The Oregon State Beavers returned to the practice field in Corvallis on Sunday night after spending a week in Bend. OSU will now spend the next few weeks practicing in the shadow of their stadium before heading to Fort Collins to take on Colorado State.
Here are the newsworthy practice nuggets from OSU’s first day back in Corvallis.
Practice ended about half an hour early today and therefore our practice nuggets are somewhat limited today.
- The Jake Luton to Noah Togiai connection was evident early and often today. The first thing I saw in practice today was Luton firing a pass to Togiai over the middle of the field. They teamed up for 2-3 more completions in the portion of practice that I saw. It’s becoming more and more clear just how important the tight end position is to OSU’s offensive scheme. Not to mention that Togiai is a strong, tall, and athletic target for the 6’6 Luton to throw to.
- When Luton wasn’t targeting Togiai, which was rare, he was throwing to Jordan Villamin. Villamin continues to have an impressive fall camp session as he was the recipient of several really nice touch passes from Luton. It’s evident to me that Villamin has heard Andersen loud and clear when he said the Beavers need a big senior season out of him to be successful.
- One of the more interesting schemes that I saw today was the QB rollout. I only saw it about two times today, but when Luton is rolling to the right and can throw on the run, he is surprisingly very accurate. It usually takes QB’s many practice hours to perfect the QB rollout and it appears that Luton is well on his way to perfecting the craft.
- If there was one negative from Luton today it’s that he is still struggling with consistency in the intermediate 15-20 yard range. There were instances where he had an open receiver in Villamin, Trevon Bradford, or Togiai and he just flat overthrew them. With Marcus McMaryion no longer with the team, Luton is the de-facto guy and the Beavers have put all their eggs in his basket. In order for the Beavers to be successful this season, he needs shore up his command.
- Moving over to the defensive side of the ball, Christian Wallace made several really nice plays from the corner position. It’s worth noting that he was in a red no-contact jersey today, but that didn’t stop him from blasting Xavier Hawkins to the ground on a run-pass-option play. The big time hit drew ooh’s and aah’s from the defensive personnel.
- The defensive line struggled today with getting to the quarterback and finishing the play. You can tell that progress is being made, as several times they were able to break through the offensive line and pressure the QB, but both Darell Garretson and Luton were able to sidestep or scramble away to throw the ball to either a receiver or out of bounds. The next big step for the D-line is going to be finishing the play.
- Speaking of Garretson, who is now the clear cut No. 2 guy, he looked really good with the second unit. Today was one of the first days that I saw “vintage” Garretson in fall camp. The way that he was calling out the cadence today and running the offense was quite impressive. There was one instance on a fourth down play where he completed a nice pass over the middle to Timmy Hernandez who caught and ran the ball over the line to gain for a really nice first down. Now that McMaryion is gone, I think we will see Garretson settle down and be a really consistent quarterback like we saw against Minnesota last year.
- General thoughts on the offense: I really think that the offense has the basics down for the most part. Luton said afterwards that at this point the offense is just working on speed and timing. With those two things in mind, I think the Beavers are already in a great position to be 3 or 4 times better offensively this season than last.
OSU’s receivers and running backs are extremely talented and deep, and if Luton can be an efficient QB and not turn the ball over, OSU could be in really nice shape heading into the season. However, the Beavers need to shore up the issue of inconsistent QB play to be better in 2017. He can’t have his overthrows and under throws consistently once gameday comes otherwise he will be turning the ball over a ton. If he can improve on that one aspect, the Beavers could be quite the balanced and complete offense this season.
- General thoughts on the defense: Because it was offensive availability, I didn’t focus too much on the defense today, but they were a model of consistency today. The defensive line is getting better and better each day, and appear to be embracing the challenge that coach Andersen gave to them several weeks ago. Both Baker Pritchard and Titus Failauga are becoming more and more well rounded as defensive ends each and every day. If OSU can get solid play from the big boys up front, they could have one of the more complete defenses in the Pac-12.
Slaughter recaps practice
Jake Luton interview
Thomas Tyner interview
Kevin McGiven interview
Sumner Houston interview
Here are the newsworthy practice nuggets from OSU’s first day back in Corvallis.
Practice ended about half an hour early today and therefore our practice nuggets are somewhat limited today.
- The Jake Luton to Noah Togiai connection was evident early and often today. The first thing I saw in practice today was Luton firing a pass to Togiai over the middle of the field. They teamed up for 2-3 more completions in the portion of practice that I saw. It’s becoming more and more clear just how important the tight end position is to OSU’s offensive scheme. Not to mention that Togiai is a strong, tall, and athletic target for the 6’6 Luton to throw to.
- When Luton wasn’t targeting Togiai, which was rare, he was throwing to Jordan Villamin. Villamin continues to have an impressive fall camp session as he was the recipient of several really nice touch passes from Luton. It’s evident to me that Villamin has heard Andersen loud and clear when he said the Beavers need a big senior season out of him to be successful.
- One of the more interesting schemes that I saw today was the QB rollout. I only saw it about two times today, but when Luton is rolling to the right and can throw on the run, he is surprisingly very accurate. It usually takes QB’s many practice hours to perfect the QB rollout and it appears that Luton is well on his way to perfecting the craft.
- If there was one negative from Luton today it’s that he is still struggling with consistency in the intermediate 15-20 yard range. There were instances where he had an open receiver in Villamin, Trevon Bradford, or Togiai and he just flat overthrew them. With Marcus McMaryion no longer with the team, Luton is the de-facto guy and the Beavers have put all their eggs in his basket. In order for the Beavers to be successful this season, he needs shore up his command.
- Moving over to the defensive side of the ball, Christian Wallace made several really nice plays from the corner position. It’s worth noting that he was in a red no-contact jersey today, but that didn’t stop him from blasting Xavier Hawkins to the ground on a run-pass-option play. The big time hit drew ooh’s and aah’s from the defensive personnel.
- The defensive line struggled today with getting to the quarterback and finishing the play. You can tell that progress is being made, as several times they were able to break through the offensive line and pressure the QB, but both Darell Garretson and Luton were able to sidestep or scramble away to throw the ball to either a receiver or out of bounds. The next big step for the D-line is going to be finishing the play.
- Speaking of Garretson, who is now the clear cut No. 2 guy, he looked really good with the second unit. Today was one of the first days that I saw “vintage” Garretson in fall camp. The way that he was calling out the cadence today and running the offense was quite impressive. There was one instance on a fourth down play where he completed a nice pass over the middle to Timmy Hernandez who caught and ran the ball over the line to gain for a really nice first down. Now that McMaryion is gone, I think we will see Garretson settle down and be a really consistent quarterback like we saw against Minnesota last year.
- General thoughts on the offense: I really think that the offense has the basics down for the most part. Luton said afterwards that at this point the offense is just working on speed and timing. With those two things in mind, I think the Beavers are already in a great position to be 3 or 4 times better offensively this season than last.
OSU’s receivers and running backs are extremely talented and deep, and if Luton can be an efficient QB and not turn the ball over, OSU could be in really nice shape heading into the season. However, the Beavers need to shore up the issue of inconsistent QB play to be better in 2017. He can’t have his overthrows and under throws consistently once gameday comes otherwise he will be turning the ball over a ton. If he can improve on that one aspect, the Beavers could be quite the balanced and complete offense this season.
- General thoughts on the defense: Because it was offensive availability, I didn’t focus too much on the defense today, but they were a model of consistency today. The defensive line is getting better and better each day, and appear to be embracing the challenge that coach Andersen gave to them several weeks ago. Both Baker Pritchard and Titus Failauga are becoming more and more well rounded as defensive ends each and every day. If OSU can get solid play from the big boys up front, they could have one of the more complete defenses in the Pac-12.
Slaughter recaps practice
Jake Luton interview
Thomas Tyner interview
Kevin McGiven interview
Sumner Houston interview
