Trent Bray Previews Friday's Game Against Houston

Oregon State Head Coach Trent Bray met with the media on Monday in advance of the Beavers' matchup with Houston Friday night.

Moderator:
Okay, coach, whenever you're ready, we'll start with a statement and we'll open up to questions.

Trent Bray:
Yeah, another talented team. Houston, explosive offensively. Defense throws a lot at you. They do a nice job. It'll be another great challenge for us.

Reporter:
Coach, I did happen to see them play Colorado, watched that whole game. Their team speed—talk about that, talk about how you can slow that down.
Trent Bray:
Yeah, I think it's good skill positions. They make explosive plays and so that's the key when you play offenses like this: eliminate or reduce the amount of explosive plays and make them be patient and drive.

Reporter:
I know you had to like that second quarter drive in Eugene on Saturday after the fourth down stop. Albeit though, I think you'd like to get more production rushing. What's going on with the running attack? There were moments but overall yardage-wise I know you'd like to see a lot better.
Trent Bray:
No, there's no question. We've got to run the ball better. There were moments on Saturday against a really good front. We got to build on that, but we have to be more consistent with being able to run the ball because once they kind of shut that off for us, it made it really difficult the rest of the game.

Reporter:
Friday night, first time really that all the students are back and it's a late start. It just sounds like it's going to be a party atmosphere. How can that help?
Trent Bray:
Yeah. No, just having the students back in town is huge because that's really a big part of what makes Reser special, to get back out in front of them.

Reporter:
On Saturday, we saw some of that—some passes batted down at the line of scrimmage and all of that. What do you have to do to be able to sustain that kind of attack for 60 minutes?
Trent Bray:
It's just being relentless every time you're on the field. You can't take plays off. You can't... "Oh, I'm not going to get to the quarterback." Every time you're part of the rush, whether it's an edge guy, an inside guy, a linebacker blitzing, you've got to assume you're going to affect the play and you got to chase and race to the quarterback to disrupt his setup point. We're getting better, but we need to continue to improve the production.

Reporter:
Being through one of the more difficult stretches of your schedule, what's the feeling around the team of trying to hit that reset button ahead of a short week here?
Trent Bray:
I've said it—they've been great as far as the way they come out to work, the way they show up to meetings. No one's pouting or hanging their head or anything like that. So I feel good about the work they're doing. We understand we've done some things, self-destruction-wise, that have led to our situation. We got to fix that, continue to improve in that, and then really build off that first half of Oregon. You're right there with that team; that's one of the top teams in the country. That's what we're capable of doing and we've got to do it for four quarters.

Reporter:
Obviously, in these types of situations, there are outside pressures that exist for teams, for coaches. What are your conversations looking like right now with Scott Barnes? How much faith has he expressed in you?
Trent Bray:
Again, all the noise is outside. That's the big thing for us to understand. There's no noise in here. There's no noise with the team, there's no noise with the coaches. That's all external stuff that we can't control and it's not even a factor for myself.

Reporter:
What do you expect from Houston? Is it completely different than anything you've seen yet this year?
Trent Bray:
No, it's very similar to what we've seen the last two weeks, from Tech and from Oregon, both offensively and defensively. So, there's some carryover and things we've seen and learned from those two teams that should hopefully help us on Friday.

Reporter:
Do you view this as a very pivotal moment in the season for you guys, on this short week, to come out and get a win here, avoid the 0-5 start?
Trent Bray:
I mean, getting a win is pivotal regardless. A short week... bounce back. There are some positives to that, too. You're not sitting around for a whole other day thinking about what just happened at Oregon. You can move on to the next opponent, but it's going to be important that we come out and rebound and play well.

Reporter:
I won't ask you to completely break down a practice schedule in-season, but how does that work on the short week? What do you have to remove a day of and how do you get ready?
Trent Bray:
We shorten practice probably by about 30 minutes. We're only on the field for about an hour, but the time we spend on Houston was the same. It's just some of the interaction you may do against each other and take off some of that physical load.

Reporter:
We asked you about him postgame on Saturday. Conrad Hussey—is that how you pronounce his last name? There were off-the-field issues at Florida State that led to his release. What was the process like adding him to the roster in that window and what have you seen out of him thus far?
Trent Bray:
I'll talk about what we've seen about him. He came highly recommended once we found out he was admitted in the school and wanted to be a part of our program. We did our due diligence and called and got very high recommendations from people down there. So, we felt great about that. We've got guys on our team that know him, which might have led to him wanting to come to school here in the first place. He's been great since he's been here. He works hard. He's got the kind of mindset you want for a defensive back and a defensive player in general and been nothing but happy and pleased with him.

Reporter:
He's obviously wearing number 12. Is Tyrice done for the year?
Trent Bray:
Yeah.

Reporter:
You said Saturday that you wanted a day to really review the film to diagnose issues with the run game. It's the 131st ranked rushing attack in college football right now. What do you assess is the problem currently?
Trent Bray:
I think a big part of it is finishing, finishing the block, staying in the fight as I like to call it. The initial block is there and then they're not holding that block long enough to give Hank time to make a play. You saw some good finishes early in that Oregon game which led to some big runs by Salahadin and Hank, but it's got to be more consistent on finishing those blocks. And not looking, "where's the ball?" Just do your work and finish till you hear that whistle blow.

Reporter:
Coach, how did Conrad play overall, in terms of throwing him out there into the fire?
Trent Bray:
I thought he did decent, especially for only a couple of days of practice really with us. But he played hard, he tried his best, made some mistakes, but that's natural. We knew that. He's working hard this week and had a good day today and excited about what he can do—he's picking it up pretty fast, got to give him credit for that.

Reporter:
Connor Weigman, their quarterback, how does he challenge you? In terms of a guy that can make plays with his legs, what do you have to kind of be aware of?
Trent Bray:
You've got to do a good job keeping him in the pocket, because he's a good athlete and he's hurt teams by getting out and running. Can't allow that to be a actor. When they drop back to pass, we've got to keep him in there and give our secondary a chance to work.

Reporter:
On that same topic, obviously, Dante Moore was able to break contain a couple of times in the most recent game. What are you keying in on for how that will apply to Weigman?
Trent Bray:
Absolutely. Especially the time he got out, that two-minute drive at the end, which allowed them to get in scoring position. It's rush lanes, guys have to understand where their rush lane is. When they make a move and which side they have to win—what happened on that play is our three of four D-linemen collapsed to one side and that's what opened that seam. You can't allow that to happen.

Reporter:
Four games into the season, with the flexibility players have in modern college football, do you guys have departures or players at this point that are taking a step somewhere else?
Trent Bray:
No.

Reporter:
Maalik had his least productive game on Saturday. What did you see there, and what has to turn around for him to have a more productive game Friday night?
Trent Bray:
There were times Saturday where he tried to do too much and tried to be the hero on every play. That's not your job. It's back to trusting your read, trusting the offense, and doing what the defense gives you. There are options in everything we do for where the ball needs to go, just trusting that and not trying to force something and make too much happen on every play.

Reporter:
Getting back to what Ryan was talking about, there's talk of changing the portal window at the end of the season, pushing it later into January. How do you feel about that? Is that a better place for OSU?
Trent Bray:
I'm happy there's one. I'm glad that once that window is over, you know who your team is. In the past, you still had another deal after spring ball. So that part of it gives guys still an opportunity to do whatever they're going to do, but you know what your team is moving into winter conditioning, spring, and summer. That stability is a big deal.

Reporter:
Four weeks into the season and Trey Glasper has played the second-most snaps for you defensively. He's obviously been targeted by some passes, given up some stuff—we saw him take a big hit at the end of Saturday's game and was back on the field quickly. What have you seen from him as a freshman?
Trent Bray:
Very impressed with his mentality, toughness, and durability for such a young guy. He started the season at 17 years old against Cal. He's been forced to play a lot, probably before you'd naturally want a true freshman to play, but he's done a nice job, had really good moments and some balls caught on him, but that's life of a corner. I think he's got tremendous potential to be a really good player and a really good corner, and I like where he's at. He's had to do a lot of work for us.

Reporter:
Are the issues with the run game and other issues in the first couple games with the line play strictly because they're green and young?
Trent Bray:
That's always a factor. Right now, we're a new and young team. Even the guys we got out of the portal are inexperienced. They were a backup at that school, not a starter, so they're still getting their first starting experience. They're improving. It takes time to build new and young players, and they've had to do it against top teams in the country. I like how we've improved, that they continue to fight and battle, and they've gained valuable experience. That has to be a big factor for us this stretch down the end of the season.

Reporter:
Beyond the obvious—a win—what would a successful game against Houston look like for you? What are your keys to staying competitive?
Trent Bray:
There's only one: that's winning. That's all there is to this game and as competitors. There are no moral victories in my mind.

Players Mentioned

Trey Glasper

Conrad Hussey

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