Special thanks to Travis Johannes of Building the Dam for speaking with me on the Quack 12 Podcast during our deep dive into the Oregon State roster. Listen HERE.One of the reasons I on record that Oregon St HC Smith was robbed in 2019 of Pac-12 Coach of the Year  and there are several, I like the elegance of his offensive playcalling and the stability of the staff he assembled as well  is that he one of the very few competent roster managers in the league. Given the massive talent absences and imbalances he inherited in 2018, the turnaround of the team in general is astonishing, and I think that in large part because he adroitly corrected those imbalances with aggressive transfers and a healthy rotation to find and develop backups to avoid surprises Timon Davis Jersey.Recruiting to Corvallis is always going to be a challenge, and the pandemic certainly added to those difficulties. But it also created opportunities for alternative additions to the roster, with a glut of players from around the country in the transfer portal as the eligibility holiday is forcing otherwise quality talent to head elsewhere. Smith was widely expected to hit the portal hard, but it appears he only taken six so far and is currently in the curious position of having, by my count, eight initial counters remaining in the middle of June. I don think theye done taking players from the portal and much of our conversation with Travis focused on identifying which positions the Beavers are most likely to need help at before Fall camp.Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY SportsThose five returners are #0 DB Arnold, #18 DB Austin, #7 DB Julian, #3 DB Grant, and #28 DB Oladapo. The first three are mid 3-stars and on the younger side https://www.odoutletstore.com/Dakota_Prukop_Jersey-35, the last two are the walk-ons and have been around for a few more years. Julian split time with a couple other DBs who had a handful of reps each; there are six other DBs on the roster other than the five named so far who I believe are all safeties, though they each have few or no reps so I can be certain.The big question for the secondary is how theye going to replace both their starting corners, #2 CB N. Wright and #23 CB Dunn. I don think the staff was expecting both to leave the team, and it looks like something of a scramble to get this unit ready. Theyl probably replace the former with his cousin, #1 DB R. Wright, a Juco featured memorably on Last Chance U; he got some limited reps last year. I suspect the other starter will be the transfer from Kansas, #8 DB Jones, since he was the Jayhawks starter last year (I will leave to the reader judgment the value of a low 3-star who transferred out of Lawrence).Beyond those two it anybody guess for the corner rotation. I don believe Ie seen anyone else on the roster get any reps at outside corner, since the nickelbacks in this defensive structure don have nearly the same coverage responsibilities. I really have no idea what theyl do here for backups, whether theyl play someone totally green or move over one of those extra safeties and hope for the best (Travis thinks itl be the latter). Either way the talent and experience for the cornerbacks are poor, theye relying on two different transfers just to get a pair of starters on the field, and my bet is before Fall theyl go back to the portal for some more https://www.odoutletstore.com/Jordon_Scott_Jersey-94.Photo by Abbie Parr/Getty ImagesAccountability CornerLast year OSU preview turned out to be very accurate for the offense. Overall, I expected it to take a step back due to losing a number of starters, but that it would be manageable due to Smith smart roster moves, and I think that bore out. I nailed the QB, WR, and TE lineups perfectly including how the backup rotation would go, as well as correctly calling that Jefferson would get the lion share of the carries instead of the 1-2 combination they used in the past. I got five of the six guys in the OL rotation right, including the freshman who take over at LT. But I didn foresee a returning backup I had penciled in to be the new starter at LG would instead retire, and I was really surprised that a redshirt freshman I didn mention at all took his spot. I said that if they were in that situation they be in trouble because the rest of the room was young, inexperienced, and less talented across the board, which I still think was a reasonable prediction to make, so I going to chalk that up to yet another reason to believe their OL coach is one of the best in the business.On defense, I was blindsided along with everyone else by Whittley medical issues, but I did correctly predict who would fill his shoes, as well as the entire rotation at defensive end including a new Juco. The inside and outside backers I called correctly, though I thought a couple OLBs would play who turned out to be still injured, so a prediction that one of their backers would switch from outside to inside didn pan out https://www.odoutletstore.com/Nick_Wiebe_Jersey-23, though he still became a starter at OLB. I really made a hash of the secondary, though. I correctly predicted three of the four starters, but had two of their positions backwards. And my other prediction for starting safety instead got three reps then transferred out. Two kids who played as true freshmen in 2019 I thought would get to redshirt in 2020 in favor of Jucos who came in, but instead they played and the Jucos sat. Even worse, two more walk-ons at safety got substantial reps who I didn see coming at all. I did note there were massive departures in the secondary for the second time in as many years and I would have to make a lot of guesses here, but I don usually guess this badly. I not sure what to do about it; I think problematic units with a lot of transfers both ways and without much film are just going to play out like that sometimes, and make a fool out of any analyst.

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