This hasn’t been a week overflowing with positivity and optimism among Oregon State fans.
A win on Friday against Houston could change that, but folks are feeling uneasy or even apathetic right now about the Beavers (0-4). One of the only emails I got this week that didn’t consist of “fire the coach” was a fan asking about the style of pants players wear.
Yes, the pants.
If you have questions about fashion, football or other topics related to Oregon State athletics, fill out the form below or email me: RClarke@Oregonian.com. I’ll answer it in the next mailbag.
To this week’s questions!
Should Trent Bray be coaching for his job on Friday? Popular opinion says yes. What say you? —Tyler Stobbe on X
I’m not in the business of saying whether a coach should or shouldn’t be fired. That’s a columnist’s job. But I’m sure there is a chance Trent Bray’s job is on the line Friday against Houston.
A loss would mean the Beavers are 0-5, and Bray 1-11 in his last 12 games as coach. No matter how you spin it, that is disastrous. Oregon State is trying to enter the new Pac-12 as leaders, not bottom-feeders. A record like that regardless of competition and circumstance is a sign of a program in crisis.
And this isn’t Florida State, where you can go 2-10 one year and suddenly return to national prominence the following season. Building this thing back up is going to take a lot more elbow grease in Corvallis, and more than just firing a coach. Their hill is far steeper to climb given the comparative lack of resources.
One of the worst parts about this season has been its juxtaposition with expectations. Alleged experts like myself had the Beavers going 9-3, taking advantage of a favorable schedule and capitalizing on their investment in Maalik Murphy. Four games in and I’m already wrong. Go figure.
To be fair, the Beavers also thought they’d be better than this.
If Trent Bray should get fired as head coach, any chance he would stay on as defensive coordinator, or would there be too much baggage for him to remain in the program? —Anonymous
I would be very surprised if Bray took a demotion, unless OSU is planning some elaborate restructuring that puts the retired Mike Riley back in the big chair for the rest of this season. There isn’t anybody in-house who it makes sense for Bray to scoot over for. And the baggage factor after how the last two seasons went is unfortunately real for him.
Robb Akey could do the job, but shuffling the staff only to have essentially the same group of people leading the team is a pointless change that only causes more chaos. Someone like Akey or Rod Chance is more likely to be an interim after Bray’s potential firing, with the firing itself being the message from Scott Barnes that this isn’t acceptable.
If I were Bray, despite my passion for and love of the university I played for, I’d rather get a fresh start somewhere else as a defensive coordinator. He certainly didn’t sign up for this.
Wondering what you think on the lackluster start, is it more a case of Bray not being able to recruit/retain talent, the players we have not playing up to their potential, or some combination of both. I guess players playing below potential could also be looked at as a coaching issue as well. —Jason Schwanz on Bluesky
It’s all of those things. Lack of talent is rooted in recruiting, the individual players who are here need to perform better and show more heart, and a lack of collective focus and discipline falls squarely at the feet of coaches. As an institution, Oregon State looks less like a scrappy underdog fighting against the external forces of college football, and more like an afterthought.
The urgency to turn this thing around stretches well beyond this season. Even if the Beavers do finish the season strong with a more favorable schedule down the stretch, it’s clear based on these first four games that the cracks are deep. Football is the engine that makes an athletic department run, and engine troubles can get expensive fast. Especially if you’re driving an old car.
Any chance the Beavs will hire a football General Manager, as Cal and Stanford have done? —Anonymous
They did hire a GM, whose job covers all of OSU athletics: Kyle Bjornstad. No plans for a football-specific GM yet, but Bjornstad’s primary focus is of course football and other revenue sports.
Can you please ask “negative Nellie” Bill Oram to stop writing about the Beavers and concentrate on his favorite team the Ducks instead? His total negativity is not helping! —Anonymous
I would, but then you’d complain he never writes about the Beavers.
What’s the real point of Oregon and Oregon State continuing this rivalry in today’s college football landscape? From a scheduling standpoint, it benefits neither program. Oregon only has three non-conference slots, and burning one on OSU adds little to its playoff résumé compared to a marquee national matchup. For OSU, it’s essentially stacking a likely loss that drags down postseason chances more than it helps. Nostalgia aside, the odds are tilted, and the incentives misaligned. —Anonymous
The reason it benefits Oregon is travel distance. Dan Lanning even said so publicly. And while Lanning can talk all he wants about how much the rivalry means to the state, keeping this series going is really about lightening the load for his team as it constantly travels back-and-forth to the Midwest for conference play. Not exactly a matchup that is currently making them sweat, either.
For the Beavers, it’s clearly about money. The Oregon game is a guaranteed filled stadium at Reser every other year, and whatever the payout ends up being from the Ducks, it will be significant for OSU at this juncture. Plus, you have to at least make it seem like tradition still matters to you, even if it appears to matter less to fans of both teams.
That is why so many in the OSU fanbase are averse to continuing this rivalry. Why should they have to rely on Oregon for a payout like some low-level, regional cupcake? Both programs can stick to the talking points about keeping history alive, but this is no longer a competitive game. The atmosphere in Autzen was tepid on Saturday.
It would take many years of the Beavers making far more significant investment in football and clawing back to relevance for them to play a close game with the Ducks.
Many Beaver fans I talk to would be happy existing independently of Oregon. But doing so would require OSU to be able to stand on its own two feet. And right now, we’re talking about the reliability of the backup long snapper and whether a second-year coach should be fired.
What do you think of the new style of pants most of the players are now wearing? Do you think they look like bloomers on the linemen? And don’t they promote turf burns on the knees? —Jon S.
I think the offensive linemen look beautiful in their pants. Majestic, even. There is something to be said for the thinner pants leading to more turf burns, though. I’ve always been a proponent of natural grass in sport, for more serious injury-related reasons.
Oregon State (0-4) vs Houston (3-0)
When: Friday, Sept. 26
Time: 7:30 p.m. PT
Where: Reser Stadium, Corvallis
TV channel: ESPN
Watch: You can watch this game live for free with Fubo (free trial), or with DirecTV (free trial).
Stream: DirecTV (free trial) or Fubo (promotional offers) or Sling (college football season pass is just $199). Streaming broadcasts for this game will be available on these streaming services locally in Oregon and Washington, but may not be available outside of the Pacific Northwest, depending on your location.