Home Blog Page 162

Post game thoughts (Oregon State v Arizona)

By
angry
-
190

Most of my thoughts were shared in the other thread.

I feel this game was an absolute disaster for Collins. Earlier in the season, I said it would take ~ six games before the smoke cleared and we had any clue about the QB position. This is my feeling on where we are, copied from the prior thread:

I want to be clear: I am down on Collins as a PASSER, and always have been. I didn’t like his personality early on, but he grew on me as he grew up and gave better interviews. I can only go by what I see. I love him as a runner, and I see the leadership. I’m not blind and not biased. If he improves I’ll reassess. I’m not tied to MM or any other player. I hope this is clear. MM was a C+ at best. People seem to confuse me picking MM as the best option to start with me claiming MM would be good once he did start. I never said that.

Now that I have seen 5 games of Collins, I can see what he is. A guy who can pass and run vs D2 schools, but can’t do much vs legit D1 schools. He might do okay vs Pac-12 bottom feeders.

I don’t get fooled by athleticism. I grew up in NYC during the Darryl Strawberry/Doc Gooden era. I saw “potential” and all world athleticism that went nowhere. I know what it takes to be great, and it is not raw athleticism. If Collins ever has a Eureka moment and gains those skills, I will gladly point them out and agree he is great. I’m not tied to any player or paradigm, and I’m always ready to shift as players prove themselves. As of now, I view Collins as a liability vs teams with a pulse. This is how I viewed him all along.

Another question is Sitake. I was skeptical of him from the start. There are threads, if you use search, where I point out he wasn’t very good vs spread teams, etc, and seemed dull when speaking. A lot of guys are questioning him after today’s blowout. Is it fair? Not sure. I’d say verdict is out, but keep a close eye on him. Some of these defenders are embarrassing, so it’s not all his fault.

Also, where are all the Mangeo fans? Was his name mentioned once today, besides 15 yards downfield? “Stud” LB label a bit premature? A guy should have to prove it over many games rather than one good game. Just saying.

This game had the potential to put the Beavs ahead of schedule. Now they’re on schedule (you had to expect 2-3, if being realistic). The upcoming two games become large. We need to see improvement and progression.

Oregon State @ Arizona (Game Thread)

By
angry
-
425

Go Beavs.

Baldwin Implies Offense Clicking

By
angry
-
192

I wrote during week 3 or so that the offense was making subtle baby steps…something about “ah ha moments” where things click, and how I could see it happening each game.

Baldwin, in this interview, implies that transition is mostly complete, and the Beavs are ready to be “explosive”.

Come Saturday, I might jump on the upset bandwagon with most of you guys. The thing preventing me at this point is (a) I don’t believe in the transitive property and/or what happened in past games has any outcome on future games (b) need to see the Beavs do it before I’m a believer.

Seth Collins — Recruiting Weapon?

By
angry
-
154

While I’m not a fan of Collin’s passing skills, I do think he could be a benefit on the recruiting trail. For one, players see the hurdle and all that glitz. Sure, many of us see it’s dumb, but so are Oregon’s uniforms. The bottom line is players like that kind of thing. Also, he has the alpha/Joe Cool personality at the QB position. This, too, should attract recruits. The guy does “command the room” or whatever you want to call it [at least when he’s not moping], and I think people, in general, are attracted to that type of personality.

Does anyone know GA’s policy on who can host a recruit? Collins is too immature at this point, and we don’t know much about his off the field life, but hopefully by next year he grows up and can host.

And I don’t think McMaryion has this ability at all, since people will want to go there.

Back to Collins, I heard Mamma Machado discussing him on her podcast. Her and Sprague felt he’s doing well “for a true freshman” (I don’t like this qualifier, but that’s for another post). I’d grade him at a C+. I feel his best traits at this point are his legs and alpha personality. I’d like to see him run all over the upcoming three teams who are all soft, and then get him involved with recruits. So yeah, this is an unorthodox thought, but Collins has value as a recruiting tool, but he has to earn the starting QB job (next year and beyond) for them to cash in on that.

Oregon State @ Arizona

By
angry
-
53

Alright, doods, back on track here.

So as I was saying below, I think the Beavs have weather and start time as the intangible working against them. In order to make up for that handicap, they need to bring their own intangibles, and I actually think they do. Playing a difficult early schedule could help here. Stanford and Michigan, two of the more physical teams in college this year, should have toughened up the Beavs. And this is the most interesting part of the game to me: did the Beavs learn (physicality) from their loses or not? If so, then they were Laevinic defeats. Those are the types of defeats we want: “alright, we lost, but we learned xyz, and it will never happen again.” Riley teams never seemed to have it, and now we see how quickly Andersen can instill that trait.

Another key to this game: Seth Collins has walked a tightrope thus far with turnovers. He should be coughing it up more than he is given his reckless style and iffy throws. Collins has been serviceable so far, if we’re being fair. I just think he has the law of averages working against him.

So my feeling: if Collins luck doesn’t run out, and the Beavs learned how to be physical, they can very easily win this game. And visa versa. In the pre-season I had this marked as a loss. This Conference is erratic, though. Each week we seem to have surprising outcomes (that maybe shouldn’t be surprising anymore). It tells me the teams are all close, even the perceived “bad” teams. And conversely, the teams at the top probably aren’t all that good. Utah might be the best team in the conference. They’ve been the most consistent. Anyway, I am sticking to this one being a loss, but have an underlying positive feeling about it, too. Beav’s depth is so thin, and that might show again as this game goes on. I expect an even game until the 4th quarter when the Beavs finally wear down.

Let’s be clear: this is a season defining game. If they can win this, it changes all expectations and puts the program ahead of schedule. For this reason, it’s a big game. The two games after this (Washington State and Colorado) should be wins, so they can conceivably win three games in a row. They can also drop all three (i.e. the volatility of a young, growing team).

31-24, Arizona.

Go Beavs!

1...161162163...402Page 162 of 402