Wake Forest's Jake Dickert On Oregon State: "The Narrative Is Wrong"
With the Oregon State football team (0-6) preparing to face Wake Forest (3-2) at Reser Stadium on Saturday, BeaversEdge recaps everything that Demon Deacons head coach Jake Dickert and other coaches and players said about the Beavers!
💬 Wondering what other Oregon State fans are saying?
Opening Statement From Wake Forest HC Jake Dickert
“It’s going to be a challenging week. We get to head cross-country to Oregon State. I’m very thankful for this game, even for myself, to just get familiar with taking a team across the country, because we’re going to have to do it quite often in this league. I’m excited about the challenge. I’ve been to Oregon State.
It’s a tough place to win, but we need to get our minds back to the dark and work and prepare this week to get ourselves in a good position to go win a football game against a good, tough opponent. Another homecoming game for them. Another tough environment. Our guys have got to be ready to go.”
Has your schedule changed? Are you going to be out there a day early or anything?
“Yeah, we’ll be out there Thursday afternoon. Obviously, we’re gaining time going west, so we’ll stay on course throughout the course of the week. Then on Thursday, after that practice, we’ll leave this building about 12.30 and hit the five-hour flight out west.”
Jake, you’re obviously very familiar with Oregon State. You know the coaching staff there. You know their 0-6. How do you keep your team from overlooking what is a non-conference game against a winless team?
“It’ll be a good maturity test. From my standpoint, and there will be about 10 other people in this room that I’ve experienced playing there, A, Coach Bray, tons of respect for Coach Bray. He’s an absolutely fantastic coach.
The narrative is wrong, in my opinion. I know exactly what he’s going through during these couple of transitional years out there. They’ve played what I would think is the hardest schedule in the country.
I don’t have facts on that. I don’t have strength. Two top-10 teams, a Houston team, ACC team, now the second ACC team, lost a couple close games, and they’re trying to find their breakthrough. So they’ve been in some close, tough football games. We’re going to play the chainsaw in the indoor and get used to the environment, and it’ll be rocking in there. It’s a passionate, strong fan base.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. This is a powerful football team in my mind. Always has been.
Looked at the history of success, and in my opinion, always will be. So you can throw out the record. It’s going to be a tough, scrappy football team that’s going to be fighting, because that’s what they’ve done throughout the history of their program.”
Challenge Of Facing Oregon State Out Of Conference
“We’re going into a tough environment against a team, you know, I’m familiar with, but that doesn’t matter. And I have a ton of respect. I can’t say that enough for, like, this program. Obviously, we took a very talented team into there last year and lost in a tough game. So I know what they’re capable of.
I have kind of memories of zone boots and closets and, you know, this team doing a lot of different things to us. So it’s a challenge. Like, what they do on offense is a challenge.
Quarterback’s highly capable. Like I said, Coach Bray is a phenomenal defensive coordinator. He’s calling it now. So it’ll just be a lot of things that we need to make sure, like, we’re on top of our game, regardless of who the opponent is, ACC or not.”
What were your feelings on leaving the Pac-12 and finding out where you had a game against one of the teams that is still in that?
“Yeah, I mean, I was familiar with it last year because the repercussion of the whole exchange was Washington State taking over Ole Miss game. I was not happy with that at that time. You know, so this is kind of the exchange of the game is kind of what happened a little bit in real time. You know, fast forward eight months, like, here we are, you know, in a challenge that we got to go across the country. So, you know, that’s where our focus is at, and this will be a great test for our team.”
Defensive Coordinator Scottie Hazelton
You know, Oregon State, you know, Malik Murphy played at Duke in the ACC.
“You know, the guys know him well. And he made a big time play last year, you know, to get Wake. So that’s a big thing. You know what I mean? I think the guys want to go back there and see that guy again and see what they can do against him.”
The biggest challenges that Oregon State presents your defense?
You know, they, they, they want to be a run team, you know, and, and they have some really big individuals up front, you know what I mean? So the combination of, hey, we have to, we have to stop the run to make them one dimensional, but the shots that they present to you, you know, and number seven is a cat that, you know, he can get open on everybody, you know, and they use them in a really, in a really good way where they move around or you can’t, you can’t play on them and you can’t, you know what I mean? So we just have to have great awareness of that because the combination of, of run shot, run shot is something that we got to stay on top of.”
DB Langston Hardy
What are the challenges of literally going across the country to play?
“Right. I did it one time when I was at UConn my freshman year. I think the biggest thing, you know, we get out there on Thursday, so that’s nice. You get a little acclimated to the time difference and everything. But I think once we get there, it’s just the same thing. You know, we’ll get to sleep that night, wake up the next day, and then by that point I feel like I should, you know, be pretty much used to it a little bit, you know, at least and get out there and play through the kickoff and get ready to go.”
What are the biggest challenges that Oregon State presents you guys?
“I think the quarterback does a good job. Obviously he’s a big guy. He can make all the throws across the field. Do a lot of stretch scheme stuff, so we’ve been working that in practice. They like to run a little bit of counter too, so I think they’re pretty multiple in offense. Offensive line, they’re a pretty stout unit. They work together pretty well. So really we’re just trying to stick to our basics, you know, stick to our rules and everything. That was a big key and emphasis in practice today, making sure we’re still flying around and getting to the ball. That’s kind of what we’ve been trying to live up to this year so far.
Human nature is you kind of look at the record, but you can’t.
“Yeah, definitely not. Coach has said the same thing. He said that they played, in his opinion, the hardest schedule out of anybody in college football. We definitely don’t take none of that lightly or anything. Treat them just like any other opponent and just a chance to try and better our record.”
DB Karon Prunty
How do you prepare yourself for a cross-country road trip to play a football game?
“I’m actually excited because it’s kind of new for me. The only thing I’m probably worried about is adjusting to the time zone, things of that nature, but we’re going out there a little early, so I feel like I’ll be all right with the team as well.”
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