OT: Oregon State promotes DC Trent Bray to Head Coach
OSU (NTOSU) fans seem pretty happy about this. Aside from just in general feeling glad for them after the year they've had, this is also probably bad news for MSU. Between Bray seemingly being very popular with the players and the perceived less than honorable way Smith left, it seems less likely now that Smith will be able to poach many players or recruits to follow him.
https://osubeavers.com/news/2023/11/28/trent-bray-named-oregon-state-football-head-coach
November 29th, 2023 at 10:07 AM ^
The intro press conference is the least likely indicator of success. Saban ain't exactly the best speaker but an amazing coach. Meanwhile slimeball Urban can charm the pants off in a presser.
He does seem aww shucks sorta guy so it's going to take some work to try to find reasons to hate him. I am sure they will come lol.
November 29th, 2023 at 10:56 AM ^
I never hated their other Jo(h)n Smith and that caused me no angst whatsoever.
November 29th, 2023 at 5:11 PM ^
Don't know how you spin the truth here: "My old AD and school president completely fucked up the Pac-12 meltdown and there seemed to be shortage of NIL funds so I needed to skedaddle".
November 29th, 2023 at 9:19 AM ^
Oregon State is my second team since I have two kids there. From my perspective, it was the best value since I'm in state and they have a solid engineering school. Corvallis also ranks high on the list of "best college towns" I work with a lot of Beaver fans and I can tell you they are surprised and pissed that Smith left. He is generally known as the best coach they've had. MSU just got a great coach.
I think it will take him a few years, but I believe the Spartans hit a homerun with this hire. But I also think he runs a clean program and they will no longer be a team that plays dirty like we've seen for the last couple of decades.
On a positive note: we already know their sign for Milking the Clock.
November 29th, 2023 at 9:50 AM ^
I don't know if the job he did there was better than the jobs done by Mike Riley or Dennis Erickson, but he did a good job.
November 29th, 2023 at 10:09 AM ^
He took over a 1 win program and (ignore COVID year) had them to 10 wins in year 4. With recruiting classes in the 60s. That's the type of guy Sparty needs as everyone else is going to be a fraud like Mel or use them for their money or as a stepping stone.
It will be curious how he recruits at MSU - fraud Mel at least was starting to get some 4* in decent #s before he tugged. Smith didn't recruit well at NTOSU but I don't know if anyone could, they probably had little NIL.
November 29th, 2023 at 11:06 AM ^
He did turn them around in 4 years. Not clear he would get 4 years at MSU. He had a pretty sweet deal in Corvallis given his connections there, but at MSU if they're a .500 team in year 3 the rhetoric on RCMB would be very different.
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November 29th, 2023 at 10:09 AM ^
Mike Riley and Dennis Erickson actually had more success at Oregon State than Smith did. This isn’t the Oregon State pre-Riley which was absolutely dreadful. This was and is an Oregon State program that has had intermittent success over the past 20-25 years. Kind of like Northwestern.
Smith played in a BCS bowl under Erickson. He was part of that. He was Oregon State to the core.
People keep saying what a home run hire this is, but I don’t see it. Lack of any connection to region, no proof of being able to compete and beat the big boys of the conference, underwhelming record(very Hokian)…he might be a good coach in the context of the PAC 12(RIP) but he is going to be overmatched here in the Big Ten.
Additionally, MSU is losing massive amounts of players to the transfer portal. Smith is going to have to turn over the roster at a near Coach Prime level without a Shadeur or Hunter. Eep.
November 29th, 2023 at 10:39 AM ^
I'd contend that Bray taking over as DC at Oregon State in in late 2021 was as big, if not bigger, of a factor for that's teams success in 2022 & 2023 as the offense. SP+ ranks the defense as #16 in 2022 and #26 in 2023.
November 29th, 2023 at 11:29 AM ^
Keep those lovely Beavers in Corvallis.