Tyler Thomas, wow. Way to make your university proud and further asphyxiate Riley's on-life-support reputation for recruiting quality men.

Anyway, on to the important matters.

On August 18th, I questioned why Trevor Romaine wasn't on this team (greyshirting), and why Connor Hammlet (who was also greyshirting) received Fred Thompson's scholarship to become the 6th TE (no that is not a typo) on the roster. I knew Kahut was injured and therefore Romaine could come in handy, but further, it seemed a good idea to start grooming next years kicker…oh…I don't know, this year?

As September 4th approaches, the question becomes more valid. Cliff Kirkpatrick writes:

Kahut situation
Riley agreed with my concern over PK Justin Kahut's sore back lingering into the season after a car accident before training camp.

“We are not passed that concern until he starts kicking regularly,” Riley said. “At this point he hasn’t done that.”

The backup plan is for P Johnny Hekker to handle kickoffs and freshman walk-on Max Johnson from Astoria to do the extra points and field goals.

My problems with this situation are twofold:

1. The Beavers just went through this situation 3 years ago with Loomis and Serna. To error once is semi-understandable, but to not learn from that mistake is unacceptable. A kicker as poor as Max Johnson cannot under any circumstance be your contingency plan. There is no excuse or justification here.

2. The moment Kahut was injured, Riley should have been on the phone with Romaine. Instead, he called Connor Hamlett and added a 6th tight end to the roster and second from last year's class (Tyler Perry being the first). Is the 6th TE really a priority? I am having a hard time understanding the logic.

The defense's poor performance this fall had me concerned. Now special teams, which figured to be a strong point, may once again revert to 2007 levels. Having to out-shoot opponents, while fun, is not a winning strategy.

Let me guess, Mike Riley is a genius, and I'm the idiot?

Irene goodnight, Irene goodnight
Goodnight Irene, goodnight Irene
I'll see you in my dreams
-Leadbelly

The contingent who dislikes this site must be pulling their hair out tonight. It's been hard to be wrong of late. Believe me when I say I'd like to be and I'm trying my best, but the Beavs just won't cooperate. Anyway, the first scrimmage is complete, and as predicted, the defense got steamrolled today, giving up 712 total yards. The powerhouse linebacking corp, led by vocal "leader" Keith Pankey, gave up 150 yards on the ground. Frankly, Mr. Pankey, your "leadership" was invisible as your linebacking. The secondary, meanwhile, couldn't stop Cody Vaz and Obum Gwacham, on their way to yielding a whooping 562 yards. How are they going to stop the four first round quarterbacks in this conference? You answer that however you need to in order to sleep at night.

Some will say, "But Angry, Paea didn't play!" Yes, well, keep in mind Quiz, Wheaton, and Phillipp didn't play, either. That's right, the first team defense was trounced by Jordan Jenkins, Ryan McCants, and Mitch Singler, et al.

This is the problem: you need the defense to be dominant this time of year. Not good, not adequate, but dominant.

Why?

Because the defense knows the offense's playbook. It's that simple. They practice against these guys daily and know the plays, yet they still can't stop them. The defense has an advantage; they should be stifling. A good friend of mine who was at Reser today told me he saw wideouts blowing by corners with ease. Worse, the backs ran over, through, and around linebackers. Arm tackles, missed tackles, lack of determination and passion, and generally more of the same problems we were told would be resolved. Lipstick on a pig, I suppose.

The defense's one bright spot? Blocking a kick by…you guessed it: all-conference placekicker…Max Johnson! I'm sure that didn't have anything to do with Max's skill set or anything. *Cough*

Incidentally, Riley was on The Jim Rome Show today at 11:35 local time. Rome talked about the slow starts, and asked what Riley would do differently this year to prevent that. Mike didn't have much of an answer, and his confusion showed in camp today.

The one positive from all this: the Vegas line versus TCU is beginning to look like an early Christmas gift for the Angry household.

Twas the night before scrimmage and…something is rotten in the State of Denmark?

• Max Johnson is backing up Kahut. He's a walk-on, freshman place kicker from Astoria who has ~35 yard range and 50% accuracy. So remind me again: why is Trevor Romaine grey-shirting while Connor Hamlett is on scholarship? One would think the coaches, at the very least, would red-shirt Romaine so he's prepared next year. Further, why is nobody asking this question?
• Michael Phillipp is running with the 3rd string. I realize he was hurt, but if he's well enough to practice with the 3's he should be practicing with the 1's. Is this staff actually considering playing Wilder McAndrews over Phillipp?
• If the above scenario does play out and McAndrews takes over for Phillipp, the offensive line would consist of 4 walk-ons. To be blunt: what the hell is going on here? Is this an offensive line or a mutiny of the downtrodden?

This is one of the worst camps I can recall due to these confounding personnel moves, the lack of intensity, and the feeling this team is once again ill-prepared. Everything out of TCU camp says that they're running the ball well, hitting every short to intermediate pass, and are essentially ready to play a game today. OSU, meanwhile, can't even figure out their best lineman is Michael Phillipp or that they need to groom a kicker this year for next year. This is highly frustrating stuff for a team that is supposed to be preparing for the game of their lives versus the #10 team in the land. What is surprising about the Beavers starting slow is that anyone is surprised that the Beavers start slow.

People say this site is negative. Really it's just an exercise in logic and efficiency. If the coaches did things that made sense questions would never be asked.

I received this response on the old blog, and thought I would post it here since the old site does not get much action anymore. This is from ex-Beaver Nick Westerberg on Ryan Allen:

GREETINGS BEAVERS

my name is Nick Westerberg and i am Ryan Allens uncle.
i was a 3 year starter for the BEAV'S a long time ago when we were terrible. i still love my school but i am not happy with the coaching staff or the program at all.
Ryan is a great kid and a terrific punter but for some unknown reason Mike Riley would not give him a chance. i believe that he liked the idea of having a backup quarterback at the punting position. whatever his reasoning he never gave Ryan an opportunity to show what he could do.
Last year i received a phone call from Ryan to come to Corvallis to help him tell coach Riley that he wanted to transfer because he needed the financial aid that a scholarship would provide. I was so angy at coach Riley and his staff that as an ex-BEAVER captain i could not even stay and watch the game that weekend.
we took Ryan to CHRIS SAILORS punting and kicking combine camp in JANURARY and the #1 available punter coming out of that camp was RYAN ALLEN!!!!
everyone was asking what was wrong with the OSU coaches that they would not use and keep a talented punter like RYAN?
Needless to say he received many offers but was given a full scholarship for 3 years to LA TECH in Ruston LA and is very happy there.
My whole family are a bunch of BEAVERS but we are so disappointed in how RYAN was treated that we are have a bitter taste for the school that we all love. we dealt with the AD , ADMISSIONS and the FOOTBALL STAFF and it was a very frustrating and difficult process just to get RYAN transferred.
I love my OSU school but i am very frustrated with the FB PROGRAM.

"HEART BROKEN BEAVER"

NW

 

The original can be read here:

http://angrybeavers.wordpress.com/2010/03/07/ryan-allen-transfers/#comments