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Second Scrimmage Blues

15

Now it's time to say good night
Good night sleep tight
Now the sun turns out his light
Good night sleep tight

-The Beatles

The second and final fall scrimmage is in the books. Sure, the fact that the defense gave up 182 yards and 3 touchdowns to a walk-on running back concerns me, but that's not where my rationale leads me tonight. No, what is most disconcerting is Beaver fan's reaction to the offensive bloodbath. They are actually excited that the offense is running roughshod. But more about that later.

Pleasant surprises from camp:

1. Katz has settled in nicely. He's going to make some terrible mistakes this season, but the best player at the position is starting, and that's all you can ask.

2. Jordan Jenkins appears legit. He's not as good as the defense is making him appear, but he's serviceable. It's hard to believe any defense in the Pac-10 would yield 182 yards and 3 tds to this player.

3. Mitch Singler will be a good possession receiver.

4. Obum is an engaging talent. I think his routes ultimately hold him back and make him a (goal line) specialist, or maybe even expect conversion to an Antonio Gates type TE.

5. Jordan Poyer can start.

The disappointments: well, you guys know my complaints about the defense, so I won't reiterate. Cliff Kirkpatrick, who both follows the team on a daily basis and watched the scrimmage, had this to say:

The defense, well, I’m worried. LB Dwight Roberson said stopping the run was an issue last scrimmage when Jenkins and Ryan McCants combined for more than 100 yards. This time Jenkins topped 100 on his own. He had runs of 41, 25 and 22 yards.

Yikes.

My opinion: Move Roberson to MLB with Doctor and Pankey at OLB. All things considered, it's the best possible corp. However, if history is an indicator, it's not going to happen. Riley won't start Doctor. At least not until he has a few losses under his belt and he becomes desperate. The more probable  "solution" will be a rotation at MLB (Wilson, Robinson, Unga) based on game situation. I still feel Unga is the most well-rounded of these three.

Back to Beaver fan real quick: their excitement over Katz toasting CBs for 60 yard bombs is akin to being happy your ace pitcher gives up back to back to back home runs in spring ball. It is not the norm, and it means something is drastically wrong. What it doesn't mean: that your team has the best QB and WRs on the planet. Do you realize how irrational that belief is? Having to outscore opponents is both a bad game plan and season strategy. Sorry to crash the parade.

“Best Family Assmosphere” & Kicking Concerns

16

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?

On the Recruiting Front

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Let's be honest, the talent and depth on the defensive side of the ball has been lacking for almost two years now, and if the problem is to be corrected it's going to have to start with recruiting.

Well, the good news is we've received several commitments at a position of need.

Kerry Eggers, as is his wont, was correct in saying 3-star linebacker Jabral Johnson has decomitted from Arizona and will be attending Oregon State with fellow teammate Ty Zimmerman.

Brock Haman is another to keep an eye on. He visits next weekend and has serious interest in the Beavers, but ultimately expect him to commit to Arizona. A late push from UCLA could land him there as well, especially if Neuheisel lands his auto-commit chopper in Scottsdale.

First Scrimmage Blues

64

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.

Disturbing Developments in Camp

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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.