Backups Gain Valuable Experience in Oregon State’s Last Scrimmage|Oregon St Hot Topics|Team BattleGround|College BattleGround

The Oregon State football team held it final public scrimmage this morning. They had previously moved the time from 10:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. to try and avoid the heat wave sweeping through Corvallis.

The biggest news of the day came in the form of a position change. Kyle White has been moved from running back to cornerback.

This move gives the junior college transfer the best chance to see the field as he had been falling behind, in the race to back-up Ryan Nall at running back. The secondary for Oregon State is paper thin with the recent departures of Gabe Ovgard and Cyril Noland-Lewis. And while Kyle White will be forced to learn a new position on the fly it never hurts to add an additional athlete to the secondary.

As for the scrimmage portion, it seemed that the coaching staff wanted to see what the second and third stringers could do and limited a lot of the Beavers top contributors.

Coach Andersen was quoted by Comcast Sportsnet and said “the mindset was to really get the new kids… kids that are in position to be in the two-deep a lot of reps and live reps”.

The coaching staff kept the offense watered down and Darell Garretson hardly threw the ball. Coach Andersen explained “Darrell didn’t throw the ball much and that’s by script”.

The most exciting action of the day was watching the position battle for back-up RB. Tim Cook and Artavis Pierce continued to battle for the opportunity to back up Ryan Nall. Tim Cook ran the ball eight times for 40 yards; while Pierce totaled six carries for 46 yards and a touchdown.

Marcus McMaryion and Mason Moran also got some opportunities to show their stuff. McMaryion finished the day going 5-of-8 for 67 yards. Moran’s most impressive plays came through the use of his legs; he had a couple nice carries totaling 31 yards during the live stats period, but his throws weren’t where they needed to be.

It’s hard to believe that the season is just two short weeks away. The coaching staff will pour through the tape of this scrimmage and start finalizing depth chart decisions. And will also start making decisions on who is going to redshirt or play immediately.