College Football Coach Hire Grades: Oregon State

Oregon State Beavers: Trent Bray

Why the job was open: As you know, this one is complicated. Jonathan Smith did an excellent job with this program, it was in a bad spot in 2018 when he took over but they finished with 10 wins in 2022, finishing ranked in the top 25 the last 2 seasons. Smith received a lucrative offer from Michigan State and thanks to the uncertainty around Oregon State’s program, it was an offer he couldn’t turn down. Coaching is a wild world and lots of times they have to take emotions out of decisions. Smith for sure took the emotional aspect out of it leaving his alma mater at a time like this, and he went for a clean break too seeing that he dropped all his team issued gear at the nearest Goodwill on his way out of town.

Coach Profile: Trent Bray is a former stud linebacker for Oregon State, he played for the Beavs from 2002-2005. Bray has spent a lot of time coaching for Oregon State as an assistant but also was at Nebraska with Mike Riley and he was even named the interim coach there when Riley was fired, though it was after the season ended. Bray returned to Oregon State as part of Smith’s staff, in 2021 he took over as DC midway though the year, and the defense had liftoff after that point. Bray was promoted once Smith moved on.

Why he will succeed: Sure Jonathan Smith helped bring Oregon State back to relevance but Trent Bray really got this program to another level with it’s defense once he was promoted to DC. Bray is good at developing players and we know he can scheme up a good defense. Oregon State has good facilities and a freshly upgraded stadium so there’s resources here.

What obstacles are in the way of success: There’s a lot. The elephant in the room is Oregon State being left out in realignment because a bunch of TV execs think they’re not good enough. Bray’s first recruiting class doesn’t even know what games they’re going to be playing their junior season, and how often will they be on TV? The contract is no where close to resolved for Oregon State’s home games and being on TV for their family/friends to see is important for athletes. This job already wasn’t easy as the Beavers aren’t in fertile recruiting territory and don’t have the Nike support their rival Oregon has. This is a truly unique challenge that no one else has gone up against.

Grade: B- – There’s not much that excites me about this hire but it’s a necessity. Promoting from within isn’t often the most successful path for a coaching search to end, but Oregon State is a challenge unlike any other right now and Bray at least is a head coach who is committed to helping the program through these tumultuous times, but wow this is a huge challenge for his first head coaching job.