Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away. -Phillip K Dick

On the quote:
“One day a girl college student in Canada asked me to define reality for her, for a paper she was writing for her philosophy class. She wanted a one-sentence answer. I thought about it and finally said, “Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away.” That’s all I could come up with. That was back in 1972. Since then I haven’t been able to define reality any more lucidly.”

The quote relates to the thread below; that there will be more games like Saturday’s.

By rationalizing these losses as one time events and by fearing change, boosters have guaranteed more results like Saturday’s.

There will be more FCS loses.
There will be more blowouts vs spread offenses.

Nothing will change; there will only be the illusion. Job descriptions/titles will be reworked, and the parts shifted around, but it is all to give the illusion of change while maintaining the status quo.

You reap what you sow, and by replanting the Riley/Banker seed we are guaranteed that weed continues to grow.

I fear 28 more years of Banker more than anything from the past.

People are talking about specifics, like fire Banker and Sean Martin sucks.

Yes, both true.

But what I saw is a team of players looking for the other guy to make the play. Guys would get in the vicinity of an Eagle and then almost…look around…waiting for some other dude in the vicinity to make the tackle. It’s girly football, and that part is on the players.

Now, is this on Banker, Riley, etc? Yes! Riley sets the tone. He is not a physical guy. Banker is a pretender, phony, a fake. Telecasters keep saying he’s a great DC and well respected, but I have to ask, by whom? Every time the guy interviews for some B-level job he gets rejected. Banker is Dave Kingman, for those who remember the old-school baseball slugger. He’ll strike out 20 times, then hit 1 home run. People will marvel at that one long ball, because it’s always a monster shot into the upper deck, and for a few games (in baseball terms) everyone would forgive Kingman’s 0-4 with 4 strikeouts. Same with Riley/Banker. There’s the occasional game where the D gets 8 sacks and gives up 200 yards. They get to an Alamo Bowl — these things buy them half a dozen mulligans.

This is another over-arching problem. The boosters are afraid to make changes. They get caught up in the occasional good, and put more weight on the positive games than the negative. This is counter-intuitive in many ways. For example, if someone calls you attractive, you feel good, but usually forget about it shortly after. However, if someone calls you ugly, it might stick with you for life. Negative outcomes usually carry more weight than positive ones, because positive is expected. But not as OSU. Instead the boosters rationalize the loss and start spewing stats about Rileys win/loss record how he won a Grey Cup or some shit. Until the correct weight is placed on a loss by the boosters at the top, nothing will change.

So what is going to happen next, is that Riley and crew will throw together enough of those upper deck Dave Kingman longballs to make the old guard forget about this loss. Maybe they blowout Hawaii next week. All would be forgiven. This is the bigger pattern. Forget today. Today was just a dot on a long-term repeating pattern. A bigger problem is the pattern itself and the attitude of OSU boosters.

Go Beavs

Our personal beat reporter, Bone, is back with a highly detailed report. Enjoy.

Special Teams:

Cooks an Boldin were returning punts, looks like both of them will be back receiving punts and possibly at the same time.  Field goal unit looked good, clean snap to hold to kick.  Romaine is kicking field goals very well.  Kostol looks very good, and snaps look good.

Reynolds and Hatfield sat out practice; Mullaney, Christian and Cummings were back playing.  The first interaction that the quarterbacks and receivers had today was one on ones from about the 5 yard line, so a lot of fades and slants.  I got a real good angle of the Gwatchum and Mullaney but the rest of the receivers were on the opposite side of the field.  Gwatchum  went 1-2 against Nelson, catching a back shoulder fade and then Nelson stepped in front of the pass.  Mullany just abused Naji Patrick.  Kevin Cummings as well as Victor Boldin did well.  After that the team moved into the team session. Vaz and Gwatchum worked with the first team today.  The secondary was mostly in the nickel with Nelson, Scott, and Hunt.  Reynolds was out and I didn’t see Martin taking any snaps maybe he wasn’t there, but I pretty sure he was. Some other notes: Dylan Wynn was doing a lot of work as an interior d-lineman, probably only going to be for passing downs I’d assume, he seemed to fit there.

Because there is both a quarterback battle I tracked what each play that happened in team or 7 on 7.  I had to leave a little early so some of the later stuff I did not see.

Team 11 0n 11

Vaz

• Completed 6 yard hitch to Gwatchum
• Incomplete to Gwatchum on deep crossing route.  Good throw (should have been caught)
• Draw to Ward
• Completed 15 yard corner to Hamlet

Mannion

• Draw to Brown
• Dumped off to Brown for 10+ yards
• Completed corner route to Boldin for 10 yards.  Really nice throw and catch

Vaz

• Dive to storm for 10+ yards
• Drop of f to the other full back who isn’t TA
• Completed 7yrd.  slant route to Cooks
• Dive to Ward for no gain

Mannion

• Dive to Brown for 10+ yards
• Completion to Boldin on 20 yard comebacker.  Really BIG throw, from the far hash.
• Complete on corner route to Mullany.  Nice throw and catch.
• Completed to Clute on 8 yard hitch.  Safety came in untouched so Mannion may have been sacked

7 on 7

Vaz

• Complete 15 yard out route to Gwatchum.  Really Nice throw and catch.
• Same exact play but this time Cooks
• Incomplete pass to cooks on a deep dig route.  Pass was high but should have been caught.
• Completed 6 yard hitch to Hamlet

Mannion

• Completed 5 yard out to C. Smith.
• Completed 5 yard hitch to Boldin
• Dropped swing pass to Haskins.  he looks good running the ball but has had trouble catching the ball.
• Incomplete slant to Boldin.  Little low and behind, could have been caught.

Vaz

• Completed 10 yard hitch to Hamlet
• Incomplete to Cooks on deep out.  Pass was short and behind Cooks.

Mannion

• Completed 20 yard out to Boldin.  Great throw.
• Another dropped pass by Haskins
• Incomplete to Boldin

Vaz

• Incomplete corner route to Gilmore, lead him too much and was short.
• Completed 15 yard out to Cooks, really nice throw and anticipation.
• Sacked, but scrambled for a first down.

Mannion

• Completed deep crossing route to Caleb Smith.  Might have been sacked though, one player broke through.
• To high for Gwatchum on deep crossing route. Incomplete
• Incomplete pass to Boldin on deep comeback route, just a tad high for him.

Vaz

• Perfeclty thrown deep ball to Cooks with Nelson in great coverage.  Greatly placed by Vaz
• Completed wheel route to Storm for a good pick up
• Incomplete pass to Cook on deep hitch.  Really inaccurate throw.

Mannion

• Completed crossing route to Mullany.
• Complete to Brown out of backfield, nice pick up
• Perfectly thrown 10 yard hitch to Boldin but dropped.

After watching 4 practices, with each quarterback getting 2 sessions with the first team, Mannion has been more impressive.  On days when he is with the first team the offense looks better and you can see separation between the first and second team.  When Vaz is with the first team, both teams look almost identical.  Also Vaz has turned the ball over during the 4 practices that I attended.  As for Mullany and Gwatchum, I don’t think the coaches need to rush to make a decision here, both are playing really well and it might be a good idea for them to get equal amount of snaps the first game or two.  I feel we will get a quarterback answer very soon.