Danny Langsdorf Heads To New York

Oregon St. head coach Mike Riley's vision of an off-season with no staff changes evaporated with a phone call Friday. The call came from the offices of the New York Giants, and it was an offer of employment to the Beavers' offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Danny Langsdorf.

Langsdorf, who had interviewed on Thursday, accepted the offer, and becomes the quarterbacks coach of the Giants.

Langsdorf was on the New Orleans staff (with Riley) in 2004 with Ben McAdoo, who was recently hired as the new offensive coordinator for the Giants, which are significantly reorganizing their staff after an 0-6 start led to a disappointing 7-9 season.

Langsdorf, who played quarterback for Boise St. and Linfield, and began his coaching career as a graduate assistant to Riley in 1997 and 1998, and coached 3 years with Winnipeg in the Canadian Football League as the offensive coordinator and quarterback coach for the Blue Bombers, before moving on to New Orleans and the Saints, and then returned to Oregon St. with Riley in 2004, where he has been Riley's quarterback coach and offensive every since.

Many Beaver fans' most vivid image of Langsdorf is of his remarkably unremarkable run as the play-caller during the disappointing 5-7 2010 season, and the ensuing 3-9 disaster in 2011. But while Langsdorf's playcalling wasn't inspiring (though its worth noting he was again calling the plays when Oregon St. nearly upset Oregon in this year's Civil War, and when the Beavers snapped their 5 game losing streak with a win in the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl, so where does the issue this year with the pass/rush imbalance that plagued the offense until the last 2 games really lie?), his work during the week has been very good.

During those 9 years, Langsdorf led the construction of 8 of Oregon St.'s top 13 teams all time in terms of total offense.

Langsdorf developed Sean Canfield into the Pac-10's leading passer, and Sean Mannion into the #2 passer in the country, after Mannion set the all-time Pac-8/10/12 conference record for passing yards in a season..

Langsdorf was also a deft recruiter, accounting for a number of Oregon St.'s finds.

It's too soon to know how Coach Riley will respond to this disruption, and Riley has said he won't begin a search to find a replacement until after National Signing Day on Feb. 5, but a reasonable scenario already making the rounds is the possibility of promoting wide receivers coach Brent Brennan to offensive coordinator.

Brennan wasn't a quarterback and isn't a quarterback coach, and would likely continue to be the receivers coach, but graduate assistant Lyle Moevao, who was another Beaver quarterback who arguably achieved beyond expectations under Langsdorf's tutelage, could be promoted to become the quarterbacks coach. It would also put the personable Moevao on the road as a recruiter.

Whomever gets the gig working with the quarterbacks will get a jump start, having Mannion on hand for his senior season.

Andy_Wooldridge@yahoo.com