Oregon State HC Trent Bray: "I Feel For The Players"
Read everything that Oregon State head coach Trent Bray said following the 27-24 overtime loss to the Houston Cougars to fall to 0-5 on the year.
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HC Trent Bray
“Dominated that game until the last six minutes, and then it totally flipped. So we got to finish, bottom line.”
Trent, just take us to the decision on third and one in overtime to bring in Jabari Johnson and try to run that probably sequence there.
“Yeah, Maalik (Murphy) couldn’t. His hand was injured and couldn’t hold the ball. So that’s what happened.”
I know you haven’t had a chance to look at it yet. Anything in particular that broke down on the two field goal attempts that got blocked?
“Everything, I mean, $hit, four guys, excuse my language, but four guys could have blocked it. I mean, we got a chance to win it and we gotta pull up and protect it. Yeah, that was really disappointing.”
Just going off that, what was the decision to go for it on that fourth and one down there instead of kicking the field goal in overtime?
“It was part of it. I mean, the analytics, fourth and one, third and one, fourth and one, you’re up. The percentage of getting one of those is good. But yeah, that weighed on my mind too, absolutely.”
So this is the third game now that special teams mishaps have cost a game, how do you shore that up?
“I think it’s just, to me, it’s like today, it’s just finding your job. I mean, whatever you’re on, starter on offense, starter on defense, starter on field goal. You gotta go in there and play, and then you gotta, I mean, we gotta protect. That had nothing to do with scheme, that had nothing to do with anything, except we gotta protect.”
Trent, given where the season is, and given what transpired in this game, are you considering staffing changes at this point?
“I mean, I can’t answer that right now.”
If Malik’s hand was hurt, why was he in the game, just kind of in general?
“He couldn’t take it, I understand.”
Trent, putting this in a larger perspective, just what was your message to the team after a game like this?
“Yeah, I mean, it came down to, like I said, with six something left in the game, where we’re completely dominating on both sides of the ball, and we didn’t finish. And that’s what it is, we gotta finish. We gotta finish against good teams. We knew this team was a really good team. We knew we had to play four quarters, we played three and a half.”
Trent, just looking at the numbers here, you allowed seven yards on defense in the third quarter, and then 180 in the fourth. That was obviously the high mark for the game, just off first glance, what kind of broke for you guys there in the fourth quarter?
“The ball got thrown over our head. So we did a good job all night, make him throw it down, and then the last six minutes, the ball was just thrown over our head.”
Trent, what have your conversations been like with Scott, and do you expect potentially difficult conversations ahead in the coming days, given how the season has started?
“I mean, it’s the same thing, I can’t answer that right now, with any kind of truth or knowledge, because I’m in the heat of the moment, and I don’t wanna say something that I don’t mean or regret, so I can’t answer it.”
Just as somebody who obviously cares about this university and has put a lot of time and emotion into it, I guess how much more does something like this hurt you?
“Well, to me, my feelings are insignificant in my mind, I feel for the players. They’ve done what we asked them to do, they’ve worked hard, they’ve stayed positive, they came out and they played a really good football game against a really good team, and to let it slip away at the end, I’m disappointed for them, not myself.”
It looks like in some of those two-minute drills, you guys have just struggled to get in and out of the huddle. I’m curious, what have the issues been there? Is there communication problems going on? It just kinda looks like a bit of a mess.
“Yeah, some of it is the device in the helmet, him not being able to hear clearly, that’s part of the problem. And then I gotta talk to Gundy on the other side tonight, that caused that. But I know that was one of the issues.”
Do you still feel like Maalik’s engaged in the offense?
“Yeah, I don’t doubt anyone in that locker room at all. And I think that showed tonight, the way they came out and played for a long time.”
Why was (Cam Smith) out there to kick?
“Yeah, Caleb (Ojeda) got hurt.”
What did you think of Cornell Hatcher?
“I thought Cornell ran great, I mean, he got vertical, ran hard. I mean, he was a big part of us, those last two scores. I mean, those big-time runs.”
Last week, Maalik spoke of being on a high going into halftime. Do you think that you guys kinda fell victim to kinda getting in a big hit before quarter?
“No, I mean, I don’t think us being up had anything to do with it. Like I said, I think we’ve made too many mistakes at the end. We let the ball be thrown overhead, which hadn’t happened all night. And then we have some opportunities, we drop a pass at the end of the game that would have put us down there, never even given them another chance to touch the ball to begin with. They’re just mistakes at the end that cost us.”
Trent, this is five straight games now that you don’t trust your special teams. Do you need to make a change with that?
“I’m not going to answer that. I said that earlier.”
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