and N’Keal Harry (5-star). These guys all think highly of Garretson and have relationships going far back, and Paul Lucas (Chandler) is friends with them as well. The Beavs could sell early playing time. So, I don’t think this visit is purely a sight seeing tour. The Beavs can win this battle if they sell their vision of the future. Playing a good game wouldn’t hurt, either, but the lack of attendance will.
Colorado @ Oregon State (Preview)
As noted in the last thread, I’m not going to spend time thinking about these games so long as Seth Collins is running around like a chicken with his head cut off. There’s not much to think about. Jack summed that situation up nicely.
Since the game kicks off late on Saturday, I will watch it, but no more wasted afternoons watching that guy.
My feeling is the Beavs aren’t as awful as they’ve looked the past few weeks. This is based on the generality that at the lowest point, a person or team is not as bad as they appear. Nebraska, for example, went from looking awful to looking pretty good. Were they awful all along, or did they hit a bad period where everything was going against them and it snowballed? Probably the latter, or at least a mix of the two. I suspect the same is true with the Beavs, and we’ll see some better performances. Am I confident in that? No. But that’s usually how things work.
I’m not going to make a prediction on this game since we don’t even know who the QB will be (e.g. reports that Nick Mitchell is getting heavy reps). I had this marked as a win pre-season, so I’ll go with the W, but no clue on a score. I have a feeling whoever is QB will be handing the ball off a lot. My feeling is GA might start Mitchell, or have him ready to go if Collins struggles at all, and that he will go back to basics and try to jump start the run game. This would be smart for obvious reasons (keep the D rested, keep Collins involvement minimal, etc).