CB Jordan Poyer is the defensive leader.
Depth development is the emphasis for the secondary of the Oregon State football team going into spring practice.
Jordan Poyer and Rashaad Reynolds are proven returning starters at CB.
Keynan Parker and Malcolm Marable are behind Poyer. Both are athletic as offseason track stars.
Sean Martin, Danny Evans, Ryan Handford are behind Reynolds.
Larry Scott (knee) and Brian Watkins (shoulder) are still rehabbing. Mishawn Cummings wasn’t mentioned by coach Mike Riley on the depth chart since he’s still on suspension for undisclosed reasons.
Starting safety Anthony Watkins (shoulder) will be out for the spring. That leaves Ryan Murphy and Tyrequek Zimmerman as the first stringers.
Peter Ashton is behind Murphy. Riley hinted Ashton could move to OLB in the future. Micah Audiss is behind Zimmerman.
When A. Watkins returns, that’s a quality group with athletic backups. There are several recruits coming in who will be developed for the future. For now, the safeties are thin in spring practice.
16 comments
Bone says:
Mar 29, 2012
I really think that this secondary especially the corners have the potential to be one of the better secondaries to come through osu. I thought that Poyer was the best corner in the conference when the season ended and Reynolds after getting tossed into the action late after Hardin injury improved greatly into a very good corner. Safeties I am a little less certain about, losing Mitchell will hurt but these Watkins is a physical player and Watkins made some pretty clutch plays last fall. I have heard nothing but good things about Zimmerman so I feel pretty good about this group. Of course getting a good pass rush will help as well.
Hadenuff says:
Mar 29, 2012
Someone said this earlier, but I’ve got to ask becuse I didn’t see your answer. It has been 6 months since football season ended. How are all these guys still hurt?
Cliff Kirkpatrick says:
Mar 29, 2012
They had surgeries to varying degrees. Some are cleared to start working out. You just don’t just play football after six months of not doing anything.
Joey5Picks says:
Mar 29, 2012
“Six months” since the season ended? December, Jan, Feb, March. I count 4.
wcjr says:
Mar 29, 2012
Jan., Feb., March, actually only 3 months. Oh, wait, that would be for the many teams that went to bowl games. Never mind……….
Hadenuff says:
Mar 29, 2012
Last game was November 26th. Spring practice starts in April. I count five, but I didn’t come here to troll. I just am seriously frustrated with Beaver football right now. It seems that we are on a completely different level than 119 other teams. It is infinitely frustrating.
alex says:
Mar 29, 2012
This group is extremely thin.
Corners: Poyer is great and Reynolds was pretty good by the end of the year. Behind them…?? Warm bodies at least.
Safeties: You have Watkins (very inconsistent), Murphy (great in limited time last year) and Zimmerman (promising but unproven). Outside of those three (of which none are known quantities) you have…a walkon, and a converted-QB-soon-to-move-to-OLB.
….
RenoNVbeavr says:
Mar 29, 2012
Cliff- Any insight as to where Poyer is slated in preseason draft predictions? I saw one draft assessment in the past that he was a highly rated CB going into 2012. Can you confirm anything? Also, Ashton as an OLB?!? I thought he was the 2nd coming of Meuwessen last season! Please say it isnt so about LB?
RipCity808 says:
Mar 31, 2012
Poyer currently ranked the #4 CB in the 2013 NFL draft:
http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/draft/prospectrankings/2013/CB
dili says:
Mar 29, 2012
I want to throw in my two cents worth on our recruiting success (or should I say failure)? It was not too long ago that I recall the comments of several new recruits largely saying how excited they were to come into a new and upcoming program, and they choose OSU because they wanted to have a chance to turn the program around and be a part of somethig new and exciting. I have not seen similar commments from any recruit in the past three years that I recall. For whatever reason (could it be that we are only getting the the leftovers from the major programs) many of our recent recruits have gotten the crap beat out of them so bad by the teams we play that they are still not able to play six months after the season is over. What has happened to the enthusiasm and excitement that once was a part of our program. My only conclusion is that the motivation of the Athletic Director, head coach and his assistants has noticeably deterioraterd.
Jerry2005 says:
Mar 29, 2012
Agreed, the lack of enthusiasm has been very obvious in the past few years. I hate to say it, but sometimes when things get this far off the rails replacing the coaching staff is the only way to bring excitement back to a program. We have done nothing new or exciting for last few years, the boring playbook and loosing record must be directly tied to the failures with recruiting.
BeaverDon says:
Mar 29, 2012
Not only the recruits….the fans excitement has dropped off. Remember playing Ducks for a shot at the Rose Bowl? Then to drop to the Sun Bowl or Emerald Bowl was a terrible feeling. And this happened two years in a row! And then two losing seasons. The Beavers can’t even field enough players for a Spring Game!
Ben says:
Mar 29, 2012
I have to agree. Looking back one year, we had the exact same problems. We can’t even field enough players for an intrasquad scrimmage. We did little to improve the weak areas and so what reason is there to believe the results will be different. Oh wait, everyone is a year older, so they’ll have to be better? Right?
dunerat says:
Mar 29, 2012
Read my blog at spring preview LB: I think this program has been on the edge for a while. The Rogers Bros. coming on board kind postponed the reality of the program. You can’t Recruit left overs every year and finish 9 out of 10 or now 11 out of 12 in recruiting and really expect it to go good every year or at all. As I’ve said before last year was like Rileys 1st year in ’96 as far as where the talent is. He gets a second chance to try to turn this program around, except he’ll have to do it without Erickson.
Beavrob says:
Mar 29, 2012
The starting secondary looks solid, should be better than last year. But no proven depth. Ashton should probably stay at safety considering the lack depth there, and there are already plenty of bodies at OLB.
73GradMike says:
Mar 29, 2012
It’s both good and bad to see 2 out of 3 comments correctly spelling losing instead of “loosing” since there is likely to be a lot of it going on in 2012. I hope I’m proven wrong about a LOSING season. It’s always fun to see the underdog come out victorious.
“Typo” aside, I agree with Jerry that there seems to be a pattern when recruiting, play calling, and player development all point to coaching problems. I find it extremely disappointing that I never hear OSU football coaches take any blame for the team’s “issues”.
Man up, coaches!