Great stuff from Brenden Slaughter today. Read below!
-Today was a practice like no other inside the Merritt Truax Center as the Beavers rested nearly all of their upperclassmen and first teamers. Players like Darell Garretson, Manase Hungalu, Thomas Tyner, Artavis Pierce, Brandon Arnold, David Morris, Isaiah Dunn, and more were simply in sweats. With the top-tier Beavs taking a seat on the pine for practice, that opened up playing time for many young Beavers that hadn’t gotten more than just a few reps in practice all season.
-The play of the day came from redshirt-freshman safety Jordan Gregory. Gregory, who hasn’t been mentioned hardly at all amongst media pundits, made an Al Afalava like hit on receiver Tino Allen during practice today. Allen was coming on a crossing route over the middle and Gregory laid the lumber and caused the entire OSU defensive sideline, including Hall to go absolutely bananas. Given his lack of reps so far, you have to like the effort Gregory gave out there.
-Mason Moran was the only quarterback to take reps during the portion of practice open to the media today. If it wasn’t set in stone that Moran is the de-facto backup earlier in the week, it certainly is now. Moran had his good and bad moments today as he was able to pull the ball on the zone-read for an easy five yard touchdown, but also struggled to stay in the pocket and deliver a strike. Like Garretson, Moran’s strength throwing is rolling out to his right. He has perhaps the best wheels on the team at the QB position and can throw rolling right very accurately.
-As mentioned above, none of OSU’s usual running backs were taking any sort of reps today. Calvin Tyler and BJ Baylor took advantage of those guys’ absence by combining to take all the reps during the media session. It’s really a shame that Tyler’s redshirt was burned so early in the season because I think he has really great potential as a dual-threat running back. He really hasn’t figured into the rotation this season and his potential is really only seen in practice. As for Baylor, he is still pretty raw out there. He’s got good potential as a between the tackles runner and as a receiver, but still needs to get more familiar with situations and the playbook. The Beavers future at the RB position is bright with these two if they continue to develop.
-Christian Wallace had himself a day today. Many people have been asking where Wallace has been for the longest time, and honestly he just hasn’t been practicing enough for us to get a really good look at him. Today Wallace brought the lumber on a big hit on BJ Baylor. Wallace was at his cornerback spot and was able to fight off his block to knock Baylor backwards on a RPO play.
-Arex Flemings was getting a healthy dose of reps at the slot receiver position. His best play of the day came on a fly sweep near the goal line where he was able to juke his way past several defenders and make a diving leap into the endzone. However, according to the 100+ unofficial referees inside Truax, he wasn’t quite able to get the ball in the endzone. In terms of pure straight line speed, Flemings might be the fastest Beaver on the team (Dwayne Williams might have a case) and it will be exciting to see how the Beavers use him next season and beyond.
-OSU’s offensive line was interesting to look at today as Justin Sattelmaier, Andrew Iademarco, Brock Wellsfry, Nous Keobounnam, Miki Fifita, and Travis Mackay all rotated positions on the offensive line. Wellsfry and Mackay really stood out to me as they were able to get off their blocks very well. They rotated positions nearly every play so it was hard to get a bead on exactly where each of them were lining up.
-Today was a practice like no other inside the Merritt Truax Center as the Beavers rested nearly all of their upperclassmen and first teamers. Players like Darell Garretson, Manase Hungalu, Thomas Tyner, Artavis Pierce, Brandon Arnold, David Morris, Isaiah Dunn, and more were simply in sweats. With the top-tier Beavs taking a seat on the pine for practice, that opened up playing time for many young Beavers that hadn’t gotten more than just a few reps in practice all season.
-The play of the day came from redshirt-freshman safety Jordan Gregory. Gregory, who hasn’t been mentioned hardly at all amongst media pundits, made an Al Afalava like hit on receiver Tino Allen during practice today. Allen was coming on a crossing route over the middle and Gregory laid the lumber and caused the entire OSU defensive sideline, including Hall to go absolutely bananas. Given his lack of reps so far, you have to like the effort Gregory gave out there.
-Mason Moran was the only quarterback to take reps during the portion of practice open to the media today. If it wasn’t set in stone that Moran is the de-facto backup earlier in the week, it certainly is now. Moran had his good and bad moments today as he was able to pull the ball on the zone-read for an easy five yard touchdown, but also struggled to stay in the pocket and deliver a strike. Like Garretson, Moran’s strength throwing is rolling out to his right. He has perhaps the best wheels on the team at the QB position and can throw rolling right very accurately.
-As mentioned above, none of OSU’s usual running backs were taking any sort of reps today. Calvin Tyler and BJ Baylor took advantage of those guys’ absence by combining to take all the reps during the media session. It’s really a shame that Tyler’s redshirt was burned so early in the season because I think he has really great potential as a dual-threat running back. He really hasn’t figured into the rotation this season and his potential is really only seen in practice. As for Baylor, he is still pretty raw out there. He’s got good potential as a between the tackles runner and as a receiver, but still needs to get more familiar with situations and the playbook. The Beavers future at the RB position is bright with these two if they continue to develop.
-Christian Wallace had himself a day today. Many people have been asking where Wallace has been for the longest time, and honestly he just hasn’t been practicing enough for us to get a really good look at him. Today Wallace brought the lumber on a big hit on BJ Baylor. Wallace was at his cornerback spot and was able to fight off his block to knock Baylor backwards on a RPO play.
-Arex Flemings was getting a healthy dose of reps at the slot receiver position. His best play of the day came on a fly sweep near the goal line where he was able to juke his way past several defenders and make a diving leap into the endzone. However, according to the 100+ unofficial referees inside Truax, he wasn’t quite able to get the ball in the endzone. In terms of pure straight line speed, Flemings might be the fastest Beaver on the team (Dwayne Williams might have a case) and it will be exciting to see how the Beavers use him next season and beyond.
-OSU’s offensive line was interesting to look at today as Justin Sattelmaier, Andrew Iademarco, Brock Wellsfry, Nous Keobounnam, Miki Fifita, and Travis Mackay all rotated positions on the offensive line. Wellsfry and Mackay really stood out to me as they were able to get off their blocks very well. They rotated positions nearly every play so it was hard to get a bead on exactly where each of them were lining up.
