Everything Oregon State Head Coach Trent Bray Said Pre-Houston
With the Oregon State football team (0-4) gearing up for a matchup against Houston (3-0) on Friday, BeaversEdge recaps everything head coach Trent Bray said at his Monday press conference.
Opening Statement
“Yeah, another talented team, Houston, explosive offensively. Defense throws a lot of action. They do a nice job. It’ll be another great challenge for us.”
Coach, I did happen to see them play Colorado, watch that whole game. Their team speed, talk about that. Talk about how you can slow that down.
“Yeah, I think it’s good skill positions. They make explosive plays. And so that’s the key when you play offenses like this, is eliminate or reduce the amount of explosive plays and make them be patient and drop.”
I know you had that second quarter drive in Eugene on Saturday after the fourth down stop. Albeit, though, I think you’d like to get more production rushing. What’s going on with the running attack?
“No, there’s no question. We’ve got to run the ball better. And there were moments on Saturday against a really good front. We’ve got to build on that. But we’ve got to be more consistent with being able to run the ball, because once they kind of shut that off for us, it made it really difficult the rest of the game.”
Friday night, first time really that all the students are back. And it’s a late start. It just sounds like it’s going to be a party atmosphere. How can that help? I don’t know about motivating your team, but just the atmosphere at research, how can that help you?
“Yeah, no, just having the students back in town is huge, because that’s really a big part of what makes the research stadium experience, is the students and the student section. They bring a tremendous amount of energy. So excited to get back out in front of them.”
You’ve been looking for more big plays from the defensive front, sacks, pressures, those sorts of things. In the first half on Saturday, we saw some of that. Some passes batted out at the line of scrimmage and all of that. What do you have to do to be able to sustain that kind of attack for 60 minutes?
“Yeah, it’s just being relentless every time you’re on the field. We can’t take plays off. Though I’m not going to get to the quarterback, every time you’re part of the rush, whether it’s an edge guy, an inside guy, a linebacker blitzing, you’ve got to assume you’re going to affect the play and you’ve got to chase and race to the quarterback to disrupt his setup point. We’re getting better, but we need to continue to improve the production.”
Being through one of the more difficult stretches of your guys’ schedule, what’s the feeling around the team of trying to sort of hit that reset button ahead of a short week here?
“Yeah, I’ve kind of said it. They’ve been great as far as the way they come out to work, the way they show up to meetings. No one’s pouting or hanging their head or anything like that. So I feel good about the work they’re doing. We understand. We’ve done some things self-destruction-wise that have led to our situation. So we’re part of that. We’ve got to fix that. Continue to improve in that. And then really build off that first half of Oregon. I said it after the game, but you’re right there with that team that’s one of the top teams in the country. That’s what we’re capable of doing. And we’ve got to do it for four quarters.”
And obviously, in these type of situations, there are outside pressures that exist for teams, for coaches. What are your conversations looking like right now with Scott Barnes? How much faith has he, I guess, expressed in you and to you?
“Yeah, yeah. All the noise is outside. That’s the big thing, I guess, to understand is there’s no noise in here. There’s no noise with the team. There’s no noise with the coaches. That’s all external stuff that we can’t control. And really, not even a factor for myself.”
What do you expect from Houston? What do they do? Is it completely different than anything you’ve seen yet this year?
“No, no. It’s very similar to what we’ve seen the last two weeks from Tech and from Oregon, both offensively and defensively. So there’s some carryover and things we’ve seen and learned from against those two teams that should hopefully help us on Friday.”
Coach, do you view this as a very pivotal moment in season for you guys on this short week to come out and get a win here, avoid being a flat start?
“I mean, getting a win is pivotal regardless, yeah. I mean, the short week, bounce back. I mean, there’s some positives to that, too. You’re not sitting around for a whole other day thinking about what just happened at Oregon. So you can move on to the next opponent. But it’s going to be important that we come out and rebound and play well.”
I won’t ask you to completely break down a practice schedule in season for yourselves, but how does that work on the short week? What do you guys have to remove a day off?
“Yeah, we shorten practice probably by about 30 minutes. We’re only on the field for about an hour. But the time we spent on Houston was the same. It’s just some of the interaction you may do against each other and take off some of that physical load for.”
Conrad Hussey. Obviously, there were off-the-field issues at Florida State that led to his release. And I’m curious what the process was like adding him to the roster in that window, and then what you guys have seen out of him thus far.
“Yeah, I’ll talk about what we’ve seen about him. He came highly recommended from once we found out he was admitted into school and wanted to be a part of our program. We did our due diligence and called and we got very high recommendations from people down there. So we felt great about that. We got guys on our team that know him, which might have led to him wanting to come to school here in the first place. And then he’s been great since he’s been here. He works hard. He’s got the kind of mindset you want for a defensive back and a defensive player in general and been nothing but happy and pleased with him.”
He’s obviously wearing number 12. Is Tyrice done for the year?
“Yeah.”
You said Saturday that you wanted a day to review the film to really diagnose those issues with the run game. It’s the 131st-ranked rushing attack in college football right now. What would you assess is the problem currently?
“Yeah, I think a big part of it is finishing. Finishing the block. Staying in the fight, as I like to call it. The initial block is there and then they’re not holding that block long enough to give Hank time to make a play. You started to see some of that and some good finishes early in that Oregon game, which led to some big runs by Sallah and Hank. But it’s got to be more consistent on finishing those blocks and not looking, where’s the ball? Just do your work and finish till you hear that whistle blow.”
Coach, how’d Hussey play overall in terms of throwing him out there in the fire?
“I thought he did decent, especially having only a couple of days of practice, really, with us. But he played hard. He tried his best. He may have made some mistakes, but that’s natural. We knew that. He’s working hard this week and had a good day today, and is excited about what he can do. But he’s picking it up pretty fast. You’ve got to give him credit for that.”
Connor Wegman, their quarterback, how does he challenge you in terms of a guy that can make plays with his legs and so on? What do you have to be aware of with him with respect to that?
“Yeah, you’ve got to do a good job keeping him in the pocket because he’s a good athlete, and he’s hurt teams by getting out and running. So we can’t allow that to be a factor. When they drop back the pass, we’ve got to keep him in there and give our secondary a chance to work.”
On that same topic, obviously, Dante Moore was able to break and taint a couple of times in this most recent game. I mean, what are you keying in on in thinking about how that will apply to Wegman?
“Absolutely. Especially the time he got out, that two-minute drive at the end, which really allowed them to get in a scoring position. It’s rush lanes. Guys got to understand, one, where their rush lane is. And then when they make a move and which side they have to win to. What happened on that play is we got our whole three of our four D linemen collapsed to one side. And that’s what opened that scene. Those are the things you can’t allow to happen.”
Being at this four-game mark into the season with the flexibility that players have in modern college football, do you guys have departures or players at this point that are taking a step somewhere else at this point in the season?
“No.”
Maalik had his least productive game on Saturday. What did you see there? And what have to turn around to have a more productive game on Friday night?
“Yeah, there’s times on Saturday where he tried to do too much and tried to be the hero on every play. That’s not your job. And then so just again, it’s back to trusting your read, trusting the offense, and doing what the defense gives you. And so there’s options in everything we do for where the ball needs to go. And then just trusting that and not trying to force something and try to make too much happen on every single play.”
There’s talk of changing the portal window at the end of the season, pushing it a little bit later into January. How do you feel about that? Is that a better place for it than where it currently is? What’s your just feeling on that?
“I’m happy there’s one. I’m glad that once that window’s over, you know who your team is. In the past, you still had a whole other deal after spring ball. And so that part of it’s very good. Gives guys still an opportunity to do whatever they’re going to do. But you know what your team is moving in the winter conditioning, moving in the spring, moving in the summer. So that part of it, that stability, is going to be a big deal.”
Four weeks into the season, and Trey Glasper played the second-most snaps for you guys defensively. He’s obviously been targeted by some passes, giving up some stuff. But we saw him take a big hit there at the end of Saturday’s game. And he was back out on the field pretty quickly on the next series. I’m curious, what have you just seen from him as a freshman to really give him that much run and just the competitiveness he’s played with?
“Yeah, very, very impressed with his mentality, his toughness, his durability for such a young guy. Like he started the season with 17 years old when he played Cal. And he’s been forced to play a lot, probably before you naturally want a true freshman to play. But he’s done a nice job. And he’s had really good moments. And he’s had some balls caught on him. But that’s life of a corner. And I think he’s got tremendous potential to be a really good player and a really good corner. And I like where he’s at. And he’s had to do a lot of work for us.”
The issues with the Oregon State run game and some of the other issues in the first couple of games with the line play, is it strictly because they’re green or young?
“Well, that’s always a factor. I mean, I look at it right now, we’re a new and young team. So even the guys we got out of the portal are inexperienced. They were a backup at this school. They weren’t a starter at that school. So they’re still getting their first starting experience. And they’re improving. It takes time to build new and young players. And they’ve had to do it against the top teams in the country. So I like how we’ve improved. I like that they continue to fight and battle. And they’ve gained valuable experience that has to be a big factor for us this kind of stretch down the end of the season.”
Beyond the obvious, which would just be a win, what would a successful game against Houston look for you? And what are your keys to staying competitive and competing in this game?
“Well, there’s only one, and that’s winning. You know, that’s all there is to this game. And as competitors, there’s no moral victories in my mind.”
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