Oregon State Coach JaMarcus Shephard Praises Big Offensive Tackle Transfer

Yesterday, Oregon State head coach JaMarcus Shephard spoke with local media following another Beavers' spring football practice.

This piece highlights three of Shephard's quotes, bringing Beaver Nation a fresh perspective on the state of the program heading into this month's spring game.

Shephard offers one area for improvement

"You know, one of the things that we got to just do a better job of is making sure that we are able to stay up, and know how to practice the right way. We have varying tempos throughout practice, that allow us to give the best chance to understand the expectations, but it is also about learning technique, the proper technique of how to do things.

Okay, there's a time to tackle, but then there's a time when you need to make sure you get in the right position so you're capable of tackling in the right spot. So, if our guys do a good job of understanding that - but then also the offensive players, them knowing and understanding when those tackle moments are coming - but then also having a good understanding of when the contact should not knock them to the ground, okay. You can't have guys on the ground, and we got to be better there."

Shephard airs frustration over the passing game

"There's just opportunities out there, and we got to take advantage of those opportunities that are out there, okay. I cringe at the idea of seeing the football on the ground in any circumstance. That's why the standard for our team is hand the ball to the ref. Then that way it never touches the ground.
It just drives me absolutely up a wall to see the opportunities for these young men, and they not capitalize on then, you know?

I know what they want in their lives. They've expressed those things to me, and I know that in order for them to get there, they got to be able to execute at a high level. When they don't, I'm not just frustrated because it affects me, it affects them. And that's the part that I go to sleep at night at times, you know, concerned, about like 'man, is he going to get over the hump and be able to make these plays when these opportunities are out there?', because I know that if he doesn't, it's going to affect him long term in terms of his career and what he wants to do in his life. So that's where the frustration really comes in for them for those moments. We just got to capitalize when those opportunities come up."

Shephard details the addition of new transfer offensive tackle Broderick Shull

"Oh, you know what? At a point there were some other guys that we had kind of put on the radar that we felt like would be good additions to the roster. And then you know what? WE kind of sat down collectively as an offense, and our recruiting staff, and just kind of said 'Hey, who are the other guys that are out there that really we really feel we like?' - I mean it was probably about a five hour process where we sat down and we just watched every single person, got on the phone with them, and just started to communicate and have those conversations - who is someone else? Because we thought were going to get someone else and it didn't work out.

So once we identified him, he and his father ended up flying out here themselves, and toured everything, got to take a look at everything, and then it seemed like a match. So that one kind of happened pretty quickly for us just with adding more size, both vertically and laterally. I thought it was good for us, because I believe that big people beat little people."