James Rawls, Joe Golden, Isaac Hodgins, and Sione Lolohea have all graduated or entered the transfer portal, thus Oregon State’s defensive line room will be crowded with new players. After serving as the inside linebacker coach for the Beavers in 2014 under Gary Anderson and Kalani Sitake, Ilaisa Tuiaki, a former BYU defensive coordinator, has returned to Corvallis as the defensive line coach. After the group dispersed, OSU opened the gateway and added Nick Norris from Northern Colorado, Tevita Pome’e from Oregon, and Tygee Hill from LSU. Jacob Schuster will be at OSU as well. this year, who missed the previous campaign after moving from Minnesota. This year, a number of Beavers—Semisi Saluni, Thomas Collins, Quincy Wright, Takari Hickle, Hill, Pome’e, and Schuster—took turns with the first team. For the Beavers, the picture is a little clearer now that Hickle is set to miss the entire season due to an injury sustained during practice, and Wright has entered the transfer portal. According to Coach Tuiaki’s interviews, the Beaver defensive line will rotate a lot this season since he thinks OSU has two players deep at every defensive line position and three at others. It will be challenging for this bunch to replicate the previous seasons’ output, but it will be fascinating to
The Beavers’ defensive line will be considerably different this year. OSU’s top four defensive linemen from the 2023 campaign are gone, and the team has relatively few return players with meaningful playing experience. Semisi Saluni, the most seasoned player up front for the Beavers, has played in 39 games over the course of three seasons. During spring camp, he was the only defensive lineman to practice exclusively with the starting squad. Saluni, a 295-pound player, appears ready to assume a starting position for the Beavers after making 17 tackles with one TFL during his time with the team. Tygee Hill played sparingly for LSU during his two years there, but this offseason he has taken first team workouts and is vying for a beginning point.Jacob Schuster, who transferred from Minnesota, missed the 2023 season, but he has been jogging beside Saluni the most at Spring Camp. During his tenure as a Golden Gopher, Schuster made only a few appearances and one tackle. The 325-pounder might be among the Beavers’ most improved run plugs in recent memory. Tevita Pome’e, a 6-foot-2, 321-pound former Oregon Duck, is another impressive transfer. Although they might not put the greatest pressure on the quarterback, these two can be highly useful in the run game. Watch out for redshirt freshman JoJo Johnson as well.Takari Hickle seemed to have virtually secured down this location. However, given his injuries, it’s unclear if he’ll be ready for action at the beginning of the season, therefore we have left him off of this depth chart. When Hickle was unable to work, Thomas Collins took up Hickle’s position outside and worked alongside Saluni or the second team defensive tackles at first. Collins is now down to 266 pounds, 18 pounds less than he was the previous season. One of OSU’s greatest pass-rushers, the Swedish native might provide a pleasant threat off the edge.Transfer to Northern Colorado Nick Norris has the length to play here and has experience working both inside and outside.
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