Oregon State Beavers Football: Wednesday Notebook

Oregon State Men’s Basketball Notebook: Beavers looking to play fast

JuCo DT Tapusoa considering Oregon State, Arizona official visits

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One of the things working in the Beavers’ favor this weekend is that the OSU coaching staff will have a leg up on Colorado’s offense thanks to the fact that Beavers’ offensive coordinator Brian Lindgren was the Buffs’ OC for the last five seasons.

When Lindgren was hired on first year head coach Jonathan Smith’s staff, he was tasked with rebuilding the Oregon State offense, which he has in the image of Colorado’s.

Defensive coordinator Tim Tibesar noted that the Beaver defense has had some good opportunities to go best on best with the Oregon State offense during practice this week as the two programs run similar schemes.

“The nice thing is, we have a lot of familiarity with the Colorado offense because of Coach Lindgren,” Tibesar said. “It’s on offense that he has brought with him here and we’ve seen it everyday in practice. Colorado is a little further in their progression obviously, but it’s a lot of the same plays, and concepts. Hopefully that familiarity helps us have a little more success.”

The Beavers may also catch a break this weekend as Colorado star receiver Laviska Shenault is questionable to play this weekend with a toe injury suffered against USC. Shenault missed the Buffs’ game against Washington last week and the CU offense struggled as result, putting up just 13 points.

Despite missing the Washington game, Shenault leads the Pac-12 with 60 receptions for 780 yards and six touchdowns.

“We certainly wish him well, but after we play him,” Tibesar said with a smile. “He’s very talented and the offense when he’s healthy really runs through him. He’s going to get 12-15 touches if he’s healthy and so certainly we’re trying to get a bead on whether or not he’s going to play.”

Regardless of whether or not the Buffs have the services of their star receiver, they’ll still have one of the best quarterbacks in the Pac-12 on their side. Steven Montez is now a seasoned veteran and is one of the conferences most accurate and efficient passers completing nearly 70 percent of this throws.

“He’s been a great quarterback for them,” Tibesar said. “They’ve done a good job of allowing him to get the ball out quickly. A lot of normal down and distance plays aren’t drop back passes because the ball comes out so quick. We want to get into the passing lanes to make him hold onto it a little longer and try and win one on ones to get pressure on him.”

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With the Beavers essentially taking a step back on defense against Cal, Tibesar noted that defensive improvement is a marathon, not a sprint, and that in order to get the results needed to compete in the Pac-12, it’s going to take time.

“We are always in a constant state of improvement,” Tibesar said. “It’s not going to happen in one week, one bye week, or two or three practices. It’s a cumulative effect of trying to build skill and make improvements. It’s not going to be one rep at practice, it’s going to be over time to see the improvement that we need to win games.”

During his Monday press conference, Jonathan Smith noted that to start the second half against Cal, it was the first time that he questioned his defenses effort and desire as Cal made quick work of the Beavers coming out of half with a four play scoring drive to essentially put the game out of reach.

“After the game, the coaches talked to us and we all talked amongst ourselves about how we need to step up to get wins and get this program back to where it needs to be,” linebacker Isaiah Tufaga said.

Added defensive lineman Kalani Vakameilalo: “As a team we could have done much better. When we watched film, people didn’t do their job and we couldn’t stop the run, so those are two things that stood out that need to be fixed.”

Tibesar echoed Smith’s point, adding that he was very disappointed with the Beavers effort coming out of the halftime break against the Bears and even though they were able to get it corrected quickly, it wasn’t a welcome sight.

“No we weren’t (playing with effort) and I agree with him,” Tibesar said. “That was the first drive this year where I thought our effort wasn’t to the level it needed to be. Obviously there’s been times where we haven’t been able to make plays, but the effort was good. That first drive against Cal was disheartening to see our lack of effort. We were able to get that corrected and didn’t see it for the rest of the game. We can let the scoreboard dictate how much effort we put forth out there.”

Added defensive lineman Jeromy Reichner: “After any loss like that, you want to bounce back. You don’t want to take a loss like that and act like nothing has happened. There’s a bit of pride in showing that you're not the mistakes you made. At the end of the day it’s going to come down to what we do on Saturday.”

As the Beaver defense continues to muddle through this season and looking for improvements along the way, Tibesar offered a parable that he’s told his players to keep them upbeat on on the right track despite the losses continuing to mount.

“We told them the story of the farmer who’s plowing the field and finds a big rock out there and he’s got to clear it out. So he goes out there with a sledgehammer and swings at it 20 times a day to crack the stone. It’s not the first swing, 20th, 100th, or 500th, it’s the 1000th before the thing finally cracks,” Tibesar said. “Well which swing was the most important? It wasn’t the first or the 1000th, it was all of them. That’s what it’s going to be for us. We’re in the process building it and trying to build skill out there.”