Everything Oregon State HC Trent Bray Said Pre Wake Forest
With the Oregon State football team (0-6) gearing up to host Wake Forest (3-2) on Saturday, BeaversEdge recaps everything head coach Trent Bray said at his Monday press conference.
Opening Statement
“Yeah, just to look ahead at Wake Forest, a talented team, quarterbacks, super talented guy. They play well on both sides of the ball, play fast, physical. It’s going to be a challenge.”
Coach, special teams, you made a change. What are your thoughts about going forward? How is that going to be handled?
“Yeah. Coach Robb Akey is going to take it over, and he’ll be working with the special teams and along with some other help from assistant coaches and all that. But yeah, we’ve decided to handle it that way.”
You brought up Wake Forest. Jake Dickert, former Cougar coach, he knows you guys. You know him. What’s this matchup like for you guys?
“Yeah, I think his teams are well coached and they play physical, they play hard, a lot like his Washington State team. So we expect them to come in here and play hard and be a challenge.”
Coach, halfway through the season, it’s kind of a chance to cut up. Okay, we’ve got one half to go. What can we do to get better? But big picture, Pac-12 2.0 is coming up. You want to be moving into getting back into conference play in style, winning games, and being impressive. What are your thoughts about keeping everybody engaged and motivated for the big picture, which is, hey, Pac-12?
“Yeah, I think finishing strong is the emphasis. And then, you know, finishing the season out strong and the way we want it to go. And obviously, momentum moving forward is a good thing; there’s no question.”
Scott Barnes issued a statement about the state program yesterday, and disappointment, I think, was the word that was used. What does that statement mean to you? And practically, does it change anything? Does it involve you doing anything? What’s your feeling on that statement?
“Yeah, it is disappointing. I mean, we’re 0-6. That’s disappointing. That’s not where we thought we’d be or anything. What has to change is, I think, what we saw the last two weeks, we’re in position to win games, and we’re not making the plays to win those games. Last week, we had three opportunities at the end of the game to do it. So we got to, you know, we got to keep coaching these guys and put them in positions to be successful, and then we got to go out and make those plays when we have the opportunities.”
Coach, you said last week, quote, that you believe that Coach Christian can finish out the season, that you had the confidence in him to do it. What changed in the past few days?
“You know, it’s been an evaluation of the whole year. I do believe in Coach Christian. He’s a good coach, and he’s proven that through a long career, and I believe in him. You know, the last two weeks, we’ve had short weeks. You know, obviously, short week playing on Friday, and then the travel made it a short week. So it wasn’t the time to do it then, and then just an evaluation of, okay, we got a final week, full week, then no bye week. If we’re going to do it, this would be the time, and it just continued to be a problem. So we made that decision.”
What’s Daniel Akey’s function on the staff then? Why was he retained in that situation then, if he’s also part of the special team?
“He’s an analyst, and he works and helps with special teams. Well, I mean, he’s not, he wasn’t the one making the decisions on what we’re doing. He’s kind of doing the busy work and, you know, making the drawings and helping organize things. He wasn’t actually game planning.”
People have been pretty upset about those three calls from the goal line, the direct snaps with Maalik motioning out. I’m curious, what’s your defense of those play calls, and what was the scheme analysis there?
“So the defense of the play call is Maalik can’t get under center. So we can’t run sneak with him. The defense of the play calling is we got one yard to go. We’ve got more numbers than they do. We should be able to get one yard on that play for sure. Like that, that is our best one-yard play. So you call it your best one-yard play when you’re in those moments. And so that you watch, when you go back and watch the film, like we got more hats, we should win. And we did.”
You said that after the game, you just weren’t able to move people with a line scrimmage in that game. You’re closing in on a dozen different offensive line combos. They’ve all been the same seven guys, essentially, when you have 21 on roster. What’s led to exclusively playing those seven? Are those really the only guys you can trust in-game right now? And you know, you’re six weeks into the season, offensive line’s been a problem. What hasn’t changed?
“Yeah, I mean, those are the guys that can play winning football, you know, and where we need to. And then the drop off from after them is significant to where, you know, playing more than those seven has to this point hasn’t been an option.”
In Scott’s statement, he mentioned, you know, looking at specific things in the program that need to change the two of you together. What specific things are you looking at right now in terms of changing the program?
“I mean, for an immediate, it’s the finishing of games and making sure at the same time, okay, who is doing these jobs and what are we asking them to do and can they do it? If we’re asking them to do something they physically can’t do, then we need to not do those things. So if it’s less, then it’s got to be less. That’s the immediate right now change that can happen that would change the last two weeks, which in turn changes a lot about the season and where we’re at.”
Do you feel like the resources are in place for this program to build a long-term future out of the difficulty of this season? As a head coach, there’s more than just, you know, focusing on game to game to deal with your recruiting. You have the resources necessary to find players in the transfer portal. Do you feel like they’re there, and what would you say to the people in the Oregon State community who are concerned that that might not be the case right now?
“Yeah, as far as the recruiting part of it, just stop talking with all the commits. They’ve been good and solid with us. They decided to come here for reasons other than wins and losses. So that hasn’t hurt, you know, the guys that we’ve had. We’ve lost one because, you know, Big 10 team came in, but that’s part of it. That happens. But as far as that part of it and the interest, that hasn’t waned just because of the season. As far as the resources of moving forward, I feel good about where we’re at. We want to continue to grow in that area. There’s no question. So we can go out and do the things that we want to do from a personnel standpoint when you have to fill immediate holes. But I feel confident that we’ll get there.”
And how do you sell people to invest in the program and to continue to try to build on that when things have gone the way that they’ve gone and then there has been these sort of cultural shifts that you guys are undergoing?
“Yeah, very simple. Just the way I look at it is when things are going wrong or not going the way you want them, you need more. That’s when you need to pour into stuff.So I guess that’s what I’d say. Backing away and removing yourself from it isn’t going to better the situation. If we all want to get through this, I’m talking everyone, we got to put more into it.”
There has been reporting in recent weeks about, you know, issues on the recruiting trail involving, you know, players that might want to take a visit elsewhere to other schools who may be committed to the program, that at that point you guys are choosing to cut ties with those type of recruits, including some local players.
“Yeah, that was completely false. That was false. What happened was, and I know the one you’re talking about, which I can’t go into directly, the reason we moved the other way was because of a decommitment, not wanting to trip somewhere else. It was a decommitment. And so we brought in another guy who’s positioned to fill the decommitment.”
Okay, so the reporting around that in general was false.
“Yes.”
Look, on the football side, a lot of success on Saturday throwing the ball to the middle of the field. Was that a scheme thing on their end, or is that just the relationship and the chemistry that’s growing between Malik and the receivers? Just a lot of success doing that. Why was that such a huge part of the plan on Saturday?
“Yeah, I mean, it always goes into who you’re playing and what they do and trying to attack what they do. And so it went to that with who we played, for sure.”
Coach, with the way the college athletic landscape is changing, you know, NIL players, you know, players can actually be paid.Do you feel from a coaching perspective, you guys are getting the right return on your investment? And if it’s not at the level that you’re looking for, how do you get it to where you like the right return?
“Yeah, I think, you know, it’s not a unique problem to Oregon State.It might be magnified just because we’re not in the 30 million level, right, which a guy doesn’t play when you’re doing that. It’s fine. You know, our return on investment this year has been much better than it was a year ago. Is it perfect? And everyone that, you know, is getting something, contributing the way that we hoped they would? No. And so, again, it goes back to evaluation. And then, also, while they’re here, we got to continue to get them to, you know, be motivated. Sometimes you lose motivation when you are handed stuff. That’s something in college football across the country, right?”
As we look to Wake Forest, how do you look to limit explosive plays from the defensive side, especially in the secondary, and if you can’t limit, how do you make sure it doesn’t kill you on the scoreboard?
Yeah, so early in the game, you know, we gave up the two long balls. And then, rebounding, because you watch the second half, right, they’ve only get 100 yards the whole half. And so I think they did rebound from that. But we got to do a better job early in the game, because that’s when we’re being on our, you know, sound in what we’re doing. Especially, okay, we’re playing press, we’re at the line of scrimmage, we have to win at the line of scrimmage. When you miss, and then you get behind, and that’s what happened to him.
Now he’s got, you know, advantage on you. And to me, it wasn’t so much, okay, they’re going to catch a deep ball. It was now get the guy on the ground, which the first drive we did, we held him to three points. The second time they threw the deep ball, right, we don’t get the guy on the ground, he runs down to the four-yard line. Well, now the percentage of them scoring touchdowns, you know, in the 90%. So that to me was more the issue than, you know, the ball being caught on a deep ball.”
Coach, going back to some of the staff changes. Have you made any other changes to staff in terms of maybe game day operation, play calling, things of that nature?
“No.”
Coach Gundy told us on last Tuesday that you guys really believe that Hankerson will be a better back if he doesn’t have to carry the ball 30 times a game. We saw what that can look like with Cornell against Houston. He got four carries this week. What goes into that? And, you know, if you’re going to say that, why isn’t it occurring?
“Yeah, that is something that I addressed with those guys after the game yesterday. We need to play Cornell more and take less off Anthony, especially since Anthony’s beat up. And so he should have definitely got more play.”
What’s Hank dealing with?
“Ankle.”
In regards to Malik’s hand, you say you can’t go under center. It’s kind of a big piece of your guys’ offense. If that’s the case, why is he active in the game if it’s eliminated?
“Well, he can take it from gun, which is probably about 85, 90 percent of our offense. And then, you know, when we do want to do stuff under center, like we did against Appalachian State, we put Gabbari in. And doing more with Gabbari is what we want to do anyway, because Gabbari is a very talented quarterback. So it kind of lends to that. And then just doing more with Gabbari, period, I think will help us.”
You guys have obviously made a very large financial investment into Maalik. Have you considered a quarterback change?
“No, we haven’t. You know, we believe in Maalik. You know, obviously last week there were some plays that, you know, were disappointing to see because they had impacted the game quite a bit. But that’s our job to keep getting him better. He obviously has the talent. He threw for a ton of yards and made plays throughout the whole game. In those crucial moments is where we got to get him to make those plays that he’s been making all game.”
Halfway through the season now, we still haven’t seen Exodus Ayers in a game. Do you anticipate having him play at all this year?
“You know, we’re, I’m hoping, but I’m not sure. That’s kind of out of my hands.”
Can you go into any more?
“I can’t, no.”
And Coach, Trent Walker, his performance Saturday, his performance this season, seems to be a really tough guy as well. He got hit hard a couple of times. A, his status, is he okay? But number two, just your thoughts about Trent as a performer on the field for you.
“Yeah, to me, Trent’s everything you want in this program. From a leadership standpoint, a work ethic standpoint, the way he plays. You know, he’s been playing beat up as well. He’s tough. He continues to go out and compete. He makes the plays that you need him to make. He, you know, you look for your star players to show off your big moments and he does. So he’s kind of the epitome of what we want in this program.”
After a loss like the one on Saturday, is the chemistry still strong? Is the mindset still strong with the team? And have you noticed any change in the way the players are feeling, whether it’s game planning or with each other, any change in their mindset?
“I mean, I won’t lie, the game hurt us. I mean, you could see that in the players because that was one we expected to win, had multiple opportunities to win and didn’t. So I won’t even, you know, try to lie about that.
But getting with them yesterday, they’ve been resilient all year long in the way that they’ve bounced back from, you know, from not getting the results they want. And so I saw that again yesterday and look to see that the rest of the season. I think because we got guys that want to compete, you know, and that’s the great thing about college athletics and athletics in general.
Every week is a great opportunity to go out and compete because we all got larger goals too. So you’re not only competing for the team goals, but your individual goals and what you want to do in this game.”
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