Riley Overhauls Staff, Assignments
by AndyPanda on Mar 21, 2011 1:44 PM PDT
in NCAA Football
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PrintOregon St. football Coach Mike Riley has put the finishing touches changes on his staff a week before spring ball is set to begin, and the overhaul is more extensive than was suggested earlier in the off season.
The big news involves the linebackers, as Greg Newhouse, who has been on the Oregon St. staff for 14 years, dating back to Riley's first stint as coach, is out. Newhouse was offered another position within the program, but elected to pursue "other opportunities", according to a news release from the school, which is code for elected to not be demoted.
As a result, Defensive Coordinator Mark Banker will coach the linebackers, and Keith Heyward will now be in charge of the entire secondary. Heyward had been coaching only the cornerbacks, with Banker handling the safeties.
Additionally, Chris Brasfield has been hired as running backs coach, and Brent Brennan has been hired to coach the receivers.
Brasfield was a defensive graduate assistant for Oregon last season, and takes over for Reggie Davis, who left earlier this winter for a position with the San Francisco 49ers in the NFL
Brennan, who was a WR for UCLA, including the 1994 Rose Bowl team, coached receivers at San Jose St., where he has been for 5 years, last season. Beavers assistant head coach Jay Locey coached receivers last fall, but will be in charge of the tight ends this season.
The first immediate reaction is surprise about Newhouse, as Riley has historically shown a lot of loyalty to his assistants. But it became apparent early on last season that something had to change with the defense, and nothing did as the season wore on.
The second, more thoughtful reaction is that the consolidation of the corners and the safeties makes sense. I personally never understood the segregation, as the players at these positions very much must coordinate their efforts.
The shuffling of the offensive line continues to generate a lot of conversation around Beaver Nation, and rightly so, but these latest moves indicate Riley recognizes that the defense MUST change, and the addition of a dose of speed from the JC ranks does not constitute enough change by itself. Time will tell if the right changes were made, and what it means for a program Newhouse had a large hand in molding into "linebacker U", but the defense should have a different look this fall, and that's not a reference to the on-field personnel changes.
Brennan spent four seasons as the wide receivers coach at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo before moving to San Jose St., and also spent a year as a Graduate Assistant coach at both Washington (1999) and Arizona (2000). Brennan has also worked previously at Oregon St. summer camps, and has ties to both Oregon St.'s offensive Coordinator Danny Langsdorf and defensive line coach Joe Seumalo.
Brasfield was only at Oregon for one season, after spending 3 years as the running backs coach at Samford University in Birmingham, Ala. Brasfield played for both UTEP and TCU, after transferring, in the '90's.
Down the road, all of this year's additions appear to be good moves as far as bringing in people who will connect well with recruits.
Andy_Wooldridge@yahoo.com
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Interesting...
I’ll trust that Riley made the right move here in letting Newhouse leave the program after being faced with what I can only imagine was a significant role reduction. I don’t know that I can pin the blame for last year’s defensive follies on Newhouse though.
Routinely his LBs were asked to cover WRs, which almost always resulted in loss of gap control in the run game, a completion to a receiver OR, and this was always what got me the most, a P.I. call on an LB defending waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyy out of position.
New blood in both the secondary and the LB coaching staffs will be a good thing though. Hopefully someone with a fresh set of eyes will break it to Riley that we’ve got to move Hardin to S or OLB because the kid is not a cover CB. Painful to watch him get worked like he did all year.
It will be a very interesting fall to watch, for sure.
At arm’s length, I’ve tended to be a supporter of Heyward, but the bizarre arrangement of the corners and the safeties being coached separately has made it hard to evaluate the situation. Being in charge of the entire secondary will certainly clear some things up, one way or the other.
I have to agree, Hardin, and for that matter Dockery at times, are/were not up to the task they were tasked with. I still maintain that most corners aren’t all the time, which is why things like bracket coverage and safety rotations are common, except in Corvallis.
I also agree, the linebackers weren’t usually where the problems lied, and when they did, it was often because, as Arby notes, they were tasked with an unreasonable assignment.
I remain concerned about the overall scheme of the defense, which can set players and position coaches alike up for failure despite their best efforts. Or, it could be a matter of getting the right people in the right position, on the team and on the staff.
Andy Wooldridge, andy_wooldridge@yahoo.com
BuildingTheDam.Com
Go Beavs!
I didn’t know the details on the separation of corners and safeties as far as units go. That certainly could explain some of the head shaking that went on after the opposing offense converted deep pass plays.
The LB pass coverage thing was such a bad idea and at times it really showed. Some units in the country might be able to pull that off, but not only did we NOT have the personnel to do so, we faced competition that was perfectly tooled to hurt us. It seemed we always had defenders WAY out of position on man-coverage.
The idea of watching guys like Tuimaunei, Hardin, Keith Pankey or any of our other not so natural pass defenders getting burned like they did last year makes me ill. Granted we graduate a few of the culprits, but I don’t blame the players in any case. We need a new scheme and some new responsibilities. Coaches need to put players in the position to be successful and maximize their abilities, and that has not been going on across the board on the Beaver D for a little while.
So here’s to positive change!
"Put players in the position to be successful and maximize their abilities"
I couldn’t agree more, especially given that recruiting to a given system is harder in Corvallis than many places.
The over-ridding sense I’ve continued to get in the last couple of disappointing seasons has been one of stubbornly trying to get the players on hand to execute a pre-determined defensive scheme, with little consideration for their specific abilities, or the abilities and desires of the opponents for that matter.
What we will learn this year is whether the mis-communication and mis-fits were a product of the makeup and arrangement of the coaching staff, now changed, or not.
I do not see how this season will not, and should not, either produce a fair amount of improvement, or even more significant changes.
Andy Wooldridge, andy_wooldridge@yahoo.com
BuildingTheDam.Com
Go Beavs!
All I want to see is players playing in the right spots and better in-game adjustments, on D especially.
I agree, I think we’ll see some progress with the new blood.
Off topic slightly, but I wonder what the situation was with Newhouse. I’m curious to know what was offered him and why they decided to make that change. It seems so rare that Riley actually moves people around… weird.
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