1. As expected, Happy Iona will not be attending OSU due to academics. He was a DT and one of two 4-star recruits.
2. On a more upbeat note, Gio Bernard is considering OSU again. Apparently it’s between ND, UNC, and OSU, but since he’s opened up his recruiting again (after Brian Kelly was hired) you can pretty much write off ND. So, UNC or OSU. Distance vs family ties. I think distance will win this battle and he’ll wind up at UNC, or Miami might get involved again, but the odds of him landing at OSU have definitely been raised. I’d rate it 40% UNC, 35% OSU, 25% Miami (and a darkhorse).
3. Owa has written off USC and has Oregon in his final 4 (Nebraska, OSU, Oregon, UCLA). This is perhaps the most interesting nugget and let me explain why.
a. He’s not going to Nebraska. Someone probably got in his ear about Suh and has him thinking, but I’d put Nebraska’s chances at 1% right now.
b. UCLA seemed the team to beat for the past month, but it looks like it might be Oregon now, and this is why: the fact that he has two schools from Oregon in his final 4 screams one thing–he wants to play close to home. Since academic reputation and school prestige are important to Owa, I now think he has to be considered a Duck lean. The good news is that the final two schools are looking to be Oregon and Oregon State so the odds are probably fairly close, think something like 40% Oregon, 35% OSU, and 25% UCLA. I think the drama in LA may hurt the weasel’s recruiting in general, since he’s known for similar antics and some recruits will have their eyes’ opened.
4. Quayshawn Buckley is no longer a Beaver. That lasted what, 3 days? It’s interesting timing, with a bunch of defensive players visiting this weekend. I think the Beavers know they have a few verbals in the bag. Expect DT Fred Thompson and Safety Ryan Murphy to commit on the trip, and keep on eye on news regarding Christian Thomas and Kirifi Taula–both have serious offers from around the PAC and serious interest in the Beavers. I would not be surprised to see either or both commit.
Audio link concerning Gio this morning with Bob Miller…
http://www.kpam.com/upload/file/35237%20Evenson%20Bernard%20Haiti%20earthquake.mp3
Iona isn’t the biggest surprise, but Buckley? It makes me wonder if he was actually offered, or if he misunderstood the OSU coaches’ priorities as explained to him.
So we’re left looking at Jamora and Thompson and who else? I was always shocked that Taula committed to UA… at least so early. I was sure he was in with us. Then again, I was hoping he was also. Since Mark Stoops left, I’ve thought so again. UA already lost one DT recruit because they over-loaded in this class… according to ‘insiders’. I don’t buy it. According to the blogs down there, they’re bringing in all sorts of DT hopefuls for some reason.
I’ve always thought Thompson and Murphy were in since Riley went down there on a bye week. And I’ve been hopeful for Thomas, but I think Miami will be too big a draw for him.
I’m trying to figure out how you derive ‘school prestige’ and ‘academic reputation’ from UO. It’s a fine school, but their graduate studies are what give them academic standing. And their football team barely graduates half their players. Do you mean the strength of their athletic department’s national reputation?
I should have written perceived academic prestige. This goes back to the US News rankings which list Oregon as a Tier 1 school and OSU as Tier 3. I went over all the flaws in their methodology in a past blog so I won’t rehash…we know Oregon isn’t necessarily better than OSU. But I wonder if Owa knows this or just looks at the rankings.
Well, they do have the third best law school in the state… and, no, OSU is not number one… we don’t have one. And their MBA program is rated in the top 100 in the country, so they have that going or them. As far as undergraduate degrees go, I think Owa is impressed with UO’s third ranked Sports Marketing program.
But that ranking is interesting since the UO was the first to develop the degree, and the only other school I can find that offers it is the University of Phoenix.
Do you think a lot of recruits look at the US News rankings? I bet parents do but I didn’t put a ton of stock in those rankings even when I searched for a school for purely academic reasons. Those sports marketing programs are a joke, they have a class on it at OSU that athletes take. The class is pretty basic stuff, a bunch of the athletes told me that the class is bs.
Yeah, I’m talking about sports marketing as a degree program, not as a requisite filler for the more broad sports management degree. I don’t know how you stretch two classes into a program unless you just put a big swoosh on it.
Compare that to North America’s finest conservation biology (out of 315) and sea grant (out of 30) programs. Also add a national top ten rated health and human sciences and agriculture sciences programs as well as the largest residential entrepreneurship program. Then throw in a top ten library (top 30 worldwide) and you probably end up with a school whose researchers are peer referenced at a rate which places the school in the top ten in the world. Oh look! That’s exactly what happened.
If a Footlocker Managerial Training program is what they want to be known for, so be it. It won’t stop me from reading customer reviews while buying last year’s clearance footwear off Amazon.
Where did you see we have the #1 bio program? That was my major at OSU, and I didn’t even know that.
Here’s the Biology page…
http://biology.science.oregonstate.edu/
You can see that we’re #1 in conservation biology and #11 in ecology and evolutionary biology… and the sea grant program encompasses many departments which are highly rated by their peers and as a whole are rated #1.
I forgot to mention the nuclear engineering and biochemistry departments.
Oh well.
Interesting, conservation biology was my major, and I did not know that.
The library made several best library in the nation awards a few years back. It truly is fantastic.
No recruit looks at the grad school and MBA programs you might as well not look outside the top 50 (or really top 25) for that matter if you’re really looking for “prestige”. I didn’t go to either UO or OSU but as our firm recruits associates we have a list of 10 B schools we go to and I can assure you UO (or OSU) is not on that list of 10.
D, what are you talking about? Just be clear and write it out…trying to decipher your rhetoric and it’s making my head hurt.
What about shaydon akuna? You said a long time ago that he had verbaled to osu but I still see on every recruiting website that hes uncommited…and unless he decommited, taula has been a ua recruit for some time now
Akuna is a silent verbal. FSU has his last visit and they’re trying hard to land him but it’s not going to happen. Until they sign the papers anything can happen, but I’d be shocked if he’s not a Beav.
Another thing about Akuna’s silent verbal…
Does that mean he’s coming with Elisara and Lolohea?
That’s pretty bad if you’re right about Iona and Buckley since both were DTs, which is probaly the 2nd biggest need on the team, and Thomas Molesi is going to be gone after he plays his true freshman year. Now at DT there’s Taula, Thompson, Epenesa, and Foi who have offers. The Portland Tribune says OSU isn’t recruiting Hemiuli anymore. At DE there is Owa, Jamora, and Crichton. I think OSU needs to try to get 2 commits for both poistions especially DE where there is no commit right now.
I forgot about Epenesa. But wasn’t he leaning UCLA?
I heard a long time ago that Foi wasn’t interested in OSU. And I never thought we had any shot at Heimuli. I think Ed Orgeron called him and told him to not enroll anywhere just yet. :)
Also I’ve heard Thomas doesn’t exactly have good grades so I guess there could be some difficulty with him getting here too.
Christian Thomas?
yes Chirstian Thomas
Interesting… good info.
Welch has bad grades as well. We’ve taken a ton of risk in this class…half the guys might not make it.
Also about a week or so ago on the front pf Beaverblitz was an article about Owa and the caption made it sounds like OSU and UCLA were actually the most likely at the time to get Owa.
Yeah, but for the past month and a half, Owa’s slipped Oregon into all of those articles. That he’s considering Oregon makes it clear to me that he wants to stay local (or his family is pressuring him to stay local). Couple that with all the disloyalty in SoCal and USC’s courtship of Riley and the situation becomes interesting…a recruiting Civil War.
I mean, would it shock me if UCLA comes back into this picture? No. This is strictly reading between the lines on my part, but I think it’s pretty good deduction.
Just heard Owa cut OSU from his list according to Rivals.
Heard that as well. I’m thinking Oregon is where he lands.
His quote:
“It’s all but Oregon State,” Odighizuwa said. “[It happened] in the last couple of days. I just didn’t feel like I could see myself there.
Whadda dick, am I right?
It’s his life, but damn DE really could be thin. OSU really needs to get both Jamora and Crichton now. Found an article about a 2011 DE prospoect who has an older brother playing in the NFL. He’s considering OSU and UA right now. Hope Owa ends up at Nebraska.
http://cincinnati.com/blogs/bengals/2010/01/14/two-bengals-on-60-minutes-this-sunday/
Yeah but that quote makes him sound like an ass. I’m rooting against this guy from this point on.
I don’t know about what or who he is, but I was always prepared to be cheering against him on Saturdays. I just hope he chooses UO so we can introduce him to some corn fed Cav hosses.
Haha, corn-fed. Love it.
That’s too bad, but not unexpected. If he has any sense, he goes to NU instead of UO or UCLA. Who here thinks Neuheisel and Kelly are going to be at their respective schools after next year?
Then again, UCLA is a good enough school that he can go with the hope that UCLA cans Neuheisel and hires a good coach.
Going back to Freddy’s link about the 60 Minutes piece…
Aiulua Fanene is 17 years old and has offers from Oregon State and Arizona? What class is he?
Sometimes I guess it takes a budget the magnitude of CBS News to figure out what the OSU coaches are doing.
And will Aiulua have the same language problems Happy Iona had coming to the states? I would guess no due to his brother’s success.
Any news on Iona’s plans? I’m guessing Snow College… then here as a junior.
Maybe he can greyshirt like some other kids have before? Also I’m pretty sure Aiulua is a Jr. I just hope that OSU can get both Jamora and Crhicton now because DE will be thin in 2011 and DT as well if both Iona and Buckley don’t qualify. Molesi won’t be here either in 2011 because he’ll be on his LDS mission.
I’m not going to say that we’re deep at DE, but I think we do better next year than we did this year. Remember that LaGrone and Miller were in their first year as DE’s… one being a basketball player and the other a TE. I realize that they both had experience at the position previously, but they did pretty well considering they were the equvalent of two RS frosh last year. And I think we have a lot of yet to be seen talent in Rosa and Henry.
I’m more concerned about the future. LaGrone and Miller should be a lot better next year, but they’re both Sr. Once they’re gone there is Henry, Rosa, and Frahm. Henry hasn’t played much, but as looked good at times. Frahm doesn’t seem to have the speed of a DE and I actually wouldn’t mind if he switched to DT. Other than those 3 guys there is no one on scholarship that is currently a DE.
Henry is a hidden gem. Great speed on the edge. Now it’s a matter of finding another one and adding depth. I think we do that this weekend. Chricton is high on the Beavers and may commit.
For Chrichton it’s between OSU and WSU. I like our chances he might not play as a tru freshmen, but he’ll get a chance as a redshirt freshmen. Same with Jamora.
Eh, I’m not too high on either of those guys upside, so while I agree they both may commit, I’m not going to care either way.
And all the reports I’ve heard about Obum Gwatcham say that he’s going to be a freak at DE.
Taula was the kid I had on top of my wish list. I think he meets Paea and immediately wants to be a Beav. Ok… I hope he does. I think he’s outstanding.
And I’m told by a friend from my days in Oakland (a coach) that Thompson and a kid named Sione Tupouata are two East Bay DT’s that can easily play Pac 10 football… for anyone. Apparently the Tupouata kid will not come close to academic clearance though. He may never see the field as a college player.
Nobody is sure where he’ll play. The comments that he’ll be a freak at DE are speculation based on his size. I don’t think this player even had game film so nobody has seen him play.
Gwacham only weighs 205 lbs. He’ll probably play as a slotback WR and he’s said in an article that WR is where the coaches are going to try him out.
It’s hard to see, but… #81…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uM0GaNtUx4
It’s mostly showing that he likes to block, but there are a couple catches mixed in. The speedster (#22) was picked up by DeWayne Walker and was only a two-star. Ratings services must hate the Inland Empire.
I heard that he went through a major growth spurt in high school and hasn’t filled out yet. I thought I read somewhere that his HS coach wanted to compare him to DeMarcus Ware, and that he had that same discussion with Coach Seumalo while he was being recruited.
I would like to see us getting a little faster and athletic in the secondary, particularly at corner. Also, at d end you think this is something we have in our young players or we’re still trying to find?
As expected, Murphy and Thompsom committed on the trip. How can you not love Thompson? He seems highly intelligent, speaks highly of Corvallis, and wears a sweater-vest in his Rivals photo. My new favorite Beav by far.
No word on how Christian Thomas and Kirifi Taula enjoyed their trip. Those are the other two I thought might commit by mid-week. We shall see.
Keep that breaking news via Blitz comin’, Angry!
Is this the same Blitz who has yet to tell us that Quayshawne Buckley is no longer a Beav? At least Scout has an article today about Buckley re-committing to Wazzu. Neither of them peeped about Buckley’s OSU offer being pulled (or why… something to do with a facebook posting about marijuana), and neither bothered to say with any confidence that which should have been pretty much obvious… Thompson and Murphy would commit while they were here.
This is the same Blitz that still lists some 8 or 9 more offers than are on the table for OSU even though Mike Riley stated quite clearly a couple weeks ago that there were only 10 out there. Now that’s breaking news.
It almost makes me want to pay them so that I can learn the incorrect information first, then hear about the news I can read anywhere else, then go shill for them on other sites because I was stupid enough to think that my hard earned money was worth all of it.
The same Blitz that’s telling people Owa is still in the mix just to sell subscriptions? Funny how Angie has changed her tune since being bought by yahoo and working for the man.
My sources are from SB connections up there and reading between the lines with reports. Cliff is the best imo.
Well, I certainly appreciate any and all insights you guys have so keep them coming. Since I just use the free stuff on Scout and what I glean from articles it’s good to hear some real information from time to time.
I doubt Thomas will decide until after his trips. But who knows?
Let’s keep our fingers crossed for Taula.
Seeing Mike Riley at halftime of the ASU game I thought he looked tired. I think he needs to take a vacation before signing day… somewhere like… say…
Ft Lauderdale?
probably because he is too nice to ignore all the people wanting to shake his hand. Isn’t funny too how his seats aren’t even that good? I wonder if they are free or if he is so old-school he pays for them anyway. Either way, what a great guy.
I agree with the great guy part… great coach too. And his seats are about where I like to sit… 10 to 15 rows above the court.
I almost went to the game on Saturday, but I couldn’t convince my four-year old that he really wanted to go there instead of the library. I’m looking forward to spending the day up there for the civil war. I haven’t walked around campus since the UCLA game two years ago.
The Ft Lauderdale inference was to a certain younger brother of a certain former OSU RB. I don’t know, but I would hazard a guess that Riley is going to go to Southern Florida in the next couple weeks.
“OSU coaches are hitting the recruiting trail hard as the Feb. 3 signing date nears. Among those still on the radar is nationally touted tailback Gio Bernard, who has his list down to Oregon State, Notre Dame and North Carolina. Bernard has already made an official visit to Corvallis; Riley and Langsdorf have the final in-home visit with Yvenson Bernard’s younger brother on Jan. 25 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.”
http://portlandtribune.com/sports/story_2nd.php?story_id=126352492136328500
Well, I can’t say I don’t know anymore. I never did read the second page of that article. Since nobody else mentioned it, I’m guessing a lot of other people did the same.
Thanks.