After the Oregon State Beavers saw their season end with a 34-18 loss at No. 11 Boise State on Friday, coach Trent Bray shared his thoughts about his team’s performance.
From how his standout players fared to the play of Boise State Heisman hopeful Ashton Jeanty, Bray answered a number of questions from reporters. Here’s a transcript of his postgame interview session, lightly edited for brevity and clarity.
Q: Coach a little emotional after this and the seniors that completed their duty with the team, and what are your thoughts about that?
Bray: Yeah, I mean, like I said before, they’ve done a lot for this program, and they’ve been through a lot, ups and downs, and appreciate everything they do.
Q: Talk about this game, talk about why you guys came up short.
Bray: Yeah, we had our chances, especially in the fourth quarter. We possessed the ball down nine a couple times. We just didn’t make the plays and Boise made the plays in those crucial moments. And that’s why they’re where they’re at and where we’re at.
Q: Talk about Ben Gulbranson — I thought he had a gutsy effort today — and also, Darrius Clemons kind of stepped up with eight receptions, 123 yards and a touchdown and a two-pointer.
Bray: Yeah, that was by far Darrius’ his best game. He played big, he broke tackles when he caught the ball, he made big catches. That’s what we’ve been looking for from him, so it was a great ending point, hopefully launching point into next year for him.
Q: First half, a couple of the spots just didn’t go your way. How much did that impact, you felt like, just the overall game?
Bray: I mean, it kept drives going, so it impacted it quite a bit because those were touchdown drives. Yeah. I mean, it’s kind of same old story in this league.
Q: Anthony Hankerson goes over 1,000 yards this season. What did you feel like he did this year that really stuck out to you?
Bray: He just, one, he’s a talented player. He’s an extremely hard worker. He just grinds, he’s tough. I mean, he’s banged up on both shoulders, hurt ankle, and he just continues to fight. He’s just the guy you’re looking for.
Q: And then Trent Walker, another guy that had a historic season this year. He didn’t finish the game, obviously, but he was there pretty much your whole year for you.
Bray: Yeah, the same kind of guy, a self-made guy, former walk-on, earned a scholarship and became one of, if not our best player. So yeah, proud of those guys.
Q: (Ashton) Jeanty had his usual yards, but I thought you guys contained him pretty well when you look at the big picture of the game.
Bray: Yeah, big picture, but like I talked about before the game, he’s going to get his yards. He’s a phenomenal player and just a really good back, tough back. But yeah, we did a nice job of not giving up those big explosives for the most part.
Q: Their quarterback, though, he got he got loose a few too many times for your liking, I’m assuming?
Bray: Yes, yes, yes. That’s definitely something moving forward, how we rush, and we got to fix that.
Q: Overall, how would you sum up Year One for you and for this program? Obviously, there’s some great moments and some moments you’d probably like to forget.
Bray: Yeah, it’s really lessons learned. A lot of things learned. There were a lot of close games that we got to learn from that, both coaches and players, so those change in the future. And then when they do, it’ll look and feel like we want it to.
Q: What does the next week look like for you?
Bray: We have exit meetings with all the players, and go through just that. Where are you at? What do you need to do in the offseason to get better? And then again, transparency. They know exactly where they stand on the team and what they got to do to be the player and person that they want to be.
Q: But on top of that, you got signing day as well.
Bray: Absolutely, yeah, you got signing day. Then the portal opens, and there’s a lot that’s going to happen in this next month.
Q: You’re not going to play in a bowl game. But given where things are in the program, needing to fix a few things, is not having that in the way in December, maybe a blessing in disguise?
Bray: I don’t know. I think it’s always good to make it to the postseason, another opportunity, more practices, but yeah, I’m not sure which way I swing on that.
