Coach Shephard Speaks to Beaver Nation: "It's a Huge Game this Saturday Night"

Oregon State head coach Shephard spoke with the media for nearly a half hour on Monday afternoon. He hammered home the significance of this Saturday's game against FCS powerhouse Montana, and also answered questions pertaining to the run game and specific personnel decisions.

In his opening statement, he addressed what he has seen from his players in the first two weeks and what he expects this weekend and going forward.

"We're really looking forward to this weekend, Montana is a really good football team," Shephard said. "They're gritty and we expect this to be a really great football game. We continue to be excited about last week's game as well, I think our receivers have been electric throughout the season so far, and we've got a lot of young talent on this football team, and they're playing really well so far this season. And as I said earlier on, our linebackers have been extremely versatile and have been put in a lot of different positions throughout the football field. They're making great choices and I really couldn't ask for more."

Shephard went on to implore Oregon State fans to fill Reser Stadium, as students begin to trickle back on to campus. The first official day of the fall semester at OSU is Wednesday, September 23.

"I really wanna take this moment to speak directly to the fans: I won't believe that we have our full team out there until we have the stands completely filled. At this point this game is so important guys...when you look at the schedule, we don't have all of our students on campus until after this game. I'm really looking forward to seeing Beaver nation show up and show out this weekend."

While the Beavers' failed upset bid this past weekend against Texas Tech showed promise in several areas, Oregon State's rushing attack finished with 55 yards on 19 carries a week after netting only 26 yards.

“I told you that we weren’t gonna run all the same plays that we ran the previous week, and we did it. We’ve got a lot of young, bright minds on this football staff, and I expect each and every one of them to bring ideas to the table," Shephard said. "I believe that it’s important for us to spread the ball around and have as many players on our football team involved in our game plan. And I think that we have done that…now, running back gets hot, we’re gonna turn around and hand it to him some more. So we just gotta get one of them hot.”

On the defensive side of the ball, Shephard also highlighted the promise of several of the team's promising young players, notably freshman defensive back Blake Thompson.

“Blake immediately jumped off the page during our fourth-quarter drills. He possesses athletic skill, speed, change of direction that was outstanding, we said ‘this kid is gonna be a big-time play maker for us early on. And then you find out that he really actually hadn’t played the position that much, and that is common across the board when you look at our cornerback room specifically, and that’s what you noticed about Blake right away. I’ve been challenging Coach Brumfield and telling him ‘it’s on him to teach Blake how to play the position of corner at a high level.’”

Oregon State and Montana square off this Saturday, September 19 with kickoff scheduled for 8 p.m. PT/11 p.m. PT on the USA Network. The Grizzlies are 3-0 to start the season and are ranked No. 2 in the FCS Coaches Poll.

"Really good football team," Shephard noted. "On defense they fly around and they bring a lot of different scheme, so we're going to have to be prepared for all that they bring. They have a couple linebackers who are tenacious players, and then on offense they kinda do it all really well. They got a running back who is over 300 yards rushing, quarterback throwing for over 250 yards a game. So we're gonna have to do everything really well on our side of the ball."

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