Saturday’s game against No. 11 Washington State will be a reunion for Oregon defensive line coach Joe Salave’a since the first-year Oregon coach spent the previous five seasons coaching for the Cougars. He was asked plenty about his former team before Oregon’s practice on Wednesday.

Here’s what he had to say:

Q: What do you think of your old team, this year? 

A: I think it’s four or five years in the making. Those guys play well, obviously.

Q: Do you think you can help your offensive line because you know their defensive linemen?

A: Man, those guys, you get to work with those guys for five years, so you know those guys pretty good. But coaches don’t play. Players play. So our guys need to continue to prepare and make sure that we’re fluid in our game plan moving forward.

Q: They say one of the things that makes defensive coordinator Alex Grinch so good is that he’s an unpredictable schemer, is that accurate? 

A: I wouldn’t say unpredictable … aggressive. He’s an aggressive play caller but I think those are the things that those guys continue to do well, is have guys in the right places. They demand their players going 100 miles an hour. And those things, again, we’re trying to get better and improve in that area, to play hard, straight, 100 miles an hour. We do that, we’ll get a shot. But Grinch, man, he’s up-and-coming. He’s been doing a fantastic job for the last few seasons.

Q: What’d you see in Hercules Mata’afa when you recruited him?

A: I saw a kid that loved the game, had passion.  His DNA and pedigree is a wrestler. So when you have a kid who shows on film the things that you’re looking for — leverage, power, those things — the rest you just gotta coach. Probably one of the reasons why a lot of teams didn’t really pursue the kid is because it takes patience, and for me, it’s not a difficult decision to go after that kid and knowing that he’s going to be a good one. So it was just a matter of getting him over to Washington State and grooming him and putting him in a position to let him loose. And that’s what you’re seeing from Herc.

Follow Gus Morris on Twitter @JustGusMorris

The post Q&A with Joe Salave’a, Ducks D-line coach and former WSU assistant coach appeared first on Emerald Media.