Hey Edgers!

@ryan_harlan7 and I take a crack at projecting the defense!


Offense will be coming up tomorrow!

Hey Edgers!

Air Force is next up on the opponent previews!

Hey Hey Edgers!

Hope you're all having a great week so far!

Today was the 18th and final "open" practice of fall camp as the Beavers will wind things down this week before transitioning to a full regular game week starting Sunday/Monday...

Today's session was quite a bit slower in terms of pace and action, but @ryan_harlan7 has you covered with today's nuggets/ a fall camp recap👍

Here are today's interviews with DB coach Rod Chance and DBs Noble Thomas and Kobe Singleton

Nuggets/takeaways via @ryan_harlan7

Today was the last day of practice as the team began to ramp down practice intensity to close out the first fall camp under the Trent Bray era. Today’s primary focus was on special teams' work and situational periods.

Offense

From practice, getting a general read of their performance as a collective unit was hard as they ran more situational periods, like running out the clock with a lead and from behind. However, when they were in the team period portion of practice, I thought that the offense could move the ball efficiently in the limited plays they ran today.

The tight ends continued to be more involved in the passing game, and the run game looked solid, especially with the two freshman running backs being more involved today than in previous practices. However, the wide receivers had a quiet day today; Ben Gulbranson and Gabarri Johnson looked their way on a few deep passes but couldn’t connect.

Jake Reichle took most of the reps with the first-team offense, which gave Jam Griffin a lighter workload today.

Anthony Hankerson and Van Wells also had another day off today from practice, along with Joshua Gray.

Malachi Durant had a nice snag in tight coverage on a ball from Johnson in a team period portion of practice.

With 11 guys on the field, it’s hard to pick one standout player, but if I had to pick I’d look over to the wide receiver room to Trent Walker.

While the focus might be on Darrius Clemons and what he can bring to the receiver room, I wouldn’t necessarily overlook what Walker can do on the field this season.

Walker is a more polished route runner than Clemons, and throughout fall camp, I have always found him making plays around the ball. I’ve seen passes thrown his way where it looks like the ball may be incomplete or a potential turnover, and Walker just seems to find a way to make that into a positive play to move the chains.

His play-making potential will be important for this offense to open up the passing game and set up those deep plays down the field because I don’t think opposing defenses will be able to keep him in man coverage. If they do, he’ll be a difficult receiver to guard for an opposing DB, just like Clemons, but based on his skill set rather than height and athleticism.

Defense

As I mentioned with the offense, the defensive performance was difficult to gauge because they ran primarily situational work and special teams throughout today's practice.

However, when the defense got to the team period portion of practice, they pretty much delivered the same performance they had throughout fall camp. This defense will be the team's strength, along with the running game, but there are also a lot of new faces and inexperience in this unit, which will be improved upon as the season progresses.

I like the depth of the secondary and the linebacker room with both the outside and inside backers. However, the only area I do have concerns about is the defensive line depth, and that’s when we get to the end of the season, where everyone is dealing with some sort of injury.

The defensive line room has been dealing with some guys out, like Nick Norris and Takari Hickle, but as coach Tuiaki mentioned, they’ll be rotating guys around to keep them fresh throughout the season. The health of that group will be paramount to the defense's success in putting pressure on opposing quarterbacks this season, and so far in camp, they’ve shown it. They have to do it in a natural game environment rather than practice.

Despite the limited team periods today, the defense could make some plays in practice.

Tyrice Ivy had a pick against Gabarri Johnson with the second-team defense. On the play that Ivy got the INT on, Johnson essentially threw an arm punt and put the ball up for grabs, and Ivy came down with it.

Jacob Schuster and Tevita Pome’e had sacks during the team period portion of practice.

Standout player:

Speaking of Schuster, he was my standout player from today as everytime I would look over down on the field or my notes; I would look up and see 62 screaming into the backfield on what almost seemed like every play.

Schuster has likely played himself into a starting spot along that defensive line despite missing the first half of fall camp. However, I like the speed and quickness he brings along that front seven and has almost similar skillset to Thomas Collins but Schuster brings a bit more finesse in pass rush moves compared to Collins, who is more of a power rusher.

I would expect Schuster to be a big part of the success of the defensive line this season along with Collins and if they rotate guys then that opens up the door for them to be big contributors late in the season including the final game of the season at Boise State.

Special Teams

No focus on Field Goals today, mainly working on punts in the special teams portion of practice.

Josh Green, Max Walker, AJ Winsor all took reps today.

Green was hitting his punts on average around 50 yards or more today in practice, he did have one that he hit that took a nice bounce that went for about 80 yards.

Final thoughts

The starting quarterback is still yet to be determined, but a decision will be made towards the end of this week, and if it is later, it will at least be before the opener against Idaho State. The defense shouldn’t falter off too much from last year, the offense is still an unknown to a degree but I have seen improvement here in the latter part of fall camp.

However, that is to be expected considering the change in scheme and a lot of faces along the offensive line. I don’t expect the offense to struggle too much out of the gate, there will be some hiccups but it sounds like the offense is building upon the previous concepts that were taught previously particularly in the run game and if those all click together then this team should be in a good spot in Bray’s first year.

Rotations (as of final practice, subject to change)

First Team Offense
QB - Ben Gulbranson/Gevani McCoy
RB - Jake Reichle/Jam Griffin/Salahadin Allah
WR - Trent Walker
WR - Taz Reddicks
WR - Jeremiah Noga
TE - Jermaine Terry/Bryce Caufield/Andy Alfieri
LT - Gerad Christian-Lichtenhan
LG - Grant Starck
C - Luka Vincic
RG - Tyler Voltin
RT - Jacob Strand

First Team Defense
DL - Semisi Saluni
DL - Thomas Collins/JoJo Johnson
DL - Jacob Schuster
OLB - Olu Omotosho
ILB - Isaiah Chisom
ILB - Gyriece Goodman/Melvin Jordan
OLB - Nikko Taylor
DB - Jaden Robinson
DB - Skyler Thomas
DB - Jack Kane
DB - Noble Thomas
DB (five DB look) - Andre Jordan

Second-Team Offense
QB - Gabarri Johnson
RB - Cornell Hatcher/Dyontae Navarette
WR - Jamai East
WR - Jordan Anderson
WR - David Wells
TE - Cooper Jensen/ Gabe Milbourn/TJ Zimmerman
LT - Jacob Anderson
LG - Dylan Sikorski
C - Zander Etsy
RG - Flavio Gonzalez
RT - Nathan Elu

Second-Team Defense
DL - Tevita Pome’e
DL - Tygee Hill
OLB - DJ Wesolak/Will Haverland
ILB - Dexter Foster
ILB - Aiden Sullivan
OLB - Josh Griffis/Shamar Meikle
OLB - Zakiah Saez
DB - Josiah Johnson/Exodus Ayers
DB - Amarion York
DB - Tyrice Ivy
DB - Mason White
DB - Koble Singleton

Hey Edgers!

Up next is San Jose State at Reser!

With predictions from OSU media members