Oregon State Beavers Midseason Superlatives: Defense

We're halfway into the first season of the Jonathan Smith era at Oregon State and with a bye week on tab this weekend, BeaversEdge.com senior writer Brenden Slaughter is breaking down the OSU offense and the defense with mid-season superlatives. Today, we finish the two-part series with the defense.

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Oregon State Midseason Offensive Superlatives

Oregon State Beavers Insider: Injury Report

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Somewhat quietly, Hamlicar Rashed has become the player that we thought he would coming out of fall camp as he's emerged as the Beavers' most valuable player through six games.

Through six games, Rashed ranks 1st on the teams in tackles for loss (five) and sacks (1.5) and is the Beavers' No. 10 leading tackler with 20 on the season. After playing sparingly in his first two years, Rashed has thrived in defensive-coordinator Tim Tibesar's linebacker friendly scheme as the game has slowed down for the Phoenix native.

Rashed's blend of size, physicality, speed, and high football IQ make him a very intriguing player to watch for the rest of the season and the seasons to come as he's already the Beavers' best negative play tackler as a sophomore. He's got plenty of room to improve, particularly in his pass coverage and tackling, but Rashed's future promise is certainly exciting as he's emerged as a bright spot in a otherwise disappointing Beaver defense in 2018.

Redshirt-freshman cornerback Kaleb Hayes earns the nod of most-improved as he's stepped up and been a reliable play-maker for the Beavers in 2018. Hayes, who redshirted last season and served on the scout team as both a corner and a quarterback, burst onto the scene when injuries in the secondary opened the door for him to be a day one starter.

While Hayes struggled in his first start against Ohio State, he's been very reliable since for the Beavers as he's consistently been one of the teams highest-graded defenders week after week according to Pro Football Focus.

At 6-foot-1 183, Hayes isn't the biggest cornerback on the field, but he plays bigger than he is, and that's an invaluable trait on defense. Whether it's going toe to toe against the Pac-12's best in ASU's N'Kheal Harry and not backing down, or coming at WSU's Garnder Minshew at full speed on a corner blitz, Hayes has made the most of his oppurtunties on the field the past few weeks. His development is going to be key for the Beavers in the coming weeks as he could be one of OSU's best defensive backs by seasons end.

It could be (and probably should be) said that the Oregon State defense as a whole still has the most left to prove, but Jonathan Willis, Andrezej Hughes-Murray and Kalani Vakameilalo are the three guys on the Beaver defense that need to have a better second half of the 2018 season.

With 2017 Pac-12 leading tackler Manase Hungalu out of eligibility, coming into the 2018, Willis was expected to step up and be the interior leader of the defense in Hungalu's absense. Unfortunately for the Beavers and Willis, that hasn't happened yet (and seemed to have lost his starting job to Isaiah Tufaga).

While Willis does rank third on the team with 27 tackles, he's only tallied one sack and one tackle for loss six games through. OSU's defense as a whole hasn't been collectively good, but Willis has plenty left to prove in the final six games of his Oregon State career. He's been a four-year starter for the Beavers and it's time for his playmaking and leadership to show up in the second half of the season.

Hughes-Murray was one of the most intriguing Beavers' coming into the season as he looked like a prime candidate to thrive in Tibesar's linebacker friendly scheme. Through six games, Hughes-Murray hasn't showed the potential he did in the previous two seasons. A true-junior, he received meaningful playing experience the last two seasons, but has only tallied 13 tackles. The Beavers need more from Hughes-Murray moving forward as he's one of the most seasoned players on defense.

With the Beavers' being razor-thin on defensive line depth in 2018, a big cog in the Beavers' quest to defensive success this season rode on the shoulders of Vakameilalo. The redshirt-senior was the No. 1 recruit out of Hawaii in 2013 and was expected to anchor the albeit thin, defensive line. While he hasn't played poorly by any means, he hasn't made the impact that outsiders were expecting him to make this season. He has just 14 tackles on the season and is behind fellow defensive lineman Isaac Hodgins and Elu Aydon in that category. While the imminent return of Reichner will certainly open up Vakameilalo to make more plays, the Beavers will need him to be more aggressive to round out the 2018 season.

Coming into the 2018 season, there were already a number of issues plaguing a young Oregon State defense, and when the Beavers weren't able to emerge out of fall camp completely healthy, it created a very difficult situation for the OSU coaching staff to navigate.

Safeties David Morris and Omar Hicks-Onu, defensive lineman Jeromy Reichner, and cornerbacks Isaiah Dunn and Jay Irvine were all starting caliber players that weren't avaliabvle to the Beavers to start the season due to injury, and whenn you're missing five potential starters on defense, the results aren't going to be pretty on the field.

The Beavers were already thin on depth coming into the season, and the untimely injuries to veteran players didn't give OSU a chance to see what they had on the field this season.

Despite Irvine being lost for the season, OSU should get the services of Reichner and Dunn soon while Morris and Hicks-Onu could be on the horizon in the coming weeks.

While injuries are a part of football, and every team goes through them, there's no doubt that the injuries the Beavers sustained in advance of the 2018 season certainly cost them valuable depth and play-making ability on defense.