NOTEBOOK: Beavers ready for Thursday night showdown

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For those Beaver fans who have been wanting to see the new look Beavers and interim head coach Cory Hall in the national spotlight, you’re about to get it.

The Beavers matchup with the Cardinal on Thursday night on ESPN where all the attention will be on a suddenly impressive Stanford team led by Heisman Trophy hopeful Bryce Love.

“My comment to the team was, (Stanford) has one running back, we have five,” Hall said. “I believe that we have an offensive line that can move people. So then you have to set the challenge with the offensive line and those five running backs.”

In their first game with Hall at the helm, the Beavers dropped a close contest to Colorado (36-33) that they probably should have won, and in doing so, inspired themselves to play perfect football for the rest of the season. Since taking over as the head man for the Beavers, players and recruits alike have been posting on social media that they're 'Hall In.'

“You give players ownership,” Hall said. “There’s no finger pointing because I’m giving you what you ask for. I will never say ‘You won and that’s because of me.' As coaches, we cannot play for you. We can put you in a position to be successful, but players have to execute.”

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College football is a business and OSU is still trying to finish their season on a high note for Hall. He noted in his postgame speech that the Beavers would be preparing for their perfect season moving forward.

While that goal might not be extremely realistic for this Beaver squad given the strength of teams left on the schedule, there is no doubt that the players on this team want to leave it all on the field for Hall.

When you talk about Stanford, you have to look no further than their bread and butter in the Jim Harbaugh/David Shaw era.

Physicality.

Running back Ryan Nall, who will anchor OSU’s ground attack, sees Stanford as a difficult challenge for the Beavers.

“They’ve always been big and physical offensively and defensively,” Nall said. “That’s their mantra and what they are known for and we have to match that. I believe that we will match that. We played well against them last year and we have to do that again this year.”

Whether it’s on offense or defense, the Cardinal are going to make sure that you feel them in the cold tub for the next week.

With a defense that is so physical, the Beavers know that they will have to match Stanford’s toughness as they try and establish their running game which Hall has said is going to be OSU’s primary goal.

One of the reasons that the Beavers running game exploded against Colorado was the use of two-tight end packages that featured Noah Togiai and Tuli Wily-Matagi. With those two serving as additional blockers, OSU’s ground game flourished.

Tight ends coach Dave Baldwin hopes to continue that success with his two talented tight ends.

“Playing with two tight ends enabled us to do a lot last week and gave the defense more problems with the shifting and moving the two,” Baldwin said. “You’ll see more of that this week. It helps us bring more physicality and (Wily-Matagi) did a great job of doing that and (Togiai) has to continue to do that as well.

McGiven also added his two cents on the benefits of having guys like Togiai and Wily-Matagi on the field together.

“It will calm a defense down so you don’t see as many looks as you’d normally see,” McGiven said. “The other part of it has been the development of those two guys. A year ago, you wouldn’t think twice about having both of them on the field because you were hoping to just have one of them do their job efficiently, but they’ve become really really good blocking tight ends and it has allowed us to be more multiple on offense.”

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The Beavers have had some extra time to prepare for Stanford’s physical style by way of a bye week last week. Offensive coordinator Kevin McGiven took us through what the extra week of prep looks like.

“It’s different because of the bye week,” McGiven said. “Normally right now, you’d be feeling really crunched and have later days and longer practices than normal just to get ready. But because of the bye week, you’re able to spread preparation over a full week and half. We spent last week with Stanford prep and that made it so this week we weren’t so stressed in getting the game plan ready.”

- The Beavers will be breaking out an interesting look in terms of uniforms on Thursday based on some of the apparel in practice today. The Beavers were wearing black pants and matte black helmets. I haven’t seen the black helmets in some time as it was thought that they might be used much less frequently. I anticipate them wearing black pants, orange jerseys and the matte black helmets. I usually don’t offer my two cents on uniform combos, but man, this is a sleek combo.

- Mason Moran continued to get reps at the backup QB spot. He’s still got a ways to-go in terms of learning the nuances of being a quarterback in this system, but I’ve been impressed with his ability to learn on the fly. He read the zone-reads very well today and was able to throw on the run to open receivers.

- Trevorris Johnson was the most impressive running back during practice today. I didn’t see a ton of live action today, but Johnson was exploding out of the hole with power and vision.

- Conor Blount was the scout team quarterback today. Given Moran’s rise to backup QB, I expect Blount and Willard to split reps moving forward as the scout team QB.

- The defense really focused on staying gap sound today. With a guy like Bryce Love coming to town, the Beavers seemed very focused on making sure that they were going to try and limit Love’s impact on the game.