Prior to this season new head coach Trent Bray spent the last two years as Defensive Coordinator and Safeties Coach for the Beavers under head coach Jonathan Smith who, after the collapse of the PAC-12 left the Beavers and Cougars out of the conference realignment sweepstakes, left to become new head coach at Michigan State in the Big Ten. Bray, like Smith, was a former Oregon State player from 2002-2005 and earned multiple honors as a durable and tough outstanding linebacker. He learned much of his coaching skills working with two great ones—Dennis Erickson at Arizona State and Mike Riley at Oregon State.
One thing’s for sure after checking out their game against Idaho State, he and first year offensive coordinator Ryan Gunderson did not abandon Jonathan Smith’s love of running the ball as Senior RB Jam Griffin and Junior RB Anthony Hankerson rushed collectively 44 times for 315 of Oregon State’s 379 total yards on the ground as well as all four of their rushing TD’s—two each. As Joe Landergan pointed out in his recap of the game for Sport’s Illustrated: “The Beaver offense finished with a total of 379 rushing yards in the victory. That total is the most rushing yards in a game for Oregon State since 2016 . . . [and is] the first time the Beavers have had two running backs post at least 150 rushing yards each in a game since 1994.” In the air starting Junior QB Gevani McCoy connected on 90% of his throws—that’s right, 9-of-10 for 114 yards, 1 TD, and no picks while backup Gabarri Johnson connected on 2-of-4 for another 34 yards.
The Beavers picked up a TD every quarter, two in the third, along with an Everett Hayes 32 yard field goal early in the 2nd Qtr. Getting in their own way a bit with a fumble during their first possession after holding the Bengals to a three-and-out to start the game, Oregon State got it right back on an interception eight plays later and went on to score their first TD at the end of a 6 play 63 yard drive with Hankerson running it in sitting 1st and 10 on the Idaho State 15 yard line. In a QB keeper on their next possession from their own red zone that went the wrong direction Idaho State picked up 2 points on a safety and followed that up with a TD on their subsequent possession to go up 9-7 with time running out in the 1st Qtr. But Oregon State would come back with a TD and field goal of their own in the 2nd Qtr while holding the Bengals scoreless to go in at the half up 17-9. After both teams ended up punting on their first possessions to start the 3rd Qtr, Oregon drew first blood and scored on back-to-back-to-back TD’s to go up first 31-9, and then 38-15 after a 7 play 87 yard scoring drive and Hunter Hayes TD pass and failed two-point conversion.