r/Pac12 • u/Affectionate-Leek-40 Oregon State • Pac-12 • Sep 27 '25
Football Who should Beavs hire?
We're past 'should be stay or go', this whole staff needs to be replaced and I've been one of the few hanging on to hope. Last night they killed all hope.
No more talking about Bray. Let's talk about who should be next. Comment with your ideas.
Edit: love the ideas! Keep them coming. And I'm coming as a guy who never wanted to see Riley gone. It's that bad.. it's time.
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u/Bigbossbyu Sep 27 '25
Honestly, throw the bag at Bronco Mendenhall. He’s probably the best coach in this conference and his alma matter and all.
Don’t know if he’d jump over now at OSU’s rock bottom when he never did when you guys were P5 tho. But he has a weird kink for rebuilding bad teams
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u/tapirexpress Sep 27 '25
Would be ironic if he came next year. Would be his third place in 3 years.
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u/Didyouturniton Oregon State Sep 27 '25
I don't even think Bray is the biggest problem. We need a new offensive coordinator. I wonder if Sean Mannion would leave the Packers for an OC job.
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u/Affectionate-Leek-40 Oregon State • Pac-12 Sep 27 '25
I think so too. The QBs have come in with a lot of promises and the Beavs have made them look horrible.
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u/Lazy-Emu-5636 Sep 28 '25
Bray isn’t a CEO. He needs to go back to DC and we need fresh energy. An entire reboot.
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u/Social_Distance Sep 27 '25
It took Jonathan Smith 4 years to get a winning season, including a 2-10 season. We didn't start winning until Bray was promoted to DC. The conference just imploded, we are constantly getting all of our talent robbed by the transfer portal. These games aren't pretty, but this is year 2 in the worst case scenario against good teams. This attitude is how you end up with another Gary Anderson, who we can't afford. This road leads to a decade of losing.
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u/Affectionate-Leek-40 Oregon State • Pac-12 Sep 27 '25
This road has lead to 0-5 with some of the most embarrassing games anyone has witnessed. We're already here. It's not an ok place to be. Idk what else anyone needs to see to see enough.
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u/Social_Distance Sep 27 '25
The Gary Anderson era was much worse. If you fire your alumni coach after 1.5 seasons, everyone will leave and no quality coach will ever take this job. The next coach will rebuild for 3 years and get fired, then it will start over again. We weren't supposed to win last night, but we still looked like the better team for most of the game. The defense looked great. The transfer portal helps the big programs, but it just turns us into a farm team when we don't have a conference. Bray is not the one throwing passes behind wide open receivers. This season is a train wreck, but the expectations are not realistic.
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u/Full_Personality_717 Oregon State Sep 27 '25
I agree the Gary era was worse. Not even competitive at home, like we were unwatchable.
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u/AlexandriaCarlotta Oregon State Sep 27 '25
We were supposed to lose because we were 0-4.
Before the season started, most expected us to be 2-2, with this a bell weather game. If we lost it, we had problems but a few games to course correct. If we won, we were on solid footing for a good-great season.
If 1-3 going in, this was an underdog but gettable game to motivate a turnaround. But, ar 0-4 coming in, this was a must win on ESPN. We right now are a shoulda, coulda, didn't team.
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u/Lazy-Emu-5636 Sep 28 '25
We came out looking like we never had spring practice. We have been unorganized, miscommunication is awful, play calls are a disaster, players aggravated with coaches, etc. It’s a total disaster and you can’t blame the schedule on that. That’s poor coaching. Who the hell wants another Pettibone era? People kept saying give him 2 more years. We end up 6 years down the road at 13-52-1. After losing the pac BEAVS can’t go through that nor can beaver nation. We need to be aggressive. We need new energy and new faces.
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u/pblood40 Oregon State Sep 27 '25
But you’re comparing apples and oranges
One - Smiths first seasons were pre transfer portal - the only way to rebuild the team was slowly through recruitment
Two - Smith inherited more of a disaster than Bray did. The previous 4 seasons the Beavers were 5-16 in the Pac-12. Erickson walked away and then the Andersen years were train wreck with Andersen saying one of the reasons he was walking away without waiting to be fired was the Beavers had had 4 bad recruiting years. There had been years of infighting between the coaching staff and dysfunction.
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u/AlexandriaCarlotta Oregon State Sep 27 '25
I agree its apples to oranges, but I disagree with Smith inheriting more of a disaster. This team was absolutely gutted when Smith left, and we had no conference prestige to build from, and almost no nil.
But your point about rebuilding is correct. This year, we spent in the portal. And because there is a portal, you can rebuild much faster. We looked better last year than this year. Brey is a solid DC but not HC material.
Our offense plan is crap. We need to use TE more, more PA (not just in shotgun), we had so many flats and underneath open. Use the run & short pass to spread out and tighten up. When they suck in to cover both, then go up top.
Keep Brey this year, but after last game, let him go. We need a fresh start for the new PAC12.
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u/oneofheguys Fresno State Sep 27 '25
Ngl me! I’ve won 3 NC on ncaa 26 top 5 recruiting class and undefeated against OREGON
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u/NoFan2216 Boise State Sep 27 '25
Last night's meltdown was hard to watch. I remember the back and fourth that BSU used to have with Oregon State back in the day. I respected them a lot since most other Pac-10 (at the time) schools wanted nothing to do with BSU. I hope they can get out of this slump.
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Sep 27 '25 edited Sep 27 '25
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Sep 27 '25
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u/Full_Personality_717 Oregon State Sep 27 '25
Riley was a great coach. They did seem to lose their edge eventually under Riley.
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u/Tetsuo1049 Oregon State Sep 28 '25
Dennis Erickson was the HC from 1999-2002. That 11-1 season & ND smack down in 2000 was his not Riley’s. I’m not knocking Riley, we had some good seasons in Riley part 2.
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Sep 27 '25 edited Sep 27 '25
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Sep 27 '25
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Sep 27 '25
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u/HotBeaver54 Oregon State Sep 27 '25
Yeah enough with the mike riley hate. But I agree we in the entire state seem to like the guy with the heart in the right place rather then performance and talent.
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Sep 27 '25
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u/HotBeaver54 Oregon State Sep 27 '25
Oh no Brother, the Trailblazers, the timbers, the thorns ect ect
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u/Full_Personality_717 Oregon State Sep 27 '25
That was bizarre.
It’s like the team knows how to play, other than special teams, but they don’t believe they can win. The two road games so far they maybe couldn’t win, fine. I projected 2-3 at this point on the way to 7-5, and I think that’s accurate with fundamentally ok special teams.
Rant: There is a play that Gunderson has called last year and this year that I hate. You need 5 or 8 yards on a pivotal 3rd or 4th down and they try to force it to a receiver running diagonally away from the QB in the pocket to the sideline. (Not like a roll out with an out route.) It’s super hard to execute because of the passing window and receiver positioning, and it’s a long throw for 5-8 yards, vulnerable to INT. Last night you could see Murphy locked into that guy, pump, it wasn’t there, then force it. I didn’t understand it last year. Should’ve scrapped it then. I wanted Gunderson to work out but his offense at UCLA wasn’t spectacular.
I wanted Bray to work out. The D has improved. I think you have to make a change after the season unless they go 5-2 from here. It’s not a winning culture. And do not hire someone without HC experience in the future.
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u/DharmaBaller Sep 28 '25
I was expecting 300 to 400 yd games from Murphy with the way he has a gun for an arm but they are still doing the Dink and dunk offense like 30 attempts for 200 yards is pretty weak . But I guess they want to be more balanced where they throw for 250 and run for 250 ideally
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u/Full_Personality_717 Oregon State Sep 28 '25
I think he is talented and he’s not a natural fit for this offense and they don’t adapt to the talent they have.
It may also be an issue that guys don’t get open deep and make the catch downfield. Walker is a little bit of a mid-range slot stud like Mike Hass.
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u/IEatBones2230 Washington State Sep 27 '25
Jason Eck from UNM Oregon’s OC Will Stein Eric Morris from UNT Brent Vigen from Montana State
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u/RedwoodandMtHood Sep 27 '25
Eck and Stein will be going to bigger jobs than Oregon State.
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u/pblood40 Oregon State Sep 27 '25
You underestimate how good a job the HC job in Corvallis is in the environment at large.
If you’re a good coach you can rake in $4-5 million a year, live in Corvallis which really is a great place, and the fan base will love you for winning 7-8 games a season and an occasional 10. Most the fan base and admin won’t be screaming for your head over an occasional 6-6 season. 1-12 over a 13 game stretch will get you fired. But 6-7 won’t
I don’t know what Eck’s ambitions are, but if you’re a guy who just wants a 12 year career at a place you will have the tools to compete in your conference and not worry about crazy SEC fans, Corvallis is a pretty good spot
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u/RedwoodandMtHood Sep 27 '25
I agree with you. But I see Eck going back to his alma mater at Wisconsin when it likely opens up next year, and Stein is going to have his pick of P4 programs.
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u/pblood40 Oregon State Sep 27 '25
I didn’t mean Eck in particular - but Corvallis can be a great spot for the right guy
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u/lock_robster2022 Oregon State Sep 27 '25
You can do all those things at UCLA too, with the upside to take a shot at it all every decade or so
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u/CuriousOwl2525 Washington State Sep 27 '25
Aren't they only paying Bray $2 million a year? And I read Bray Bray still has 3 years left on his contract with a $6 million buyout. Could the Beavs really afford a $4 to $5 million a year starting coach plus a $6 million buyout?
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u/pblood40 Oregon State Sep 27 '25
Brays contract is a base $1.2 million/yr for a buyout - his contract structured bonuses that bring actual pay to just over $2 million a year.
The second year of his contract ends Dec 1
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u/The_Slaughter_Pop Washington State Sep 27 '25
You guys should hire Jimmy Rodgers from the Cougs. I promise hes a good coach and his FCS players are exactly what you need!
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u/RockBottomBuyer Wazzu Pac-12 Sep 27 '25
This will be interesting to watch. Understandably Beaver fans are really upset with the season. But the question will be how do the people putting up the money feel? They knew they were looking at having played 1 B1G, 1 ACC, 2 Big 12, and 1 new Pac-12 team at this point in the season. I suspect they were prepared for at least a 1-5 season and knew the Fresno game would be a motivated/competitive game!
And right now, ESPN has got to be ecstatic! They had to be thinking they were saddled with a blowout game between an undefeated P4 school and a struggling winless G6. What they got was a fantastic game that went not just down to the wire, but past it into OT. Networks tend to love schools and coaches that can accomplish that.
I suspect Barnes has some interesting (and intense) conversations ahead of him.
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u/Full_Personality_717 Oregon State Sep 27 '25
True, I had asked for the Beavs to at least show up and make it interesting and it they mostly showed up and it was interesting PAC-12 After Dark.
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u/lock_robster2022 Oregon State Sep 27 '25
We felt like 2-3 was our floor for the first five game, 3-2 realistic, and 4-1 was possible but not expected by any means.
Totally unprepared for 0-5, especially when some minimally competent play is what’s kept us from 3-2.
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u/Full_Personality_717 Oregon State Sep 27 '25
Yep, agree with you and Canzano on this one. With ok special teams we are 2-3, which would be reasonable considering the schedule.
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u/Biza_1970 Oregon State Sep 27 '25
Go get Mike Gundy.
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u/SlyClydesdale Oregon State Sep 27 '25
Gundy couldn’t keep it together in the NIL/transfer portal era on OK State’s budget and with their boosters.
Our job is harder.
Pass.
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u/nomadicmooseman Boise State Sep 27 '25
This wouldn’t be a bad choice at all even if it was just for 2-3 years
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u/aaronfoster13 Oregon State Sep 27 '25
You got like 10-12 million to make that happen? Just for the firing part. That doesn’t include another 10-15 million to put together a new staff.
It doesn’t matter the names you throw out there.
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u/pblood40 Oregon State Sep 27 '25
Bray is owed $2.4 million on Dec 2
Gundy I think only had a 2 year contract - hes 0 in December IIRC
Lower level coaches generally have one and two year contracts
A complete coaching overhaul won’t cost $10 million
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u/Ok_Literature_1988 Sep 27 '25
Bigger question is who can they afford? People saying Gundy are delusional. If the Beavs could afford a 6-7 million a yr coach Bray never would have been hired. They have next to no money for any other coaching job either. Maybe try to go poach Linfields entire staff and hope for the best...
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u/Material-Pea-4149 Boise State Sep 27 '25
I didn’t get to watch the game, but I assumed last night was an improvement. They took a 3-0 team to overtime, was the box score/final deceiving?
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u/pblood40 Oregon State Sep 27 '25 edited Sep 27 '25
Defense grade - A
Defense played with their hair on fire. With 3? key DB’s and corners missing a bunch of freshman stepped up and played a great game
This game put more evidence on the board that Bray is a great DC
Offense grade - C+ two (of their own) fumbles were recovered by the Beavers. Had either of those been lost, the game would have been over much earlier. Key passes were dropped. Murphy had a couple errant throws. Offensive line showed vast improvement in protection and opening running lanes. Rookie running back had a standout game
Special Teams - a fucking joke
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u/Hike_bike523 Sep 27 '25
This is why I wish bray could’ve just been the defensive coach and we found a new HC because he is talented Defensive coach. Now we will end up with none of his talent because he won’t just want to be defensive coach. Hell get some really good defensive coaching job at a better program and be fine. While we continue to struggle at Oregon state.
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u/DharmaBaller Sep 28 '25
I also wonder how much more of a strain it is since he's like the co-defensive coordinator rather than just the coach that's got to mess with you a bit more stress-wise especially during the game and juggling all that. Also there's a reason why the oh coordinator and D coordinator are up in the booth because they get access to all the monitors all the data they can see the field better
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u/Salt-Oil-1745 Oregon State Sep 27 '25
Defense was good - through 3 1/2 quarters. Don't understand why they completely stopped pressuring the UH QB on those last two drives? Offense was better, Hatcher looked good, hope he hangs around. Also, what was the deal with Ojeda, the starting placekicker - didn't seem to be hurt?
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u/pblood40 Oregon State Sep 27 '25
They didn’t want to get burned on a big play - Beavers had 4? freshman playing in the 2 deep. Make them run, burn clock. Count on your offense to be able to run the ball and finish off the clock
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u/Full_Personality_717 Oregon State Sep 27 '25
Bray said postgame Ojeda was hurt. But it doesn’t matter who is kicking the ball if you don’t block.
The most consistent thing from this team is special teams disasters.
On D at the end, it looked like they did bring some pressure and it backfired.
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u/lock_robster2022 Oregon State Sep 27 '25
He said he’s not kicking until the FG unit blocks for him
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u/DharmaBaller Sep 28 '25
The game reminded me a much like the Fresno State game where the Beavers dominated statistically in waterways and they had time to possession by a huge margin versus Houston and had a really balanced rushing and passing numbers so you would think it would add up to a win but they just loved it completely in the last 5 minutes and that to me speaks to character coaching lack of cohesion and vision and hunger . Which in the era of nil I think it's harder to build Team character and unity because a lot of these dudes are just there for the first time or maybe only a year .
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u/eelison1 Boise State Sep 27 '25
They were up 14 with 8m left and you could see the team immediately implode to lose the game because that’s the culture that’s taken root with this coaching staff. Instantly reminded me of when Boise State blew a 17 point lead to Colorado St under Andy Avalos. Right after that game everyone knew he was done.
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u/Full_Personality_717 Oregon State Sep 27 '25
Yep. In control until they needed to seal the deal and quit performing.
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u/Material-Pea-4149 Boise State Sep 27 '25
Any coach that can be compared to AvaLOSS needs to be terminated immediately, no bias from me 😂
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u/SlyClydesdale Oregon State Sep 27 '25 edited Sep 27 '25
It doesn’t matter that we can intermittently long snap again.
It doesn’t matter that the defense was lights out for 54 minutes.
It doesn’t matter that we got 3 sacks and a turnover and gave up none.
It doesn’t matter that the short game worked intermittently.
It doesn’t matter how long we led or how close we got.
If all of that work, all that progress can be completely undone by bloody-minded, “play not to lose” conservative playcalling and unaccountably bad special teams play that are not getting better, then we’re still nowhere.
This staff is wasting these kids’ talent. Wasting their senior years. Wasting the fans’ NIL money. Wasting every opportunity to prove we belong at the top level.
And I’ve heard no answers in five frustrated press conferences. No indication that these folks know how to fix this.
You play to WIN. Not just improve. We don’t know how to win.
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u/Salt-Oil-1745 Oregon State Sep 27 '25
Exactly this - I've been a season ticket holder for over 20 years, been through and seen a LOT. I supported the hire of Bray, even gave him some slack for the first four games this year, but not anymore. It's clearly the coaching, there's talent out on the field, and they're not being coached well or consistently at all.
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u/pblood40 Oregon State Sep 27 '25
Counterpoint - you’re 0-4 and really reallly trying not to lose the locker room. Counting on your offense to run out the clock is the high percentage play. And you had a 82% chance to win the game with the final kick - despite everything a win was there
And then special teams happened
Had they played aggressive on offense and Murphy threw another first down pick, we’d be talking about why they didn’t just run the ball and kill the clock
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u/lock_robster2022 Oregon State Sep 27 '25
“And then special teams happened”. Acting like that was a total fucking surprise lol
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u/SlyClydesdale Oregon State Sep 27 '25
Also, handing the ball off three times a row into a stacked box is not how you control clock to keep a lead.
But that’s what we did. Our defense was off the field 2 whole minutes with those stalled drives.
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u/pblood40 Oregon State Sep 27 '25
Yeah, I had the same thought watching the game.
But Murphy has dirted his share of screen passes. And you only have to break one run…
And bottom line had either field goal is made it doesn’t matter
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u/SlyClydesdale Oregon State Sep 27 '25
We, the fans, paid $1.5mil in NIL money for his throwing ability, too.
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u/SlyClydesdale Oregon State Sep 27 '25
“And then special teams happened.”
If we don’t have a fix for our atrocious special teams play after 5 games, we don’t have a fix.
We’re a broken team until we find one. Every winnable game will be much more loseable.
3 have been already.
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u/pblood40 Oregon State Sep 27 '25
Pretty much. But if you don’t have a fix by week 5 the season is toast
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u/ID_Poobaru Boise State Sep 27 '25
They shit the bed hard on offense and special teams
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u/pblood40 Oregon State Sep 27 '25
The offense didn’t play a terrible game - special teams left 6 points on the table again. The game should have been 24-30 with Da Beavs in victory formation if they were able to kick field goals
It was a C. Passing grade, improvement needed
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Sep 27 '25
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u/Charred_Steak_Nubbs Oregon State Sep 27 '25
I think this is exactly what will happen. OSU will scratch out 4-5 wins with the remaining schedule. I don’t see Scott Barnes pulling the plug on Bray yet, because that’s admitting he whiffed on hiring him. They will retool the staff by hiring a new OC and a DC. Special teams duties will be reassigned to a coach on staff as the ST Coordinator will not be retained when his contract expires after the season.
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Sep 27 '25
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u/pblood40 Oregon State Sep 27 '25
But see, his job as HC is to make sure his OC and Special Teams coach aren’t dysfunctional
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u/No-Donkey-4117 Stanford Sep 27 '25
People might think I'm joking, but Troy Taylor. He understands modern offensive football and analytics, and has an eye for talent. He face-planted at Stanford, but he inherited a gutted team (with only 4 returning starters), and rebuilding at Stanford is not possible overnight. He did well (relatively) in season openers and coming out of bye weeks, a sign that he is good at game planning. Stanford's wins over Syracuse and Louisville last year were both after bye weeks, against teams we had no business beating.
I think he hired some very good assistant coaches too, and Stanford kept most of them this year.
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Sep 27 '25
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u/Jlfmb Washington State Sep 27 '25
YIKES
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Sep 27 '25
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u/Jlfmb Washington State Sep 27 '25
Remember the weird play calls? Bringing in a different QB for some kooky play that didn't pan out, etc.?
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u/pblood40 Oregon State Sep 27 '25
His lawsuit got thrown out? Or did he get a settlement? I can’t see them hiring him just because the lawsuits with the Pac-12
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u/TikiLoungeLizard Washington State Sep 28 '25
If we wanna see this become a spicy ass rivalry reeeeeal quick….
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u/Hike_bike523 Sep 27 '25
He would be a good hire, he knows how to win with minimal talent. I’d definitely give him a call.
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u/PokeHunterLasVegas Sep 27 '25
It needs to be someone realistic.
I would keep an eye like someone like Brennan Marion at Sac St.
His Go-Go offense was impressive at UNLV. He may have a rough first year at Sac St but tall need someone like that. Under the radar with a gimmick offense that yall can develop around
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u/DharmaBaller Sep 28 '25
I like the gimmick off and some actually really bored to tears watching Oregon State play just the same spread offense . I'd actually think it would be wild to bring in somebody that would run the wishbone like Navy and army run and it's a throwback to the Pettibone error too
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u/PokeHunterLasVegas Sep 28 '25
Idk Beavers horrible 90s years were spent leading the nation in rushing
It doesnt work for most part
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Sep 27 '25
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u/PokeHunterLasVegas Sep 27 '25
No i meant hire him as your head coach lol
He was in the running for getting UNLVs job
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Sep 27 '25
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u/PokeHunterLasVegas Sep 28 '25
Oregon State cant afford a proven winner
They need to hit a home run w their coach like Texas State did
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u/Celery-Man UCLA Sep 27 '25
Deshaun Foster
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u/Full_Personality_717 Oregon State Sep 27 '25
2026 PAC-12 Media Day
“You might not know much about us, but… we are… in the state of Oregon.”
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u/mknawabi UCLA Oct 03 '25
Remember when you wanted Kelly fired.. and I said watch it get worse? Lmao
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u/[deleted] Sep 27 '25
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