Everything Oregon State Head Coach Trent Bray Said Post-Fresno
With the Oregon State football team (0-2) falling to Fresno State (2-1) 36-27 at Reser Stadium on Saturday, BeaversEdge recaps everything head coach Trent Bray said.
Opening statement on Oregon State’s loss to Fresno
“I love my frustration at halftime. Apologize for my language. Frustrated because we gave them the game. We spotted 21 points on blunders. It’s just frustrating to see. And it’s frustrating because the guys put in the work to perform and to lose this way. For the second week in a row, it’s frustrating.
Coach, when was it clear Will Haverland would snap?
“Yeah, I mean, when… I mean, I think it was kind of obvious to everyone when it was.It was the third snap that was way off target, not even close. We had to do something. We were going to have to punt at some point.We were going to have to kick a field goal at some point. Just… yeah.”
When did you know Dylan Black would miss today?
We knew early in the week. We knew early in the week. Jackson hasn’t done it for us in-game. I mean, he did it most of the season last year. So today was just… we can’t anticipate that stuff happening.”
Can Van Wells deep sna?
“He hasn’t been a deep snapper, so that’s not an easy thing to do either.”
How much work did Haverland get this week?
“He did it in high school. With Dylan’s injury, we had to do something to make sure we had a backup ready. Unfortunately, we had to get to it.”
At what point did you realize that it was going to be an issue to have someone snap the ball? Was it the first or the second?
We weren’t counting on it being an issue. Like I said, that was our long snapper all last year. We were fine, so we weren’t anticipating it. We were hoping to get Will ready for the long term. That’s a hard situation to go in for a freshman. He did the best he could. In a short notice, being called up in-game, I feel for him.”
With Dylan’s injury, is this something you feel like you guys are going to need to figure out in the long term?
“Absolutely. We’re going to have to get Jackson back. It’s a headspace thing. It’s not that he can’t do it. It’s a headspace thing. Then we’ve got to get Will ready to roll and put him in situations where he’s got heat, he’s got pressure, so he learns how to perform. Like I said, it’s not his fault at all. We’re thrown into an unfortunate situation.”
This is the second week in a row that special teams have cost the team points. What do you tell the fans and what do you tell your team?
“It’s just frustrating. It’s frustrating to lose in that fashion when there’s really no call for it. We’ve got to do a better job all around on special teams. It’s not just players, it’s coaches, it’s players, it’s everybody. To lose these two games the way we have is not acceptable.”
Trent, you acknowledged your frustration at halftime. Is that a policy, something that you did on your own?
Yeah, I talk a certain way. Sometimes in the heat of the moment, I talk like I was if I was talking to a friend. That’s where I’ve got to grow as a head coach and understand on national TV, I can’t say that.”
Trent, six full starts. Talk about the process, how that comes to be. Is that on the quarterback, is that on the offensive line? Where does that blame lie?
“That’s where I’ve got to have a conversation with Coach Cav and Coach Gundy and see where that problem is so we can get it fixed. Today was just a calamity of self-inflicted wounds that we just couldn’t recover from. Almost did, but couldn’t. Even the last drive, we let the quarterback run all the way down. I mean, it’s, yeah.”
With the mistakes with special teams, when you get to the late game situation, less than 20 seconds trying to score, are you playing for the field goal knowing that you did have issues early on with special teams or are you saying, hey, we need to score a touchdown?
“Oh yeah, the last drive, we knew we had to score a touchdown. The drive before that, we were going to go and then we got knocked backwards for a heavy loss, so we had to kick a field goal.We had to have a chance because it had been 30-20. The last drive was to, you hadn’t scored? Oh, we didn’t score on the last drive, yeah.”
Trent, late in the first half, you’re up 15-14, you had some momentum, you got the ball in a pretty good field position, and it didn’t seem like there was any urgency.
“Yeah, you’re trying to end the half with the ball. So that’s the strategy there.You don’t want to give the ball back to Fresno State.”
Coach, the 0-2, a couple of road games coming up against top 25 teams, but back half of the schedule is maybe a little bit more favorable. How do you keep this locker room together with the idea that there’s still a lot to play for this season?
“Yeah, I don’t think that’s going to be hard because of the guys that are in it. We just had a talk about that. I mean, if you look at the stat sheet, it’s heavy favorable for us, and so we’ve got to stop killing ourselves. And that’s what we’ve done the first week and this week, is we have kept ourselves from winning. And for us to be the team that we’re capable of being, we’ve got to eliminate those things. And if we don’t, it’s going to continue to look like this. So that’s a challenge for all of us.”
Coach, how do you think Malik Murphy played today?
“I thought he did a lot of great things. I mean, he led the drive to go ahead. That should have been it. I expect us to go out there and shut him down. You know, at the very end, the pick six, I mean, he’s just trying to force a play. I mean, that’s the situation we’re in. But I thought he did a lot of great things.”
Talk about Malik’s progression from one to now. Do you think that he actually took the notes that you gave him after watching the field to try to do that?
“Yeah, he did. He made the throws we wanted him to make, and he did a nice job moving the football and putting points on the board this week. So I was very happy with the progression that Malik made.”
Through two games, last year you had seven sacks for the whole season. Through two games, you’re at zero. How do you change that?
“It starts with, you know, executing the rush. Like, I mean, just rush lanes there at the end.I mean, that was a poor display of rush lanes. We got to fix that. Because in a rush, you’re always, there’s leverage and there’s an inside fit. And we let the ball outside where we have inside fits, which lead to sacks. So the lack of contain was a problem. And that leads to a lack of production in sacks.”
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