LAS VEGAS – Media making their 2024 preseason football calls on Oregon State are cautious, to be sure.
Athlon’s ranks the Beavers No. 82 of 134 FBS teams. ESPN projects about eight wins. The bowl predictions are modest; the LA and Independence bowls are the most popular postseason destinations for OSU.
Nowhere in there are hopes for the College Football Playoff. What gives?
Shortly after landing the job in December as Oregon State’s coach and speaking before the players in the team auditorium, Trent Bray preached CFP opportunity. Bray aggressively stumped on that theme, selling a belief that he was looking at a team capable of making a CFP run.
Eight months later, does Bray still believe Oregon State is a CFP contender?
“I do. I feel good about our last year. Good about our schedule that lines up not only with the amount of home games, but also where those bye weeks fall. It allows us a chance to stay healthy, which is what you need,” Bray said during “After Hours with Beavs & Cougs” last week in Las Vegas.
What are the pundits missing about the 2024 Beavers?
“I don’t think they know who we’ve got on our roster, both the young guys that we’ve developed over the last couple years, and the new guys that have come in, who are extremely talented,” Bray said. “I just think there’s an unknown, and unless you’re in it, living it every day, it’s easy to just go over, they’ve got a bunch of new guys who are going to struggle.”
Two things can be true, of course. Bray knows what he has. But outsiders also see a program that has been turned upside down. OSU has replaced its head coach, lost significant star power from a team that competed for a conference title a year ago, and are no longer part of a Power conference.
It’s not a coaching job for the meek. What makes Bray the right coach for a job that will be as challenging as any in FBS in 2024?
Bray said it’s his experiences during two other rebuilds – as a player and coach with Mike Riley, and Jonathan Smith – that serves him well.
“I’ve got a great blueprint for how this thing can be successful. The knowledge of this place gives me a great advantage over someone who would walk in blind,” Bray said.
When the Pac-12 collapsed nearly a year ago last August, it set off a period of anger and sadness from within Oregon State. What was a football program building significant momentum suddenly became a team with major questions about its future. While many of those questions remain, Bray says emotions have cooled.
“We know where we’re at. And we know what we’ve got. That uncertainty of what’s going to happen? We know what’s happening,” Bray said.
What’s happening is a schedule like nothing OSU has experienced in more than a century. With the Pac-12 buried, there are no league standings. The Beavers play a schedule heavy with Mountain West opponents, including their first-ever game against Air Force. The Sept. 14 game against Oregon in Reser Stadium is the earliest OSU has played the Ducks during a football season.
Though its only game three, it could prove to be a pivot point to the season. The Ducks are on everyone’s short list to earn a CFP berth. If Oregon State can win, or take the Ducks deep into the fourth quarter, it’s sure to catch the nation’s attention.
“I’m just glad the game’s still going,” Bray said. “Playing them at that time of the year will be different. But at the end of the day, it’s still us and Oregon and we’re playing,” Bray said.
Oregon State’s preseason camp opens Wednesday, July 31. A lot of questions need answers. Who’s going to play quarterback? Who emerges at receiver? What’s the depth look like on the defensive line? How does safety position look? And on and on.
Bray’s top question that needs an answer?
“You’re always going to say quarterback. But I’m looking at how, how can we take another step defensively?” he said. “Because early on, like always, the defense is going to have to step up in key moments to win games and kind of hold it until the offense gets going.”
--Nick Daschel can be reached at 360-607-4824, ndaschel@oregonian.com or @nickdaschel.
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