Different look on O this year at Marist. Could it get better than last year?

First, lets get to the rumors about the Marist transfers. The 6' 8" Texan is only 6' 7". Okay, there is no transfer from Texas. There is also no 6' 5" transfer from South Eugene. Kamerun Smith did transfer in from Willamette High as well as James Banks from South Eugene. Both are juniors. We know Kamerun is tall, but Banks is only 6' 1", I'm sure that's disappointing to the Spartan fans who were seeing visions of a 6' 5" beast. However, Banks is pure football guy and even more of a smart guy - what with his calculus class at the U of O.

Turnout: Marist has 58 players listed on the varsity roster. There's another 22 frosh.


Returning starters: Marist lost 10 defensive starters. Paxton Miller is the returnee. Marist returns six all league players on offense.  Taylor Walcott, Austin Baird, and Josh Paiement at receiver spots.  Greg Park in the backfield and Mitch Olive and Paxton Miller on the line.

I spent a lot of time with coach Geske in a far reaching interview. Here's a paraphrasing of our talk.

GH is Gary Haliski
FG is coach Frank Geske

GH: Several MWL coaches have asked me, "Marist can't be as good as last year, can they?". Well, can you?
FG: No. We were able to do some extra things because of Devereaux and Mayes on defense. The other teams had to account for them at all times. We were also incredibly fortunate to have guys like Inouye and Beattie on the corners. They didn't weigh a buck forty, but they had perfect technique and would drill guys. Silver was special on offense. We've got to replace 10 starters on defense. We'll be good on D because we have so many players who can play each position and we have a lot of competition within our team. Our offense is really, really good and has an opportunity to be outstanding.

GH: What were your subvaristy records last year?
FG: Our frosh team had one win while the JV's went undefeated.

GH: Non of the MWL teams return their QB. You've got Kamerun Smith, who played at Willamette last year. Who's it going to be at QB?
FG: Smith is our quarterback. We have several guys who can come in at QB. Josh Paiement and Tyler Dennis could handle the job as well as some others, but Smith is our QB and is picking up the system quickly.

GH: Smith is a drop back passer, whereas Logan Silver was a passing tailback at QB last year. With Greg Park back as a running back and James Banks in the backfield, will you have a different look?
FG: Park and Banks are two really good backs. We'll be able to have different sets. Two back sets, a set with one back with an H back. They can catch so they might not be in the backfield at all, sometimes.

GH: You've got Walcott, Baird and Paiement back at receiver spots. Any other receivers?
FG: We're loaded at the receiver position. You can expect to see Jonathon Tharpe, Josh Harper, Sam Krier a lot. I call Krier "Mr. Diggs', he's fearless over the middle.

GH: Do you have more depth this year? Can you have more players play just one way? Perhaps Walcott and Kamerun Smith?
FG: I'd like to get Kamerun on the D line, but he's most likely just going to see Qb duty. I'll try and hold Walcott to the offense, but he can chase anything down from a free safety spot - so I wouldn't be surprised to see him on D at times.

GH: You lost 10 starting defenders. How do you reload your defense?
FG: All of our running backs are linebackers. All of our O linemen are D linemen and our receivers are our DB's. We'll be rotating a lot of players through all positions a lot. We're getting pretty good on D. And this is really helping our Qb, Kamerun. Kamerun gets to see six to seven coverages every day. That's going to help him a lot and he has to mature very quickly in our first two games. [Marist opens at Corvallis and then travels to Ashland]

GH: Your practices are at tempo on the very first day. It seems like all of the kids know what station to go to and when to go there. Even the frosh.
FG: We spend time during conditioning going over practice and tell the kids we expect them to be ready on the first day. We do 80 minutes of technique to start each practice. We rotate every player of every class through each station.
GH is thinking.[So maybe some of the players don't really know what's going on the first day, they just follow their group around from station to station. Looked good to me. Practice was fast paced, and the Spartans really do spend the first 80 minutes on technique.]

GH: Last year you were loaded with horses and it looked like you had great leadership. Do you think the leadership will develop to the same level this year?
FG: I think it will be the same. I am well aware that I am very fortunate to be coaching at Marist. I remember how busy I was coaching at Franklin and Tigard. A fair amount of my time was spent dealing with peripheral player issues that didn't have anything to do with the kids on the field. At Marist, the varsity kids are already good citizens with good habits.
   It took me awhile to figure out why our frosh teams do so poorly and then they end up doing very well. Our current group of juniors were winless as frosh in the Sky-Em league. I finally realized that when the frosh come into Marist, every one of their teachers loads them up all day long with doing the right thing. The frosh would get that all day long and would figure out that they probably shouldn't have an aggressive football attitude in their every day activities. Then they'd show up to practice with a good citizen smile, and we'd want them to go after it. We coaches wanted more of the Joe Paterno thing, "Gentlemen off the field", but be able to flip a switch when they get on the field.
   The losing frosh seasons were frustrating but I figured out why and worked with my coaches on it, telling the coaches that the frosh year in the classroom pays dividends. We end up with kids who are diligent, they eat right, they train right, they take care of their families and they take care of each other. By the time a player makes varsity, 'It' has just happened. And I get to focus on football.

GH: Thanks, coach.

Coach Geske touched on a lot of players that I haven't fit into the above conversations, sometimes because I can't read my scratch notes. Here's some mentions that I can still read:

Jet Taylor (5' 8", 205 LB/RB) is The Little Stud.

'Hammertime' (junior Eric Hammersmith) is battling senior Ryan Whalen for the center spot.

Tony Ford (6' 2", 24) will be joining Hammertime, Mitch Olive, Paxton Miller and Whalen rotating on the D line.

Colton Bowden, Cody King (MiddleLB), Jet Taylor and James Banks give the Spartans a lot to work with at the LB position.

Sophomore Dante Castille (5'10", 310) is pushing around some of the junior and senior linemen and just might see a lot of playing time.

Three juniors really stand out. Austin Baird, Paxton Miller, and James Banks. Banks is tough and has a super high football IQ to go along with the U of O calculus class. Miller is all football, and Baird is super quick and tough as nails. I grabbed Baird and state sprint champion Taylor Walcott for a staged photo for a story of who is faster. Walcott is a senior and has proof of how fast he is via his OSAA state sprint champion medal. Baird is fast, but he is a lowly junior and a baseball player, so he doesn't get to show off his speed. During conditioning, the Spartans run lots of 100's, so eyes are on Walcott and Taylor. Walcott seems to win those. But football is about the 40 yard dash, and one day the team had to put them to the test, and the version I heard was that Baird eeked out Walcott in the 40. Being competitive, Walcott challenged Baird to a 100, where Walcott proved that he would be the guy to throw to if Marist is ever first and ten from their own one yard line. During the photo shoot, when I asked them who won the 40, they laughed and said it was really, really close.

Best coaching comment of the day as I was walking around taking photos: A non varsity player was explaining to a coach that the player should only play on one side of the ball and there wasn't any reason to practice both ways. The coach said, " Football isn't a democracy. At Marist we give you an equal opportunity to play both offense and defense.

I'll post Josh Paiement's pop quiz answers Friday, and I'll be posting practice photos of all teams next Monday.

Off to Ashland and Eagle Point Thursday.