Cliff: Stopping the pistol

Portland’s Owamagbe Odighizuwa picked UCLA over OSU. PHOTO/UCLA

The Oregon State football team will face UCLA’s pistol offense Saturday in the Rose Bowl. Outside running contain will be on the OLBs.

The MLBs, Tony Wilson and Rueben Robinson, will have fun plugging the interior, and then get out to the outside as fast as possible. Defensive coordinator Mark Banker stressed this week that the interior is the first concern.

“As a defense we just have to fly around, take care of our individual responsibilities,” Wilson said. “Every week and week out we trying to play the best we can. As a middle linebacker, it’s filling your gaps and playing well within the core. When they are running through the core I have to plug holes.”

The problem with UCLA is its starting OL averages 321 pounds. That’s going to be fun dealing with.

“They have strengths with being bigger, but they also have weakness we can take advantage of,” Wilson said.

Also, check out my Friday story in the GT about UCLA DE Owamagbe Odighizuwa out of Portland’s Douglas High. He’s the five-star athlete who go away. The Beavers were in his top three on the signing day.

The Beavers leave later today, and I’ll be down there tonight. Southern California is the home area of many of the Beavers. It’s my home area, too. So the below video is about going home.