10/29/2020 football Edit

Thursday Report: Fall Camp Winding Down, WSU Prep On Deck

Defensive Coordinator Tim Tibesar (right) works through a drill with defensive lineman Evan Bennett (75, left) (Karl Maasdam)

Brenden Slaughter • BeaversEdge

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With the Beavers having nearly wrapped up their third week of fall camp in preparation for the Nov. 7th home-opener against Washington State, the team is beginning to transition from fall-camp mode to game-prep.

Following the conclusion of Thursday's session, the players will be given Friday off as the coaches begin to narrow down a depth chart that they can work from for the upcoming game week.

Defensive coordinator Tim Tibesar, whose defense will have its hands full right out the gate with Washington State's high-octane offense, feels that the Beavers have an advantage given that they're extremely familiar with new Cougars' head coach Nick Rolovich's offense.

"Coaches will really start digging into Washington State starting today," Tibesar said. "We basically played their offense last year when we played Hawaii, so we really feel we know what to expect from the Cougars."

In terms of what Tibesar would still like to see from the defense just over a week out from the start of the season, it's pass rush and pass coverage. The Beavers have made great strides in both respects since the end of last season, but it's still not quite at the level that Tibesar would like to see.

"We're still a work in progress and we've still got stuff we need to improve on. We need to get consistency in pass coverage and pass rush, but it's been a really good camp thus far. We can get better at pass rush and we have to get more consistent at winning those one-on-one battles to get pressure on the quarterback."

As far as getting more consistency in pass coverage goes, the Beavers are hoping strong secondary play is a key crux to their defensive output this season. There's a lot of depth in the room and for the first time in years, there's starting talent is from top to bottom.

"It's really competitive (amongst the secondary)," defensive back Isaiah Dunn said. "I would tell any player coming in that you've got to be able to do a lot more than just play corner to play for coach Blue (Adams). You've got to get out of your comfort zone and learn to play multiple positions if you want to get on the field."

While the Beavers figure to finalize starting positions across the defense over the next couple of days, one position where they're not stressing much about is linebacker. As far as that position group goes, there's not a real difference between the starters and the backups.

"At both inside and outside linebacker, we've got a lot of talent," Tibesar said. "We've got multiple guys that could start for us as we've got a lot of depth in that room. It's going to be a situation where we have 1A and 1B rather than ones and twos."

Another promising development for the defense was that on Wednesday afternoon, outside linebacker Andrezj Hughes-Murray, cornerback Jaydon Grant, and defensive lineman Isaac Hodgins were all named team captains along with quarterback Tristan Gebbia.

Tibesar, who's seen all three defenders grow immensely throughout his time as defensive coordinator, is extremely proud of the work they've put in to be named captains but also added that this team has much more leadership than just those four.

"We had a bunch of guys on our football team that received votes and we've got a ton of guys who could have been named captain," Tibesar said. "It's a huge honor for those guys to be selected by their peers and it shows their commitment to the team and how they go about their business on and off the field. All four of those guys know how to do things the right way."