Oregon State Football Notebook: Luton heating up
Breaking down the first scrimmage
With Sunday being a closed practice, today was the first day that the media was able to speak to the offensive coaches now that they’ve had time to dissect the tape from the scrimmage.
Offensive coordinator Brian Lindgren said that after reviewing the tape, it was what he expected to see out of the teams first scrimmage with some good things and some bad.
“The first scrimmage offered a lot of learning opportunities for us,” Lindgren said. “There were some really good things and some things you typically see in a first scrimmage that we need to clean up. The play clock goes down and we’ve to take a timeout, things like that. We were able to hit some explosive plays in the pass game and guys were able to stand in there when we made them live. I was pleased with the way that we competed.”
Lindgren also added his thoughts on the Beavers’ running game, noting that while even though they broke through for several big runs, as a whole, the running game wasn’t as consistent as it needed to be.
“We hit a couple big plays, but it wasn’t as consistent,” Lindgren said of the Beaver ground game during the scrimmage. “It wasn’t as consistent as we would have liked, but we had some good tempo at times we were able to pop a couple big runs. Coach (Jim) Michalczik and Woz (Brian Wozniak) will be the first to tell you that there’s a lot of stuff to clean up.”
Wide receivers coach Kefense Hynson said that the scrimmage gave him a good idea of where the Beavers stand with depth and that he feels comfortable with how his guys have progressed.
“Guys are working and the group is improving,” Hynson said. “They’re focusing on the things we’ve told them to work on and being consistent is the biggest thing. We’re developing depth in the group and there’s a good number of guys who can go in the game and we feel comfortable with. The scrimmage was good as we had some guys really step up.”
Luton starting to pull away?
The 10th day of fall camp under first year head coach Jonathan Smith shed some light on where OSU’s quarterback race might be heading. Today, Jake Luton ran with the 1st unit while Conor Blount, Jack Colletto, and Aidan Willard ran with a combination of the 1’s/2’s/3’s.
Luton has really found his rhythm and groove on the field in the last four or five practices and it’s caught the attention of Lindgren.
“Jake has really hit his stride,” Lindgren said. “He’s starting to feel comfortable with the offense and when he was in there with the 1’s, you could see (the trust). He took them down the field in the two minute drill which was really good to see. He made good decisions and he’s processing things quicker and playing with more urgency. The last three or four days, I’ve been impressed.”
While nothing is set in stone in terms of the quarterback race, it appears that Luton has regained some of the ground he lost to Blount early in fall camp.
The race is still wide open in my mind as Blount had a much better day today compared to the scrimmage and the next week is going to tell us a lot about who the coaching staff feels is “their guy.”
---
Not a subscriber? BeaversEdge.com is currently running an amazing promotion. Sign up for an annual subscription, and you'll receive a $99 gift card to the Oregon State Rivals Fan Shop!
CLICK HERE for more details!
What are you getting with your subscription?
In addition to the $99 gift code to get any kind of Oregon State gear you want before the season, you're signing up for all this:
* Access to The Dam Board, which is our premium message board, where you can talk with fellow Oregon State fans as well as the BeaversEdge.com staff.
* Fall Camp HQ -- all of our content from camp. This is updated with new content every day. Feature stories, daily insider reports, video interviews, and more from every day of practice leading up to the 2018 season.
* Complete Recruiting Coverage -- We keep you up to speed on all of Oregon State's commitments -- tell you what each commitment means for the rest of the class and break down every player.
* All that, plus access to our staff at BeaversEdge.com and our crew of regional and national experts from Rivals.com. Plus, with your subscription, you'll be able to read premium stories across the Rivals.com network of sites, including every other school in the Pac-12.
So don't wait any longer! Take advantage of this limited time offer right now!