171 COMMENTS

  1. someone needs to tweet that to fatty after LOI day. I have a feeling GA’s first class will rival or be better than any of Riley’s ever were

  2. Stole the words from my mouth! I am loving it tho! You have to pick the right coach for the right place and we hit it out the park

  3. I can’t wait to read the new Twitter feed a year from now. Bicycle riding and the Hand Jive will be a distant memory and we watch this staff sign a top 25 class.

  4. I love this site. BeavRecruiting feed is a brilliant idea. AngryBeavs blows the doors off any other website for OSU athletics. When it comes time for donations, I’m in.

  5. I’m feeling good too, but caliber of recruits not objectively better than what we were getting with Riley. Will feel a lot better if we close on Lucas or Alston (or any Wisky commit for that matter).

    • I disagree. The stars are about the same, but Andersen’s 2 and 3 stars look better. Did Riley ever land a 2-star who looked like Tuli Wily-Matagi or Keivonnis Davis? These guys are 6-3/230lbs monsters who can run…even someone like Jalen Moore…huge hitter. He looks a bit like Al Afalava. But Riley rarely if ever got those types. A typical Riley 2-star is like Brandon Bennett or Larry Scott (not sure if they were 2-stars or not, but that was his typical under the radar guy. Not exactly high ceiling players).

        • That isn’t my point.

          To reiterate: Andersen is recruiting much better looking 2-star guys. I’d say they are actually 3 star guys (as proven by Irvine getting a bump from 2 to 3 recently) who recruiting services are missing for various reasons.

          Riley was a good scout. He had a good eye. But the players he found were different..they needed a lot of development. Andersen’s under the radar guys could play next year…and they are 2-star recruits. That’s pretty amazing.

          • I agree with Angry- GA has two stars that look like they can contribute in w year if not right away. Riley’s two stars (for the majority) would take 2-3 or 4 years to be a viable member of the team ( assuming he ever gave them a chance.

            Furthermore he doesn’t show signs of backing down from players with other offers. Riles pussed out all the time.

      • Again; 1) I’m also excited, 2) These recruits are not objectively better than Riley’s. Angry, you are fully on board with Anderson (even complementing him and then saying he’s just like you if you were a coach…high praise) which means you are unlikely to be objective. Star system is broke, but that and offer sheets are only objective measurement available.

        Unlike the below commenters, I think offer sheets (while imperfect) are best gauge that we have. Don’t need to see 30+ offers but like to see quality evaluators having extended offers and competing hard for a player.

        Don’t think Riley was/is a great recruiter (although sucks to see Harbaugh targeting Snyder, that guy knows TEs), but will take a wait and see approach on difference with GA. Like I said, hope to see us close on Alston and/or Lucas – top guys on our board for a while and one that Riley did close.

        • You do have to admit, though, that a 6’4″, 220# 2* with speed is a little better than a 5’9″ (maybe) 170# 2*. That’s what I feel is the difference between this regime and the last. We’re seeing big, fast kids filling out the roster instead of a bunch of project linemen and backers who will take at least two years to fill out.

          And the prospectives like Togiai and others visiting are much of the same. OSU’s football team might actually start looking like a Pac 12 sized team.

          • Exactly. How is it people aren’t seeing the difference and excited over it? Their film shows well, their body types, Andersen has sat down with each one and knows they must have the right attitude…so what the hell? Because Rivals has 2-star they’re bad? Most of these guys Andersen signed are 3-star on every other site. I bet rivals bumps them, and then people like the class. Kind of sad.

          • Think you’re cherry picking a little there with the measurables. Riley got plenty of guys with size/speed and Taylor Thomas looks like Riley’s prototype undersized/undervalued recruit.

            Think this is on topic re: Riley:

            Jeremy Crabtree, senior recruiting writer for ESPN.com, quoted one Pac-12 assistant as saying: “Our recruiting jobs just got a lot easier. He was the best talent evaluator in the conference by far.”

            http://journalstar.com/sports/huskers/football/riley-hired-as-husker-head-coach/article_c33fcc08-7bda-11e4-90d8-333b9584bb33.html

          • The measurables are an average. Olinemen would come in 50 or 60 lbs. underweight… as would DTs. And we’re not talking about Thomas or other Riley kids who were like him. We’re talking the 2* kids who fill out the class. Thomas would be a Riley APB who would end up a CB because he wouldn’t fit as a feature back or a slot in Riley’s system. But he does fit in the spread as an APB.

            Since the rest of the Pac is now having their way with GA and his poor evaluations, We’ll just take all the kids who are visiting this month and call it even.

          • I guess I let this go off topic a little bit. Point is that these recruits are not objectively better than the ones Riley brought in. Objectively they may be larger, but not better.

            Just trying to keep the healthy dose of skepticism that’s been lost a little bit in the rush to pat ourselves and AB on the back in the wake of this coaching change.

          • That’s kinda the point. If they have the same speed and agility as the smaller versions, why wouldn’t you want the bigger version?

            Their starting point is that much further along.

          • Of course, there’s no accounting for personalities, work ethics, etc. when we talk about these kids. That’s for the coaches to decide. But it sure feels like we now have a coach who cuts the chaff within minutes.

          • Why aren’t they better? Give me reasons.

            I ask because I watch the film and see better players. I also see most of these guys are 3-stars on other sites.

          • They aren’t OBJECTIVELY better. As a Beaver fan who is high on Anderson, I doubt I qualify for objective evaluation. However, offer sheets and stars (however flawed those criteria) are the only OBJECTIVE (read: unbiased) measures at hand and by those measures, these recruits are not better than Riley’s.

            I’m not being drawn away from core thrust of my argument. If angry and Jack think they’re superior recruits, that’s potentially great news and I hope they are right.

          • Jeremy Crabtree, senior recruiting writer for ESPN.com, quoted one Pac-12 assistant as saying: “Our recruiting jobs just got a lot easier. He was the best talent evaluator in the conference by far.”
            *************************************
            HUH? What am I missing? How did Riles make their job more difficult if he was finding unpolished rocks under rocks that other Pac teams weren’t finding? And we know head to head Riles wasn’t winning any recruiting battles..remember no one wants to come to Corvallis.

            That whole quote sounds like hogwash.

    • we could change the name to contentbeavs? since we’ve been fucked enough in the past. Or gapingbeavs. Cause we’ve been fucked enough in the past

    • I don’t understand, are you upset because people are excited about a new coach? Are you saying you want us to find undue criticism? Funny because that’s what people accused the site of in the past: finding things to whine about. Obviously that wasn’t true.

      If you want to know what concerns me about GA:

      A lot of jobs. Seems to be grooming Sitake to be a head coach at OSU’s expense (his D’s don’t have great numbers from what I saw), obviously a cut throat guy who will steal recruits from friends so is his word worth anything? That could get old or used against him on the recruiting trail. Now that his gang is all reunited, another school could offer more and poach the group. He seems like a guy who enjoys the process of building more than reaping the rewards of what he built. But none of these worry me enough to post about them yet. And I think we need to see what he does on the field before we can even comment.

      • The one thing that concerns me about GA is how he handled the QB situation at Wisky last year.
        He basically handed the job to the guy that could run better, while discounting all the other variables that go into playing the position. They lost their opener against LSU because their QB couldn’t stand on a beach and hit the ocean.

  6. Are we honestly supposed to get excited about the 88th ranked recruiting class? But but…GA’s 2-stars are better than MR’s 2-stars. Is this a joke? Are we really comparing 2-star recruits?

    Boy these guys sure know how to close…What a joke.

    • GA has had basically two weeks to get this class together. Pretty damn good if you ask me. I’d imagine we’ll see OSU closer to the Top 25 next year.

      I saw over on O-Live that UO currently has the 18th best recruiting class. Seems surprising to me they are not in the Top 10 based on their recent success.

    • Most NFL players are 3-star recruits.

      And even first rounders: http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/blog/dr_saturday/post/star-power-how-recruiting-rankings-hold-up-at-the-top-of-the-nfl-draft?urn=ncaaf,wp1103

      JJ Watt was a 2-star. Check yourself and learn how to analyzing film.

      Edit: here is another list (more 2-stars than 5-stars went in the first round): http://blogs.mercurynews.com/collegesports/2014/05/09/nfl-draft-the-first-round-meets-the-recruiting-star-system-with-interesting-results/

      I’m not saying I want 2 stars over 5 stars. But watching Andersen’s recruits on film they aren’t 2-stars. I want dynamic players. Period.

      • This is because there are only 35ish 5-star recruits per recruiting class compared with 600 to 900 3-star recruits. The very article shows that in 2007 5 of the 32 5-star recruits were first round picks compared with only 7 of the 905 3-stars. The sheer number of lower star commits makes the total numbers somewhat even, but the hit percentages are vastly different.

        The star system isn’t perfect but it’s not that bad. It doesn’t guarantee success, but higher star does mean more likely to succeed.

        According to that article:

        Five-star players who go in the first round: 27/208 = 12.98%
        Four-star players who go in the first round: 68/1807 = 3.76%
        Three-star players who go in the first round: 39/4875 = 0.8%
        Two-star players who go in the first round: 25/8987 = 0.28%

        • This is because there are only 35ish 5-star recruits per recruiting class compared with 600 to 900 3-star recruits.

          And that’s part of the problem. Why make an arbitrary figure like 35? Clearly many of the 2 and 3 stars were 5-stars, in retrospect?

          • I’m not saying HS scouting can’t be improved. Maybe someday all HS games will be recorded and there will be a video analysis algorithm we can run to try to estimate a players real skill. That’s just not possible right now.

            Even the NFL, with their near unlimited resources and lack of star system, makes mistakes in scouting. Tom Brady was a 6th rounder, Kurt Warner was an undrafted Arena League QB. Both would be #1 overall picks if you could do it again. Ryan Leaf and JaMarcus Russell would go undrafted.

            Higher round picks are still more likely to succeed than lower round players though. Just because the system isn’t perfect doesn’t mean it is completely worthless.

          • JaMarcus should have gone undrafted anyway. That had to be the most confusing hype and pick in NFL history. Who in their right minds ever thought Russell could play as an NFL QB?

          • Russell was known to have the work ethic of a sloth, and Leaf was a headcase. Those teams fell for the allure/potential of what could be rather than what acutely was. Brady was not a hard projection — teams just discounted his desire and competitiveness and body type. Warner was an almost impossible projection. Then there are guys like Terrell Davis who are not actually that good, but landed at the right place (i.e. perfect runner for the zone blocking system and a HOF QB).

            I’d say the misses result mostly from:

            1. If a guy passes the eye test, a scout tends to get enamored.
            2. Can’t measure intangibles unless you interview a guy, and scouting services don’t do that.

            I remember after I interviewed B. Cooks for AB, I said right away he was going to the NFL. This was his freshman year. You can find it in the interview section. Why? Because he was a man on a mission. I would draft a guy like that in the first round. I would also rank someone like that a 4-star despite measurables. I think the best scouts look at things that way, and the scouts who recommend Leaf, Russell, etc fall for the seduction of the visuals (big arm, height, etc).

            If I had the time and energy I’d put work into interviewing more recruits and basing a system around that. That’s what rivals should do. Sit down with each guy. Their system would become much more accurate.

  7. I think we need a better rating system than the current star system. Maybe we should develop that next. There are a handful of very important variables the rating services either overlook or put too much weight into (e.g. an impressive offer sheet gets a guy bumped up for no reason).

    • star system should be scrapped entirely. Recruit a kid by the merits of his play, how he represents himself, family and school. Not because he has 4 or 5 stars next to his name and has been coddled his entire life because he can run, throw or catch a ball.

      • Isn’t the star system from the media anyways? Someone came up with it so they could write an article to compare players. It’s just grown since then to what it is today.

        I agree with recruiting players on their merits and if they will benefit the team, regardless of the sport.

        • People can bash the star system all they want, but if the Beavs are going to get to the next level, they need more 4* guys, bottom line. I see a correlation between people who discount the rating system are also fans of teams that can’t get the higher ranked kids.

          • Again, it is way more complex.

            I’ve always been a proponent of bringing in high 3-star guys (you can win big with them–see Oregon) and supplement that with a few 4-stars. But what if those 4-stars were incorrectly evaluated? It happen so often. What I want are great athletes, and them come in all stars. JJ Watt was a 2-star! James Rodgers was a 2-star. What is terrible is when a coach recruits a bad 2-star. Riley did this a lot. One day I will go through his past classes and see how many 2-star busts he recruited. I think it’s a ton, from memory. I don’t think Andersen is taking the high risk on those types. Riley did it because he didn’t want to step on toes of committed guys, didn’t want to put in the effort (went for low hanging fruit), believed his staff were better than they were at “coaching up”, etc.

            In an ideal world: OSU gets high 3-stars with a few 4 stars to supplement.

            But am I find with very high ceiling 2-star guys (who are actually ranked 3-stars on every other site but rivals?). Yes. You can win with them and parlay that winning into even better recruits. Anderen’s philosophy of recruiting who he wants is right on…he knows exactly what he’s looking for and nothing else matters. That is a good thing once a guy has a proven track record.

          • It is complex, but the Beavs with 4 or 5 four star guys starting in the 2016 class, combined with these coaches, will look much better than only 1 four star guy per class.

  8. for anyone wishing to meet WSN and his crew of troublemakers (or punch me in the face) we will be in section 13, row 18 tomorrow. Bring it bitches!!!! Lay a beatdown on the Bruins! Go beavs!

  9. Keivonnis Davis has committed to OSU tonight and is visiting Friday! Weren’t we ranked like 120th in the nation like 2 weeks ago?! I’d say moving up 10-30 some spots in a short period is impressive! GA knows how to sell Corvallis and get recruits to buy into the program he’s building.

  10. Looking at TEXAS recruiting classes the past few years proves that 4 STAR recruits don’t win championships. There are many attributes that we could use to build a rating system that would be much better then the current one. Fortitude, coachability, work ethic, coupled with size and speed and overall athletic talent would be my choice over a kid that had a good promo video and caught the attention of a few lazy coaches chasing stars-rated kids that made the local sports section their sophomore year.

    • There are things a service can’t know, too, like whether a guy is done growing. He might go from behind a man amongst boys to a man amongst men. Some guys get by on size alone. Then there are guys who dominate weak opponents. Then there are things like competitiveness…some of these can show on film. Some can’t. So the rating system is inherently flawed. Coming up with something better would be hard work but interesting.

    • There’s a clear quite strong correlation between recruiting and on the field success of a team. It still doesn’t mean that all you have to do is recruit highly ranked players.

      http://regressing.deadspin.com/chart-which-ncaa-football-teams-outplay-their-recruit-1640831522

      Side note: This uses data from 2009-2013. Good to see that Utah State and Wisconsin both vastly out performed their recruiting ranks. That bodes well for OSU with GA, IMO.

    • The Texas situation only proves that you need a strong leader at the top. Mack Brown was the consummate CEO delegator and his program became softer as he got older and less engaged.
      NFL teams started to cast a jaded eye to his players for being lazy and having a “Country Club” mentality of entitlement. Still beat our ass in the bowl game. Thanks again Mike.
      Put the 4 and 5 star players with a driven, strong leader and you have Ohio State this year.
      The other thing the Texas situation shows is that if you make poor decisions when recruiting QBs, it is like having a governor on your engine. The ceiling becomes rock hard. Remember, they passed on Johnny Football and RG III. Whoops.

  11. I won’t link the article (it’s on a certain blacklisted website here) but I know a few people have asked if Victor Robbins was suspended from team activities entirely or is he still allowed to practice? Straight from the coach’s mouth, we have the answer………………………..

    “Tinkle said that if Robbins “does everything he’s supposed to” during his suspension, he expects the junior to play Feb. 19 against Utah. Robbins continues to practice with the team.”

  12. Quick Comments:

    In addition to the differences regarding Riley 2/3* v. Andersen 2/3* is the excitement from the sense that Andersen will use them more strategically – best players will play in their best roles (they may play a different position than they did in HS or have very specific and strategic roles in different offensive packages for example). In other words, their talent will be maximized rather than minimized by a complex “scheme over everything else” approach.

    For the site name, and whether or not there is a need to be “angry,” I think this staff will offer many opportunities for constructive criticism. After seeing Sitake’s past performance, I’m unconvinced that the D will be markedly improved. It may be more entertaining, but it looks boom/bust with high numbers of sacks and TFLs alternating with yielding high point totals in other games.

    For a potential name change, if one is REALLY being considered, I suggest “AscendingBeavers” because as a whole, the AD seems to be on the ascent; women’s and men’s basket all, baseball holding with talented (if inexperienced athletes), and football and the excitement associated with it. Importantly, Tinkle and Andersen, are representing/marketing OSU and Corvallis as a positive, college experience and destination. Beaver athletics are on the ascent and other teams and the lazy media are in a bit of shock yet. Get used to it.

    “Ascending” is an active verb and accurately describes the state of OSU athletics.

    • There will definitely be no name changes.

      I can’t speak for others, but my excitement over the 2-stars is, as I said above, they look more like 3-stars if not better. Jay Irvine was a great example. He was ranked a 2. I said no way that guy is a 2…a few weeks later he got bumped to 3 and other schools wanted in on him. Well, Davis and Matagi are not 2-stars, either. Only Rivals has them ranked that low. Every other site has them at 3. Seth Collins is the only one accurately rated a 2 star. From what I see on film, he cannot be the starter next year. If they want to use him in packages fine, but the guy throws a worse ball than Vince Young.

      • What about VanderVeen? He ran in HS. Might he be a realistic option?

        He’s allegedly learn to throw recently, and was working with a former NFL QB (played at SF, TB, Philadelphia) who said [paraphrasing] “If I had had his physical ability I would have been an early round draft pick.”

        When he arrived, Riley said he couldn’t even throw a spiral.

          • Mitchell probably has the best wheels of the QBs. Baldwin says the O will resemble UCLA’s O the most. That means pistol sets and play actions, which could lead to LDR getting his quick release on the field.

          • Forgot about the defensive players’ comments that Mitchell had surprising speed and mobility. Andersen has said the QB needs to be able to use his legs, arm, and mind; I wonder if Mitchell has the best combination of those three? Spring ball is going to be interesting.

      • I tend to think Collins ends up a receiver, which I’m totally fine with based on his athleticism, assuming he can catch a ball.

  13. To whoever posted the Noah Togiai message on twitter, I noticed that it has been favorited by Noah Togiai himself. Wonder how he even came across it, since his name wasn’t tagged? Must have been searching for news about himself.

  14. LOL

    Nate Latsch ?@NateLatsch 12m12 minutes ago
    Oregon State QB Sean Mannion had a couple INTs in one-on-one pass drills earlier. I have no idea how that happens. #SeniorBowl #STLRams

    • I almost didn’t, but since it wasn’t linked to an O-live story, I gave it a retweet since it has so many players named on it, but now that i can see nemec’s face on the site, I think i’ll have to renege.

      Should be gone now

  15. UBlender44 ?@UBlender44 8m8 minutes ago
    LOL at Oregon State guy suggesting that Utah is making a desperate move in recruiting…OSU’s entire class is built on desperation right now

    • And the player who won’t sign is one we already talked about yesterday. think O-linemen casualty. Sounds like Heau Bott. There’s nothing news worthy at that link

    • Mama was on JoeBeav yesterday, said she has added 4 staffers this time around. Her pitch for getting past the paywall was having 400 folks in the “lodge” including parents of SA’s.
      Claims she talks frequently with recruits and has announced receipt of LOI’s ahead of OSU due to compliance issues.
      Came off pretty lame.

        • I gave the wrong impression there, going from a fading memory. She probably meant she was so tight with the recruits that she knew they’d sent in their letter before OSU could formally announce it.

          Not trying to take her side here, just don’t want to misstate. I’m not gonna spend time checking the podcast (if it is even available), she may have actually said “receipt”, I’m just not absolutely certain those words were used.

          Still a pretty lame presentation on her part; Parker and his sidekick tried to build her up but she did nothing to advance her cause.

          • We’re going to find out after signing day that she was paying recruits for the “scoop” on signing day and they’ll all become ineligible. Luck O the Beavs

            She often brags about ‘so and so recruit has “promised me” that he will let me know first thing’ Curious why they promise her anything at all? I guess she scratches their back with a positive story on rivals and they scratch hers with “inside” info.

  16. Had to turn off twitter notifications on my phone from all of this activity. People were starting to wonder why my pocket was always vibrating.

  17. Not sure that I buy that Andersen is getting better 2 star prospects. That’s hard logic to accept on its face.

    Rankings are all over the place this year though. ESPN is now ranking Jalen Moore as the top committed prospect. But his only other offers are from Alcorn State and South Dakota State. Where are the higher ranked recruits? Am I correct in saying that none of the Wisconsin recruits have flipped?

  18. Just curious what film everybody is watching to evaluate recruits because player highlight videos aren’t what coaches look at. I doubt very much that anybody on here has watched whole game tapes on each player we are after. Love the optimism, but frankly I don’t see much from this class that excites me yet. I will wait til I see it on the field. If next years class looks anything like this I will be extremely disappointed.

    • True, the coaches see more tape and we only see the highlight clips.

      That said, we’ve *always* only seen the highlight clips and many here believe that the highlight clips we’ve seen this year show superior players than the highlight clips of players from years past.

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