The Oregon State football team is on a five-game skid and has managed just two touchdowns in the last three games.
Enter the boo-birds, those peripheral fans, cynical analysts, and “fan-analysts” who lurk somewhere between.
Thank God for Beaver Nation, those who understand the terrain and are engaged in the climb. They are the ones building the dam and not the ones damning the build.
In recent weeks, we’ve heard grumbling about head coach Trent Bray and how doubters have questioned his judgment, honesty, and fitness for the job.
I have a different idea. Let’s settle back for a moment, look at things from a higher altitude, and maybe share a chill pill.
Bray hasn’t yet completed a full year at the helm, nor had a complete recruiting cycle. Declaring the demise of a coach after just one year at a school is a blunder of fools.
I know. I’ve done it myself—more than once.
Since then, through my work with the savvygameline.com prediction system, I’ve learned that it takes more than one season to rebuild an average situation. What Bray inherited at Oregon State is a deep drop from the average.
Wherever you fit in Beaver Nation, whether as a supportive fan or a premature naysayer, there is hope for you, and you don’t have to look far to find it.
Looking north, we see that Washington State hired Jake Dickert to take over the Cougar program four years ago. Like Trent Bray, Dickert had never been a head coach, and his first three years accumulated more losses than wins. Last season, the Cougars lost six of their previous seven games. Yet Washington State admins and fans rallied with him, and WSU is currently 8-2 and ranked in the AP top 25.
Looking south, we see that in 2017, San Jose State took a chance on former Oregon State assistant Brent Brennan. In his first three seasons, Brennan was 3-22, yet the Spartans stayed with him. From 2020-2023, SJSU went to three bowl games, entered the national rankings, and, for the first time in 32 years, posted three straight winning seasons, which was enough to earn Brennan the coaching job at Arizona.
Remember Kilani Sitake? He was an Oregon State assistant who was given his first head coaching gig at BYU. In his first four campaigns, he didn’t post a single season with more wins than the season before he took over. Yet, BYU stuck with Sitake, and his Cougars are now 9-1 and ranked in the top 10.
It takes time to build college football programs in normal situations. What Bray took over at Oregon State was not normal.
The Beavers had lost most of their coaches, 25 players to the portal, a dozen more to graduation, and their status as a Power Five outfit. That situation cannot be restored in just ten games.
Bray was undaunted. He took the job anyway.
Even before Bray got started, the boo-birds were crowing. They said he did the Spring Showcase all wrong. Instead of using precious scrimmage time to focus on getting new coaches and players into sync, he should have used that opportunity to out-glitz the Oregon Ducks.
Out-glitz the Ducks? Who has ever out-glitzed the Oregon Ducks? It was an absurd notion from its inception.
Bray has recently been criticized for his high expectations before the season began. If his expectations were as delusional as critics now say, then why didn’t they speak up at the time? Even I could sound wise if I waited for a ten-game advantage before voicing my opinions.
For now, let’s say the premature naysayers are given the athletic director’s gavel and disregard millions of dollars in buyouts, and tell Bray to pack his bags.
Then what? Who are they going to hire?
They’re not in an elite conference; they just had a losing season. Their roster lacks elite stars, they’re not in an elite NIL zone, and their trophy room creaks and echoes.
Ask them how many coaches have said that Corvallis is their destination point and where they really want to be.
You’ll hear crickets.
But, Beaver believers hear something else. They hear Trent Bray, Keith Heyward, and Ryan Gunderson.
Ultimately, OSU football isn’t determined by the coaches. You determine it, Beaver Nation, and those of you who know that the terrain in Corvallis is rare and are willing for the arduous climb to preserve it.
You’re the ones who ignore the naysayers and pull together with the unflinching support of three coaches who don’t just know the terrain but have lived the terrain. They don’t just live in Corvallis. Corvallis lives in them.
There is a certainty of success for people driven with such soulish passion. They will tell you that success is an arduous climb.
They will also tell you that the summit is inevitable.
Oregon Sports Network will not be publishing new material the week of Thanksgiving, but my savvygameline.com prediction system will have predictions for all games next week, including Washington at Oregon.
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