Coming off five consecutive losing seasons, and finishing last in the Pac-12 North division three of the last four campaigns, suffice to say that the Beavers have nowhere to go but upward. Therefore, at the conclusion of spring practice, has this Oregon State squad shown any signs that the turnaround could take place this year? We invited the Managing Editor of the BeaversEdge.com, Brenden Slaughter, to provide his perspective.

DevilsDigest: Coming out of Spring Practice, what were your impressions of the team’s offense?

Brenden Slaughter: “Offensively, I think the team took a step forward that we’d expect given their returning number of players. The Beavers returned a quarterback in Jake Luton that started many games last year, they bring back the bulk of their receiving core outside of Timmy Hernandez.

“The offensive line, they’re still filling in a few holes up there and that’s the biggest question mark is that offensive line. Running back is stable, and extremely deep headlined by Jermar Jefferson coming off a freshman All-America season.

“Overall, I thought the offense performed as well as we’d expect it to. We’re still waiting to kind of see who’s going to take the lead in the quarterback battle between Jake Luton and transfer Tristan Gebbia who came in from Nebraska. Right now, I’d say Luton probably has the slight edge heading into Fall camp, he was sharp throughout Spring practice, he looks as healthy as he’s ever been, as nimble as he’s ever been, his footwork’s improved and I’m really high on him headed into Fall camp.

“Gebbia on the other hand, just kind of getting used to the nuances of Brian Lindgren’s offense, his learning curve’s been a little bit larger but he’s a really, really good talent, great locker room guy and I can see him you know emerging right onto Jake Luton’s heels as that quarterback job moves up and gets into Fall camp. But overall, once they’ve decided to settle on a guy (quarterback) and the the offensive line gets a little more in-tuned with each other come Fall camp, the skill position players- Oregon State’s receivers and running backs are among the best in the Pac-12 and I think they could have a really good season offensively.”

DevilsDigest: Moving to the other side of the ball, what were your impressions of the Beavers’ defense?

Brenden Slaughter: “Well, they still got a long way to go. After last year I think Oregon State was among the worst in D-I last year and to be honest, they kind of had nowhere to go but up.

“Now that they’ve got some depth, they’ve got a little bit more playmaking and talent. They had an an influx of some junior college guys, a couple of transfers, some top tier freshmen as well that should be able to you know help with the depth scenario and that was the first time they’ve been able to really open up the defensive playbook under Tim Tibesar and kind of be able to have multiple rotations of guys that they simply just didn’t have the bodies and number of players for depth last year.

“So, it was nice to see them open things up, kind of expand the defensive playbook a little bit. Experience comes back quite a bit, there’s still quite a few question marks in terms of once they get on the field and show what they can do. But I was impressed with their physicality in Spring, they really took it to the offensive line, particularly as I mentioned before, the offense is still kind of getting learning and getting used to the nuances of playing with one another.

“They were physical, they tackled a heck of a lot better this Spring, and after last season that’s a big step in the right direction. (head coach) Jonathan Smith said that the team emphasized more live tackling even though you don’t necessarily do a lot of that in Spring just because they needed it, and it kind of showed as the practices wore on that they were getting better with it.

“It’s hard to put a gauge on where this defense is heading into Fall camp, but they’re definitely improved from where they were a year ago. But I want to see them in Fall camp to get a pretty good idea of whether or not they’ve made a significant jump.”

DevilsDigest: Who are the players on each side of the ball that you think emerged out of Spring as being the biggest surprises?

Brenden Slaughter: “On offense, I’m going to go with Jesiah Irish, a sophomore receiver from Washington. He really burst onto the scene when a lot of the guys in the receiving core were banged up with injuries. Wide receiver Tyjon Lindsey was out for a stretch, same with Isaiah Hodgins, Trevon Bradford, and those projected to be Oregon State’s three starting receivers. They were all on the shelf with lingering injuries at one point of Spring or another and that elevated Irish to the first team for the last couple weeks of Spring football. There was a scrimmage a week before the Spring game and then the Spring game, and he and Jake Luton had great chemistry in those two events. They linked up on some touchdowns, and he showed really good speed off the edge, great hands, and I think he could be an impact player on offense.

“On defense, I’m going to kind of cheat a little bit here and I’m going to say the defensive line as a whole, because they were so ineffective at being able to move the line of scrimmage a a year ago, the entire group is much improved this year.

“Individually I’m going to highlight Isaac Hodgins out of that group. He’s a sophomore, younger brother of Isaiah who is a receiver, he almost started or played in almost every game last season on the defensive line at the nose tackle or defensive end spot, he’s come back even stronger, more physical this year showcased some more leadership, and has really showed that he’s ready to take on kind of a more leadership role this year, and for a true sophomore, a 19-year-old that’s not exactly the norm so that’s good to see as well.

“In the back end, I’ll highlight the linebacking core. I mentioned a little bit earlier that the the defensive line did a nice job of being able to put pressure on the offensive line, well the linebacking core was able to do the same. I have to highlight Hamilcar Rashed, Andrzej Hughes-Murray, those two guys really, on the outside with Rashed and the inside with Hughes-Murray, really stepped into some physical play, they really stepped up their leadership, and you know looking back to last season, it wasn’t so much the Beavers didn’t have the talent rather than the fact they didn’t have a whole lot of depth and a whole lot of leadership at the top.

“This year I kind of see that the leadership is really starting to emerge on the defensive side, and now that they have depth, I feel that those two things will go hand-in-hand and they’ll be able to at least start to make an upward climb this year.”

DevilsDigest: What in your opinion are the top items on the team’s to-do list going into Fall camp?

Brenden Slaughter: “First and foremost, it has to be figuring out who’s going to be the starting quarterback. For the second straight year, Oregon State’s got a quarterback competition going into Fall camp under Smith. I’d have to go back a few more years, but I would say that they’ve had a quarterback competition I think every year since 2014 heading into Fall camp. I think with this team and the way that we’ve seen Oregon State you know kind of approach Spring practice, it’s been a more focused team mindset, you can tell they’re kind of bought into the Smith regime a lot more than they were a year ago, they seem much more focused on the the goal at hand and I think this year’s team would really benefit from Jonathan Smith and the coaching staff one or two weeks into Fall camp coming out and naming a starting quarterback.

“Secondly, one of the first things Jonathan Smith said right after the Spring game is that this was the most important summer of each and every one of his players’ lives for the amount of work they needed to put in in the weight room and the offseason program and so on so forth, so I’m going to go ahead and highlight the offseason because the Beavers put a high emphasis on wanting to continue to get stronger, more familiar with the playbook and just overall making greater strides as a team and a lot of those strides happen in the summer and a big summer’s definitely on the to-do list.

“One more on the to-do list, I would say just get healthy more than anything. The Beavers, whether it was receivers that were a little banged up, some guys on the defensive side of the ball- David Morris who didn’t even participate in Spring, more than anything Oregon State needs to get healthy.

“I mentioned their receivers, they also have a high-impact transfer in Addison Gumbs who’s expected to be one of those day one starters, Oklahoma transfer on the defensive end, outside linebacker spot. He was out all Spring recovering from an ACL injury he suffered at Oklahoma, he’ll be a key player needs to come back healthy in the Fall as he’s expected to. Couple other guys here and there, but health will be a big thing for them.”

DevilsDigest: have your spring observations ultimately change your expectations for the 2019 season?

Brenden Slaughter: “I wouldn’t say it changed them, but it maybe shifted the mindset a little bit. Coming into the year I expected Oregon State to be improved from their 2-10 record a season ago to a four, five maybe six-win mark this year. That’s pretty much the same thing that I’m seeing from what Spring showed me, that they’re on that same path.”