2013 Oregon State Spring Football Analysis

Oregon State Beavers 2013 ... Head Coach: Mike Riley

Oregon State Beavers

2013 Schedule
8/31 Eastern Wash
9/7 Hawaii
9/14 at Utah
9/21 at San Diego St
9/28 Colorado
10/5 OPEN DATE
10/12 at Washington St
10/19 at California
10/26 Stanford
11/1 USC
11/9 OPEN DATE
11/16 at Arizona State
11/23 Washington
11/29 at Oregon

Why To Get Excited … the Beavers enter the new season in a far better frame of mind than a year ago, having improved from 3-9 to 9-4. Head coach Mike Riley will mold a solid corps of talent on both sides of the ball, which includes a pair of quarterbacks with starting experience. As long he can remain healthy, Storm Woods gives the offense its most dangerous threat on the ground since Quizz Rodgers was still in Corvallis.

Why To Be Grouchy … Oregon State will have a difficult time duplicating last year’s effort in run defense, in which it ranked 27th in the country. The middle of the D has been gutted by the graduations of MLB Feti Taumoepeau and tackles Castro Masaniai and Andrew Seumalo. The interior linemen, in particular, were unheralded, occupying blockers so that the Beavers on the flanks can make big plays.

The Number One Thing To Work On Is … figuring out the identity of the starting quarterback. Injuries forced Riley to juggle Sean Mannion, the incumbent, and Cody Vaz, the starter versus Texas in the bowl game, but the coach clearly prefers to ride one hurler week-in and week-out. The Beavers need both upperclassmen to elevate the players surrounding, while drastically cutting down on their mistakes. If OSU is going to challenge last season’s mark, it’ll require more stability from behind center.

Non-Conference Games: Eastern Washington, Hawaii, at San Diego State
Games Against The South: at Arizona State, Colorado, USC, at Utah
Realistic Best Case Record: 10-2
Worst Case Record: 6-6
Likely Finish: 8-4

Pre-Preseason Projected Wins: Eastern Washington, Hawaii, at Utah, at San Diego State, Colorado, at Washington State, Stanford, Washington

Pre-Preseason Projected Losses: at California, USC, at Arizona State, at Oregon

Schedule Analysis: Beaver fans should expect nothing less than a 7-0 start. Eastern Washington might be potent, but it’s Eastern Washington. Hawaii is still trying to figure out what it’s doing, and road trips to Utah and San Diego State have to be wins if the team is planning on taking any sort of a step forward. With Colorado at home and a week off to get ready for road trips to Washington State and Cal, that means six of the first seven games are against teams that didn’t go bowling last year.

Getting at least a split of home games against Stanford and USC will be vital to have any hope of staying in the Pac-12 North chase. There isn’t a true break over the final six weeks, but there’s a wonderfully placed bye week in early November to get ready for a trip to Arizona State followed up by Washington and the Civil War regular season finale at Oregon.

Team Concerns For 2013: After a surprising year, Mike Riley has to do a little tweaking in what should be a strange and interesting season for the Pac-12 North. The Beavers need to be better up front after struggling in pass protection and not doing enough for a ground game that averaged just 124 yards per game. The defensive front could stand to be a wee bit stronger now that tackles Castro Masaniai and Andrew Seumalo are gone, but the run D should be fine. The kickoff return game was the worst in the Pac-12 averaging 18.34 yards per try.

The 2013 Class Is Heavy On ... Defensive linemen. The Beavers are coming up with their share of good receivers in a strength-in-numbers class, and quarterback Kyle Kempt out of Ohio was a good get, but the key to the class is the haul for the defensive front. Mike Riley is getting four JUCO defensive tackles who all go around 300 pounds and can all step in and be a part of the equation right away. Edwin Delva, Kyle Peko, Lyndon Tulimasealii and Siale Hautau are all instant players.

2012 CFN Recruiting Ranking: 42. That Class Was Heavy On ... The defensive back seven. The Beavers have done a great job on the defensive line over the last few recruiting classes, and now it’s time to work on the backfield, especially the secondary, with safety the key to the season and a few nice-looking corner prospects ready to sign on. The offensive line was worked on mostly in the 2009 class, and now come the reinforcements for three years from now led by Isaac Seumalo, Scout.com’s No. 1 ranked guard. 

2011 CFN Recruiting Ranking: 42. That Class Was Heavy On ... Defensive ends. Oregon State can’t get the players that Oregon and other Pac 12 programs can get, so it has to go bulky in numbers when it has to fill a hole. This year, the goal was to improve the defensive front, and with ten linemen brought in including JUCO transfers Rusty Fernando, Rudolf Fifta, and Blake Harrah, the Beavers are hoping for instant depth. Dylan Wynn is the star of the class and could end up being the team’s next great pass rusher. The strength of the offensive class is at receiver with Richard Mullaney a big target and Brandin Cooks and Tyrequek Zimmerman field stretching speedsters.

2010 CFN Recruiting Ranking: 60. That Class Was Heavy On ... Defensive tackles. The Beavers loaded up on offensive linemen last year, and this year Mike Riley concentrated on the defensive front. QB Sean Mannion is the crown jewel of the class and LB Shaydon Akuna is a nice get, but 280-pound Thomas Molesi, 290-pound Fred Thompson, and 290-pound Mana Tuivailala will be the key to the class. Throw in pass rushers in Dominic Glover, who'd be an ideal end in a 3-4, and Scott Crichton and OSU is loaded on the line for the next few years.

2009 CFN Recruiting Ranking: 48. That Class Was Heavy On ... offensive linemen. With so much turnover going on here, it was time for Mike Riley to replenish in the trenches, a key to the program’s success in recent years. A half-dozen new linemen are set to hit Corvallis, hoping to open holes for Jacquizz Rodgers as soon as possible. The name to remember in the short term is Michael Philipp, a can’t-miss guard, who had offers from everyone in the Pac-10 and is physically ready to play right now.