Spring Predictions

After watching the spring scrimmage last Saturday here are some predictions on the upcoming season.

• Obum "Boom" Gwacham will start at some point during the season over Jordan Bishop. After watching Jordan Bishop for the last few years, it seems that he has all the athleticism in the world, but just could never put it together on the field. I thought Boom needed a lot more playing time last year, but he only got real time in the Washington game where he had some great catches. In summer practices last year I always thought he looked goofy in drills, but in scrimmages and 7 on 7 drills he always showed up in a big way. In the spring scrimmage if we were giving away MVP awards I would have picked him without a doubt. He has continued to improve and he looked hungry in the spring scrimmage, I believe that eventually he will break into the starting lineup.
• The offensive line will improve. There are three reasons I actually believe that this will happen. The first is Isaac Seumalo, he might be slightly undersized, but that's nothing a college weight room can't fix. He is going to start and frankly he will be an upgrade over whoever he replaces. Hopefully incoming transfer Stan Hasiak can come in and play as well, he has not had a good start to his college career, bouncing around, but hopefully settling down here, and being a productive player. Lastly and possibly more important could be the return of Michael Philipp. Him missing last year hurt, and when he was in the scrimmage he played well. When I was focused just on him, he did well especially against Dylan Wynn.
• The development of Sean Mannion will not be as swift as we would hope. He will hopefully improve, but he looked to be forcing balls the same as last year. From most reports he was supposed to be having a nice spring, but in front of the crowd he looked rather average. He doesn't look ready to lead a team still, hopefully the incoming offensive lineman can help with that though.

• Trevor Romaine will be tremendous on kickoffs, and nerve-racking on field goals. With the NCAA rule change to move up kickoffs to the 35, I would wager that somewhere around 75% of Romaine's kickoffs will be touchbacks. But while that is great, his field goal kicking still isn't consistent yet. Maybe the years of watching Kahut have made me in a constant state of field goal fear, but Romaine's miss in the scrimmage doesn't bode well either.
• The defensive end tandem of Dylan Wynn and Scott Crichton will be one of the best in the Pac-12. The defensive tackle tandem of whoever is available will be terrifying for Beaver fans.
• OSU will not lose to a D-2 school this year. No real reason, just blind hope.
• Chris Brown will win the runningback competition in camp, I wasn't overly impressed with any of the backs in the scrimmage, but based off of Brown's game tape he will be the best of the bunch. I will be rooting for Storm Woods however, based almost purely on his name alone. That and all the Rihanna jokes that are sure to come if Brown wins.
• The secondary will be better. I'm not sure if it will by leaps and bounds, but a considerable part of Mannion's struggles was very good coverage by the first team defense. Rod Perry seems to be a good pickup so far.