Beavs in trouble?
Replacing Sean Mannion will be no easy task
If you follow Oregon State football at all, you’ve no doubt heard the bad news surrounding Sean Mannion‘s knee.
The 2nd year quarterback will require surgery, and early reports indicate that he will be out an undetermined amount of time.
Doesn’t bode well for the newly minted 10th team in the country as they prepare to head to Provo, Utah to take on the Cougars of BYU.
However, all hope is not completely lost, and Oregon State should be able to roll in to Provo and escape with a win, even without Mannion under center.
The Replacement Play Caller
Taking over the reigns for the Oregon State Beavers will be redshirt junior Cody Vaz.
A relatively untested college quarterback, Vaz has been the center of attention at Beaver practice all week, and for obvious reasons.
Vaz has seen very minimal time at the quarterback position for OSU (6-17 48 yards for his career), but did put together an impressive resume for Saint Mary’s High School in Stockton, California.
This isn’t high school football however, and Vaz will need to be able to make college level reads if he is to succeed this coming Saturday.
While it will be very difficult to completely fill the void left by Sean Mannion, players and coaches alike have voiced their support for Vaz and feel confident they can win with him under center.
Cody Vaz won’t be going against his own team for once this Saturday
Coach Mike Riley seemed very confident Monday, and stood by his interim QB, guaranteeing a win this Saturday for the Beavers.
“We’re gonna win the game with Cody,” Riley said. “Cody is a good quarterback and he’s been preparing for this for a long time, so he’ll be good and we’ll be ready to go.”
High praise coming from the coach, and this is definitely the type of mentality you’d like to see the team have heading in to Saturday’s game at Brigham Young.
Can Oregon State Implement the Same Offense?
Ideally, Oregon State will roll out the same offensive philosophy that we’ve seen through four games thus far, however, BYU’s stout run defense (1st in the country) may have the Beavers relying on Vaz’s arm more than necessary.
With dynamic weapons such as Markus Wheaton, and Brandin Cooks, Vaz may be able to torch the BYU secondary and leave the rest of the game up to Oregon State’s own relentless defense.
Obviously it’s easy to think all Vaz needs to do is find Wheaton, or Cooks, but you know the team is working tirelessly in creating a strategy that will fit Vaz’s skill set.
Beaver Nation has seen OSU’s intense preparation pay off through four games this season, and the approach for BYU, sans Mannion, should not be different.
No Need to Panic
It would take a lot more than just the knee injury to Mannion to stop the momentum this Beaver team has built up through the first six weeks of the season.
The play of the defense alone should ease many fans’ doubts as to whether or not Oregon State will be able to hang tough with BYU on Saturday.
With the Cougars handling some quarterback issues of their own, and Jordan Poyer coming off of a career day, we could see the OSU defense take matters in to their own hands (as they’ve already done a couple times this year) and win the game themselves.
That’s not to say Cody Vaz won’t step up and make plays, but it makes it a whole lot easier to make those plays when your defense is shutting down the opposing offense and you aren’t pushed to play from behind.
Kickoff against BYU this Saturday is slated for 12:35pm and will air regionally on ABC.
About Rick Stella
