I'm excited to get to rewatch the spring game because for me, there was a lot to take away. I mainly focused on the offense today, and I will focus on the defense when I get to watch the game again. Here are my takeaways.
1. Luton started hot and I really liked what I saw from him early on. He stood tall in the pocket, was accurate on the short crossing patterns, and I was really impressed with his arm strength on the deep throws.
The play of the game, in my opinion, was Luton's pass to Isaiah Hodgins on the second series of the game. Luton found Hodgins on a post route for a 40 yard gain, and Hodgins caught it on the much smaller Dwayne Williams. Hodgins is going to be a tough cover for smaller defensive backs in the Pac-12.
2. Luton got the start at quarterback. I'll have to go back and rewatch it to make sure, but the starting group looked like this: WR- Villamin, Bradford, Jarmon ... RB- Nall ... TE- Togiai ... O-line- Moore, Lauina, Houston, Lavaka, Brandel
Here was the second group, again, based on what I could see: QB- McMaryion .... RB- Pierce ... WR- Bodden, Hawkins, Hodgins (saw a bit of Villy too) ... TE- Tuly-Matagi.
3. Jarmon had a big day. He caught the touchdown on the trick play (Backwards pass from Luton to Nall, then Nall threw it to a wide open Jarmon down the field). I loved what I saw from Jarmon on crossing routes as well. Luton hit him on a shallow crossing route (something I don't think I ever saw last season), and Jarmon picked up 15 yards. He would've scored but he just stepped out of bounds. But the best play of the day by Jarmon was his touchdown catch thrown by McMaryion. Jarmon made a great grab and made a couple of nifty moves to evade Shawn Wilson.
4. McMaryion was the most consistent quarterback. Speaking of McMaryion, his touchdown pass to Jarmon was indeed a beautiful pass. Luton has been receiving most of the attention this spring (by the media), but McM played well.
I think from start to finish, McMaryion played the best. Darell Garretson actually had a nice afternoon as well. He wasn't flashy but had a methodical drive with the 2's, which was capped off by DG finding Connor Laverty for a touchdown on a crossing route. Also on that drive, OSU ran a reverse to Xavier Hawkins, which DG was blocking downfield on. It's clear that all three quarterbacks are fighting their hearts out for the starting job.
5. Not one QB separated themselves from the pack. I thought Luton had the "highest highs" and the "lowest lows" meaning that when Luton was throwing the ball well, he was on fire, but when he struggled, it was bad. He threw two interceptions - one to Wesley Payne on a ball he threw very late over the middle, and the other was a pass that he under threw a bit on a deep pass.
I've said from the beginning that I think Luton is a boom or bust guy. He was both on Saturday, and it'll be interesting to see how he performs moving forward. I don't think Gary Andersen will be making a call on the quarterbacks yet. The battle between McM and Luton, IMO, is too close to call right now.
I still like Luton to win the job, as I said back when he committed to Oregon State last fall.
6. The defense was aggressive. As the game progressed, the defense, particularly the defensive line, got much more pressure on the OSU quarterbacks. Kalani Vakameilalo, Titus Failauga, and Baker Prichard all had sacks, and they were getting a lot of pressure.
Xavier Crawford was lockdown. I don't remember a pass being completed on him, but I do remember him having two pass break ups. Manase Hungalu flew around the field, and I expect him to have a big, big senior season. This defense is damn good.
7. I liked what I saw from the wide receivers. Villamin has been injured some this spring, so he did not play the whole game, but he was very good early on. Luton found him for a touchdown in the red zone. It's great to see Villamin playing well.
Hodgins had great chemistry with Luton. He seemed to be Luton's favorite receiver. Jarmon was great, as I mentioned. Some of the walk on guys played well. Bradford was quiet but still had a nice afternoon.
8. Nall and Pierce looked great. Is it just me or does Pierce look like a more complete back? The OSU QB's threw a lot to Pierce, and he was successful catching the ball out of the backfield.
Nalll was fantastic. He had a 37 yard touchdown run and the defense didn't even touch him. Which brings up the point of this: the defense looked vanilla with Nall. I think they knew if they hit Nall hard, they'd be in trouble. So while Nall was awesome, I think some of it was the defense letting up just a bit with Nall. I could be wrong.
9. Quick hits
- Mason Moran just got one series, which was a three and out. If my memory serves me correctly, two of the plays were sacks, and the other was a ball he threw too far to the outside - resulting in an incompletion.
- Timmy Hernandez did not play (precautionary reasons). If it was an actual game, he would've played.
- I do not think Luton played at all in the second half. He got the majority of the first half reps though.
10. The BeaversEdge tailgate didn't work out so well as the wind destroyed the tents set up by @HardRockfan1 and @GoBeavs77. But please thank them with me for all of their hard work in trying to put together a great morning for the B-Edgers. They ended up meeting at Sky High, and they had a good time, but it wasn't the morning we all hoped for. My plan is to make it out for the PSU game, and we will have one hell of a time.
HardRockFan1 with the AWESOME BeaversEdge banner he got made!
STATS FROM TODAY
SCORING PLAYS
Hunter Jarmon 60-yard pass from Ryan Nall
Jordan Villamin 6-yard pass from Jake Luton
Ryan Nall 37-yard run
Hunter Jarmon 68-yard pass from Marcus McMaryion
Tuli Wili-Matagi 2-yard pass from Marcus McMaryion
Connor Laverty 13-yard pass from Darell Garretson
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING (No-Yds-TD)
Ryan Nall 7-72-1; Artavis Pierce 7-28-0; Tanner Walker 1-5-0; Kieran Yancy 10-13-0; Jordan Pace 2-3-0; Jaylynn Bailey 2-12-0; Jake Luton 1-6-0; Marcus McMaryion 3-27-0; Conor Blount 1-1-0; Xavier Hawkins 1-39-0
PASSING (Att-Comp-Int-Yds-TD)
Ryan Nall 1-1-0-60-1; Jake Luton 21-13-2-118-1; Marcus McMaryion 14-9-0-126-2; Darell Garretson 11-8-0-66-1; Conor Blount 1-1-0-8-0; Mason Moran 3-1-0-21-0
RECEIVING (No-Yds-TD)
Artavis Pierce 4-10-0; Ryan Nall 2-6-0; Tuli Wili-Matagi 1-2-1; Quinn Smith 1-21-0; Kieran Yancy 3-21-0; Isaiah Hodgins 4-69-0; Hunter Jarmon 5-155-2; Trevon Bradford 3-26-0; Jordan Villamin 1-6-1; Koby Tripp 1-6-0; Noah Togiai 3-22-0; Xavier Hawkins 2-22-0; Andre Bodden 1-15-0; Conor Laverty 2-18-1
INTERCEPTIONS
Jaydon Grant, Wesley Payne
1. Luton started hot and I really liked what I saw from him early on. He stood tall in the pocket, was accurate on the short crossing patterns, and I was really impressed with his arm strength on the deep throws.
The play of the game, in my opinion, was Luton's pass to Isaiah Hodgins on the second series of the game. Luton found Hodgins on a post route for a 40 yard gain, and Hodgins caught it on the much smaller Dwayne Williams. Hodgins is going to be a tough cover for smaller defensive backs in the Pac-12.
2. Luton got the start at quarterback. I'll have to go back and rewatch it to make sure, but the starting group looked like this: WR- Villamin, Bradford, Jarmon ... RB- Nall ... TE- Togiai ... O-line- Moore, Lauina, Houston, Lavaka, Brandel
Here was the second group, again, based on what I could see: QB- McMaryion .... RB- Pierce ... WR- Bodden, Hawkins, Hodgins (saw a bit of Villy too) ... TE- Tuly-Matagi.
3. Jarmon had a big day. He caught the touchdown on the trick play (Backwards pass from Luton to Nall, then Nall threw it to a wide open Jarmon down the field). I loved what I saw from Jarmon on crossing routes as well. Luton hit him on a shallow crossing route (something I don't think I ever saw last season), and Jarmon picked up 15 yards. He would've scored but he just stepped out of bounds. But the best play of the day by Jarmon was his touchdown catch thrown by McMaryion. Jarmon made a great grab and made a couple of nifty moves to evade Shawn Wilson.
4. McMaryion was the most consistent quarterback. Speaking of McMaryion, his touchdown pass to Jarmon was indeed a beautiful pass. Luton has been receiving most of the attention this spring (by the media), but McM played well.
I think from start to finish, McMaryion played the best. Darell Garretson actually had a nice afternoon as well. He wasn't flashy but had a methodical drive with the 2's, which was capped off by DG finding Connor Laverty for a touchdown on a crossing route. Also on that drive, OSU ran a reverse to Xavier Hawkins, which DG was blocking downfield on. It's clear that all three quarterbacks are fighting their hearts out for the starting job.
5. Not one QB separated themselves from the pack. I thought Luton had the "highest highs" and the "lowest lows" meaning that when Luton was throwing the ball well, he was on fire, but when he struggled, it was bad. He threw two interceptions - one to Wesley Payne on a ball he threw very late over the middle, and the other was a pass that he under threw a bit on a deep pass.
I've said from the beginning that I think Luton is a boom or bust guy. He was both on Saturday, and it'll be interesting to see how he performs moving forward. I don't think Gary Andersen will be making a call on the quarterbacks yet. The battle between McM and Luton, IMO, is too close to call right now.
I still like Luton to win the job, as I said back when he committed to Oregon State last fall.
6. The defense was aggressive. As the game progressed, the defense, particularly the defensive line, got much more pressure on the OSU quarterbacks. Kalani Vakameilalo, Titus Failauga, and Baker Prichard all had sacks, and they were getting a lot of pressure.
Xavier Crawford was lockdown. I don't remember a pass being completed on him, but I do remember him having two pass break ups. Manase Hungalu flew around the field, and I expect him to have a big, big senior season. This defense is damn good.
7. I liked what I saw from the wide receivers. Villamin has been injured some this spring, so he did not play the whole game, but he was very good early on. Luton found him for a touchdown in the red zone. It's great to see Villamin playing well.
Hodgins had great chemistry with Luton. He seemed to be Luton's favorite receiver. Jarmon was great, as I mentioned. Some of the walk on guys played well. Bradford was quiet but still had a nice afternoon.
8. Nall and Pierce looked great. Is it just me or does Pierce look like a more complete back? The OSU QB's threw a lot to Pierce, and he was successful catching the ball out of the backfield.
Nalll was fantastic. He had a 37 yard touchdown run and the defense didn't even touch him. Which brings up the point of this: the defense looked vanilla with Nall. I think they knew if they hit Nall hard, they'd be in trouble. So while Nall was awesome, I think some of it was the defense letting up just a bit with Nall. I could be wrong.
9. Quick hits
- Mason Moran just got one series, which was a three and out. If my memory serves me correctly, two of the plays were sacks, and the other was a ball he threw too far to the outside - resulting in an incompletion.
- Timmy Hernandez did not play (precautionary reasons). If it was an actual game, he would've played.
- I do not think Luton played at all in the second half. He got the majority of the first half reps though.
10. The BeaversEdge tailgate didn't work out so well as the wind destroyed the tents set up by @HardRockfan1 and @GoBeavs77. But please thank them with me for all of their hard work in trying to put together a great morning for the B-Edgers. They ended up meeting at Sky High, and they had a good time, but it wasn't the morning we all hoped for. My plan is to make it out for the PSU game, and we will have one hell of a time.
HardRockFan1 with the AWESOME BeaversEdge banner he got made!
STATS FROM TODAY
SCORING PLAYS
Hunter Jarmon 60-yard pass from Ryan Nall
Jordan Villamin 6-yard pass from Jake Luton
Ryan Nall 37-yard run
Hunter Jarmon 68-yard pass from Marcus McMaryion
Tuli Wili-Matagi 2-yard pass from Marcus McMaryion
Connor Laverty 13-yard pass from Darell Garretson
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING (No-Yds-TD)
Ryan Nall 7-72-1; Artavis Pierce 7-28-0; Tanner Walker 1-5-0; Kieran Yancy 10-13-0; Jordan Pace 2-3-0; Jaylynn Bailey 2-12-0; Jake Luton 1-6-0; Marcus McMaryion 3-27-0; Conor Blount 1-1-0; Xavier Hawkins 1-39-0
PASSING (Att-Comp-Int-Yds-TD)
Ryan Nall 1-1-0-60-1; Jake Luton 21-13-2-118-1; Marcus McMaryion 14-9-0-126-2; Darell Garretson 11-8-0-66-1; Conor Blount 1-1-0-8-0; Mason Moran 3-1-0-21-0
RECEIVING (No-Yds-TD)
Artavis Pierce 4-10-0; Ryan Nall 2-6-0; Tuli Wili-Matagi 1-2-1; Quinn Smith 1-21-0; Kieran Yancy 3-21-0; Isaiah Hodgins 4-69-0; Hunter Jarmon 5-155-2; Trevon Bradford 3-26-0; Jordan Villamin 1-6-1; Koby Tripp 1-6-0; Noah Togiai 3-22-0; Xavier Hawkins 2-22-0; Andre Bodden 1-15-0; Conor Laverty 2-18-1
INTERCEPTIONS
Jaydon Grant, Wesley Payne
