I spent much of today's practice focusing on the offensive line.

For the first 30 minutes, I watched Kyle DeVan coach up the offensive linemen.   DeVan was working on the "punch" technique with one lineman at a time, as well as talking with the group about blocking angles. (At one point, DeVan called over loudly to another assistant, and joked "has anyone taught these guys any geometry?")   During breaks, DeVan was also telling the linemen NFL war stories (one of them started with, "You think Coach Cav is bad?").

In some ways, watching DeVan coach the o-line reminded me of watching Rod Perry coach the defensive backs during last Saturday's practice.  The offensive linemen were clearly  treating DeVan — a former starting guard with the Indianapolis Colts — with respect, and listening closely to what he was saying.  Of course, unlike Rod Perry, DeVan is only in his late 20's, and graduated from OSU just a few years ago.   DeVan seems to relate well to the guys, and to have a good sense of humor and a light touch — a welcome counterpoint to Coach Cav's screaming (which really can get old).  I think DeVan is going to add value this year and is going to help make OSU's offensive line better.  I think DeVan will be especially effective with the talented group of o-line recruits that arrive this Fall.

At this morning's practice, Isaac Seumalo (wearing sweats) was one of the guys listening closely to Kyle DeVan.   Seumalo was not participating in practice — he was just an observer.  But he seemed to be taking it seriously.  When the offensive line broke up into two groups, one with Coach Cav, and the other with Kyle DeVan, Isaac chose to go with DeVan's group (perhaps because Isaac has already heard a lot from Cav, and was interested to hear whether Kyle DeVan had something new/different to say — although that's pure speculation on my part).   Isaac attended the whole, long Saturday practice, hanging out with the offensive linemen and the coaches, and soaking up information.

I spent a fair amount of time today watching the two centers, Roman Sapolu and Jake Welch.  I think each of them has talent.  Jake Welch is about 30-40 pounds heavier than Sapolu — Welch has a broader frame, and looks stronger than Sapolu.  During one-on-one blocking drills, Welch had some impressive moments, where he overwhelmed his opponents with his size  and strength.  However, Sapolu had some good moments, too.  Sapolu does it with technique and determination rather than sheer size and strength, but looks like Sapolu can be effective, especially as a pass blocker.

Trevor Romaine has improved since last season. He hit every kick solidly today (and I think he made them all, although I’m not 100% sure because I didn’t have a great viewing angle). TR also looks more confident out there. I think he’s going to have a good season for OSU.

Rod Perry seems to have Jordan Poyer be the lead off guy in each drill. Perry has Poyer set the example for how to do each drill, praises Poyer’s technique, and then has the other guys follow Poyer’s lead. Speculation on my part, but I suspect Perry is doing this intentionally, to establish Poyer as the official leader of the group (both to get the most out of Poyer, and also to inspire the other guys to rise to Poyer’s level).

Coach Perry is spending quite a bit of time with the cornerbacks working on techniques for stripping balls from receivers, and for blocking balls before they reach receivers. During the scrimmages today, the CBs were using these techniques to good effect. Coach Perry also spent a fair amount of time coaching up the CB’s on proper tackling technique. I continue to be cautiously optimistic that we really are going to see improved play from the defensive backs this coming season as a result of Perry’s coaching.

I already mentioned the one-on-one blocking drills where Riley participated. Here are some more details from that drill. The first point to emphasize — again — is the super-competitive nature of this drill. This was man-vs-man blocking, with all the players and coaches (including head coach Mike Riley) in a tight circle, watching. The guys were going at it hard, as you’d expect. During this whole drill, Isaac Seumalo was standing close to Riley, while Riley (and Cav) ran the drill. Cav spent much of the drill yelling at various offensive linemen to “get your f…ing elbows in” while blocking.

In this drill, Mike Philipp generally looked good, and won most of his matchups. However, when MP went up against Dylan Wynn, DW got under MP’s pad and drove MP backwards. (Note: in this and other drills, DW continues to impress. DW seems stronger than last year, and just as quick, if not quicker. If he stays healthy, DW should be a force this coming season — even more so than last season.) Jake Welch was perhaps the most effective blocker in these one-on-one drills — Welch just seemed to overpower most of his opponents. Welch is only a RS Freshman — seems he has a big upside.

Good info:

I was able to attend the spring practice session at Reser today.  It went for a full 3 hours (11 am to 2 pm) and there was about 30 minutes of 11-on-11 with hitting (although not full tackling).

The biggest news — for me — was  Rod Perry.  Frankly, I didn't expect much from Perry.  But after spending about 30 minutes watching Rod Perry up close, I came away with a different view.

Perry ran the defensive backs through a bunch of drills (including some drills I don't remember seeing last year).  During the drills, Perry was watching the players closely, and giving them individual advice and tips.  He would also, every few minutes, stop the drills to give the whole group a pointer or two.  This continued during the 11-on-11 drills.  Perry stayed engaged throughout, and coached up his def backs at pretty much every opportunity.  Based on what I saw today, I believe Perry has the players' respect, as well as their attention, and that he has a lot to offer.   If Perry keeps this up, I expect OSU's defensive backfield will play significantly better this coming season.

In the 11-on-11 drills (towards the end of practice), Mike Riley stood near the sidelines, and about 10 yards behind the line of scrimmage. When a player made a dumb mistake, MR would yell out the player’s name to get his attention, use hand gestures to call the player over for a short 1-on-1 conversation, and then talk with the player for 30 seconds about the mistake, after which Riley would send the player back to the drill area. Riley did this with Kellen Clute (after KC jumped the count), with Sean Mannion (after Mannion misread a coverage), and with one or two other players. Riley also got on Justin Addie’s case — throwing in a couple of loud “goshdarnits” for emphasis — when Addie bungled a blocking assignment. It all seemed designed by Riley to make the point that there will be much less tolerance this year for mental mistakes. Or maybe it’s just that Riley is finally feeling pressure and has become less patient with such dumb mistakes. Whatever the reason, Riley didn’t do much of this last season, to the best of my recollection.

On the other hand, I don’t recall Riley getting on Jake Welch at all, even though Jake Welch botched several snaps, failing to get the ball into the QB’s hands under center, leading to broken plays or fumbles. Jake Welch is listed at 322 lbs and looks massive — but still a work in progress at center.

Speaking of massive players, Castro Masaniai is still recovering from a leg injury and is not yet practicing with the team, but he was at practice today. In the middle of practice, Castro put on running shoes, and walked up and down the steps on the west side of Reser Stadium several times. Castro walked right by me once, and I got a good look at him. Castro is listed at 351 lbs, but he didn’t look fat — just very broad. He didn’t seem to be in pain, and he wasn’t huffing and puffing as much as I would have expected for such a huge guy going up and down the steps at Reser. I smiled as he went by, and said to him “Get healthy, the Beavers really need you — you are going to be one of the key guys this year”. Castro smiled, nodded, and gave me a high-five. I know — this is meaningless — but what the heck…

Near the beginning of practice, I watched the four QBs (Mannion, Vaz, Lomax, and Harrington) doing footwork drills together. For example, all four QBs would line up on the goal line, wait for the coach’s signal, and then execute a specified type of dropback. Seemed to me that Mannion’s footwork was faster and more precise than the footwork of the other three QBs. Mannion usually finished his dropback a split-second before the others. I think Mannion’s footwork has improved during the off-season.

Towards the end of practice, Mannion threw a couple of balls badly, and misread the defense several times, leading to throws that could/should have been intercepted (Naji Patrick, a redshirt freshman CB, dropped one that was right in his hands, on a sideline “out” pattern where Mannion never should have thrown the ball). But this was near the end of a long practice, where Mannion had thrown a LOT of passes (most of them accurate), and was visibly tiring. Still….

Cody Vaz has improved his throwing since last season. He is throwing the ball more smoothly, more accurately, with more power, and with a tighter spiral. He seems to be the clear #2 behind Mannion. Richie Harrington has potential, but I don’t think he’s ready to challenge Vaz for #2 quite yet.

Brandin Cooks was talking smack to the defensive backs, especially towards the end of practice, during the 11-on-11 drills. A couple of defensive backs tried and failed to rip the ball out of Cooks’ hands after Cooks had caught the ball and turned up field. Jogging back to the huddle after the play, Cooks turned to the DB’s and said (more than once) that there was “no way” they were getting the ball out of his hands. Stuff like that. Cooks was competitive in other drills during today’s practice, trying to stand out. Cooks seems ready and eager to assume a bigger role in the Beavers’ offense this season.

I watched new LB Cade Cowdin (transfer from College of the Desert, St. George, Utah) for a few plays. Didn’t seem like anything special, but almost surely too small a sample on which to judge. I’ll try to watch Cowdin more closely next time….

We need stuff like this to get our juices flowing again. It seems nobody's too excited about camp this year. Why is that? Because we just figure it's more of the same ol'?