The Beavers, as a whole, have officially become unpredictable. It's ironic, since fans complain that their offensive and defensive units suffer the curse of predictability. The short of it goes like this: yes, everyone knows bomb on 1st down; Quizz dive left for 3 on 2nd, Quizz dive right for 2 on 3rd, then a punt; and every offense knows they'll see a base 4-3 with slow linebackers and one weak CB. But nobody has any F*$#*#ing idea what the outcome will be.

Counter intuitive stuff, right?

These eyes see the Beavers execute about the same (i.e. averagely) every game. So deduction leads me to believe that, in games with relatively equal talent, a win or loss is determined by how the opponent executes. If they do it well, the Beavers lose. Poorly, and the Beavs win.

Luckily Washington State suffers from poor execution and slightly less talent, so this game should be a win. A few months back, who would have thought we'd have to question it, though? In a season marked by polarizing opinions within the fan base, this is the one contest we unanimously penciled in the W column. It is supposed to be our shining moment of solidarity.

Do you still feel confident in victory?

I do, but instead of stat-padding-blowout, I see a modest two touchdown victory. And dare I say, I'm actually slightly nervous about…*gulp*…Washington State.

28-14, Beavs.

Edit: I heard from a reliable source that offensive tackle Darryl Jackson is now an Oregon State lean.

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According to Cliff, the starting DT this Saturday will be Kevin Frahm, and the backup will be one of these guys:

Evan Hull, Ben Motter and Nathan Hannah.

*Gulp*

Do I even need to tell you all three are walk-ons?

On the recruiting front, Blitz is reporting that Todd Peat has the Beavs in his final five. The problem with Blitz is that they sell subscriptions, and in an effort to get new blood signed up, they're always overly optimistic about 4-star recruits who have the slightest interest. They tend to do this even more after a bad loss when fans are jumping off buildings. But hey, I'm not going to try to prevent you from being excited about Peat if you want to be. Go for it.

One more thing: D. J. Welch reportedly will be ready to go come camp.

I have to say, I cannot wait for some of the current guys to graduate. I wish Remmers, Johnson, and Ellis were either seniors this season or scheduled to be backups next year. What I absolutely cannot deal with is all of them starting again next year. I might ask Bob D for my donation back if that happens. Anyway, the talent and potential look much better as you go down the depth chart.  Sure, it's raw talent, but by next fall it should be refined. It's clear 2010 is shaping up to be a "rebuilding" rather than "reloading" year. We have become accustomed to the latter.

What else. Oh, I could deal with Riley a lot better if he had an aggressive and imaginative staff. The problem is that all of these coaches have the same laid back, west coast temperament. They feed into one another and create an apathetic, workaday environment. If you don't believe me, think about how the Beavers looked before the TCU, Boise State, or Penn State kickoffs. "Anemic deer in headlights" would be putting it nicely. A few years ago when all the young mensches became head coaches in the league, the writing was on the wall. Evolve or die. This staff is not dead yet, but the young head coaches, and now two new teams, are out for blood and mean business. When watching Riley & Friends., I'm reminded of the Pink Floyd song Time. The lyrics read: "No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun."

If you're interested what happens after that, Google it, but it's not good.

It made me recall this post from almost a year ago.

"Angry, you are so crazy!"

Is it crazy now?

This is the transcript from another board:

Guy 1: Mike Leach. Isn't he out there somewhere? He has a very progressive offensive mind. Might still be looking for a job.

Guy 2: Nah…that's too much out of the box thinking for Riley/Decarolis.

Guy 3: Leach would be a heck of an offensive coordinator.

Looks like there are a bunch of us crazies out there. Beware of the crazies!

I still think this would be a great hire and contradict yet keep up with what the Ducks are doing in a fascinating way. It would be the innovative, aerial version of that offense.

My wish list:
1. Mike Leach, offensive coordinator.
2. Matt Wallerstedt, defensive coordinator.

The coaching and recruiting upgrade from those hires would have the Beavs fighting the Ducks for the Rose Bowl every year. Does Bob D have the 'nads to make a change? Probably, were it not for the kidney thing.

I will probably receive a lot of backlash for saying that, but I have to stick to my guns. The bottom line is that I question whether Langsdorf donated his kidney for job security. Seriously, how can anyone fire a guy who did that? He's another lifer, so we have to hope someone "poaches" him, and in the meantime ponder what could have been.

Eek, I called this game a glorified scrimmage. I was trying to think why I was fooled into thinking that. All I could come up with is that I wanted it to be a glorified scrimmage, and figured maybe I could force my will on the team.

So much for parapsychology.

Someone made a good point in the comment section. Paraphrasing here, but they basically said UCLA has a lot of athletes, and when they come fired up to play they'll beat walk-ons. It's an astute observation; that's exactly what happened. We were "out-athleted." When I saw UCLA jacked up in pre-game, I knew the game would be more difficult than I figured.

On to the game…

There were so many problems with performance tonight, but they all revert to one issue: poor recruiting. I might start a new feature called "worst walk-on of the week"  (I like the alliteration) or "Pankey vs _____" where we insert players in college football who are worse than Keith Pankey. Justin Kahut, maybe? Look, I'm sure these guys work really hard, and that's great and all if they're building confidence and character, but as I fan I frankly don't give a shit if Mike Remmers gets a chance in life. I want to see fast 4+ star athletes flying around, making plays, and winning games. The Horatio Alger stuff is for that walk-on and his family to revel in, not me. As Dennis Leary said, "Life is hard, get a helmet."

There were specific coaching problems. For example, Riley still doesn't understand clock management. It's simple, and works like this: call timeouts when there are 2 minutes left and the other team has the ball. There. That's it. The reason you do this is because (a) the opponent is not going to rush to the line of scrimmage to get off a play and (b) if you get the ball back, your QB will rush to the line of scrimmage to get off a play.

But, it's pointless to harp on coaching foibles when the guy is locked up for a decade.

I digress.

There was a point where I wanted the Beavers to lose. I think it was late in the 3rd quarter, when I realized they weren't playing smart, efficient football, when their conditioning looked poor, when I imagined the Ducks steamrolling them. I just figured it's better to lose this game and expose the sheep in wolf's clothing. Now we don't have to hear deranged fans talk about how the defense is great for shutting down Brock Mansion of the Cal squad that almost lost to Washington State. Now it's all out in the open. The Beavs have won with smoke and mirrors–kick returns and low turnovers. While great, those are not the kind of things you can rely on every game.

Ryan Katz continues to make the same poor decisions. He hasn't improved his decision making since game one. I've been biting my tongue and being patient since I know the rule that "Riley's offense is complex and takes a year to learn blah blah." You can blame the offensive line–on many plays it was obviously their fault. But the o-line is much better in pass blocking (than run blocking) and when he had time he just couldn't make the throw. It's now all on him. He's the QB, he's the man, and he continues to make bad decisions. Example: on a 3rd & 4 he had a WR cutting short across the middle, looked at him, and threw a ten yard incompletion. So yeah, be the hero with that canon of yours, big guy. We're all impressed in the same way we're impressed with high trucks with big wheels. Anyway, I'm really starting to sour on this guy. I love heady football. I've never been in love with big arms, height, speed, etc. Give me intelligence and savvy from the QB spot. Give me a Honda at the QB position, not a tricked out Hummer.

It's time to start thinking about next year, when the personnel should improve. But I'm already frustrated because I know it will take the staff five games before they realize who the players are, or they'll fall in love with a Mike "Horatio Alger" Remmers II, or they'll…ugh, not even worth it.

As far as the rest of this season: I think WSU and Stanford will be wins. We'll squeak into some crappy ninth tier bowl, Beaver fans will be joyous about the extra weeks of practice, everyone will say "next year is the year!", and when that time comes we'll all be a year older and little balder saying the same things about the next year. To be a Beaver fan…