Oregon State HC Trent Bray: "We were right there. We can do it."
Read everything that Oregon State head coach Trent Bray said following the 41-7 loss to Oregon…
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HC Trent Bray
Opening Statement
“Yeah, I think for the first half, we were doing what we wanted to do as far as competing, playing hard on our work, and it was good. It looked like we wanted to look, kind of let go of the rope in the second half and got back to making the same mistakes that put us in this position. Cut guys loose in the backhand, special teams blunders, you know, put the ball on the ground. So it’s a tale of two halves, and this is how good we are capable of being in that first half, and we need to be at four quarters here.”
Q: Trent, what do you think changed in terms of the shift in the third quarter, where guys kind of came out flat and reverted to this?
“Well, I wouldn’t say they came out flat, you know, they went straight out to start the half and gave them the ball back. That’s, yeah, I mean, that’s what it was. I thought they came out with energy, with fire, got the stop, and we gave them the ball back.”
Q: What was working on that scoring drive that went away? Was it Oregon’s adjustments there?
“Yeah, I think Oregon made some adjustments, and they do a nice job of doing that. But I thought in the first half, we were finishing some runs. I think we were keeping the chains moving by doing that. Then we got stagnant and got tackled. You know, things we’ve got to run through. Now, credit to them for making those plays, but we’ve got to be able to run through some run-throughs.”
Q: You mentioned special teams and the fake punt, but what was the responsibility there? What should have happened?
“Yeah, I mean, everyone’s got to be accountable for their job. If they roll out, we’ve got to be able to match hats to their hats, and we didn’t do that.”
Q: Talk about adding DB Conrad Hussey, playing snaps, and how that came to be?
“Well, today, as many as he played was out of necessity because of what happened in the game with availability of some guys. But he’d been doing a nice job. We felt good about playing him a little bit. That was a lot of snaps for someone that just got here, but that’s what happened.”
Q: It’s been a running theme for two seasons now, having a lot of injuries on game day, a lot of inactives. Do you feel like you have a practice issue or strength and conditioning things? What is leading to this number of injuries?
“No, because if they were injuries of that nature, I would say yeah. They were a couple of concussions, maybes, protocol stuff that got guys out. So they aren’t necessarily torn muscles or anything like that that would lead to a training issue.”
Q: Obviously, a tough game for Maalik. I’m wondering, do you feel like your offense is utilizing his skill set well enough at this point, given the struggles he’s had in some of these games?
“That’s probably a deeper look and dive into it than I can answer right now.”
Q: Along those lines, you go back to the Cal game, and Malik said he was just a passing offense. Obviously, that wasn’t the tendency that strikes today. How would you describe it? What is the angle of offense that you want to play your offense against?
“Ideally, we want to be a balanced attack that can take the top off the defense when we need to. When you’re struggling running the ball, it’s hard to be that offense. You don’t get those opportunities because they can play two high shells and they can stop the run with two high shells. And that’s the issue we’re running into right now.”
Q: How do you feel like the Oregon defense took Trent (Walker) out of the game and seemed like he was having trouble?
“Oregon, they do a real good job. They’ve got really good players. I think they did a nice job of taking away a guy that’s been really productive.”
Q: You put Will Haverland at long snapper today, how do you feel that went?
“Yeah, I thought he did a good job. The ball got back to the punter and we were able to get it off. And that was great to see for a true freshman, a guy that had an emergency a couple weeks ago, and what it looked like then and what it looks like now. I’m very proud of what he’s done.”
Q: How would you diagnose the running struggles right now?
“Again, that’s going to be a…To say anything of substance, I’d have to dive deeper into it. I’d say it’s not good enough right now.”
Q: Obviously, you guys find yourself in another situation where you have to reset and find yourself in a better headspace to get ready for this Houston game. What has been your message to the team to get them into that space? And maybe what will all that have to look like for things to get back on track?
Yeah, it was kind of what I started with. For a half, we were playing with one of the best teams in the country. We were right there. We can do it. That’s how good we’re capable of being. And then in the second half, we cut guys loose in the back end. We put the ball on the ground. We didn’t move the sticks. We kind of went back to the things that have plagued this that got us here. And the message to them is, this is how good you can be. We have to believe that, and we have to do it for four quarters. Right now, we’re doing it sometimes, not all the times. And when you play the teams like we’re playing, you’ve got to do it all the time. All the time.”
Q: Do you feel like it’s a matter of focus at this point?
“I mean, that’s always the case, I think. I think when you’re tired, getting dragged on, that’s where the mental toughness and discipline has to come in to stay focused, yes.”
Q: Talk about Maalik Murphy’s struggles today
“Yeah, I think he’s had some moments where he’s looked really good. Again, you know, the struggles with us not being able to run the football effectively, that’s going to prove any point now. Now he’s got to try to carry things on his shoulders, and the defenses can play you different when they can stop you in the run game and don’t have to load box at you. So I think there’s a lot of factors that lead into sometimes when he struggles.”
Q: What’s practice look like for you guys heading into Houston?
“Well, we’ve got to look at that. We’re going to talk about that, discuss that.We’re on a short week. Obviously, they’re on a bye week. So we’ve got to be smart in how we practice and get these guys fresh.”
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