Here's What the Beavers Said After Playing Texas Tech

Last night, JaMarcus Shephard's Oregon State Beavers led in the fourth quarter against the #13 Texas Tech Red Raiders.

In a nationally-televised game at a raucous Reser Stadium, Shephard's culture change and roster overhaul this offseason appeared to be early successes.

It wasn't enough. After back-to-back Oregon State turnovers on downs late in the fourth quarter, the heavily-favored Red Raiders escaped Corvallis unscathed, leaving their hosts with a moral victory.

After the game, Shephard parted a sea of reporters to reach the podium for postgame comments. He began by seemingly mind-reading what the whole room, and maybe the whole country, felt about what we had just watched.

"That was a great football game."

Then the first year head coach set a high bar for the Beavers going forward. Moral victories are not enough. Shephard expected to win.

"I'll tell you what, I expected this out of our team, and I expect more, and I know that there are some that don't, but I'm excited about the direction that we're going as a football team. We know what we're capable of. We know what's possible here, and I think we showed a lot of that today."

At Washington three years ago, Shephard's Huskies won the Pac-12 Conference and competed in the College Football Playoff, reaching the national championship game. At Alabama last season, Shephard's Crimson Tide beat Oklahoma in the first round of the playoff before falling to the eventual national champion Indiana Hoosiers in the quarterfinal. Visibly exasperated after suffering a defeat last night, the perennial winner was asked whether he felt disappointed.

"I would say that there's no doubt there's a a ton of disappointment, because I wanted it for our players. It has nothing to do with me personally. I just wanted it for our players. We have taken them through hell and back to get to this point, and I knew that this opportunity would be in front of us, and we have to take advantage of the plays when we get the chance to do it. And we didn't do that today."

One of Shephard's defensive captains, Idaho transfer linebacker Dylan Layne, passionately added to Shephard's sentiments.

"We're changing the culture here. It's no longer good enough to [have] moral victories. They're not good enough. Like, we competed with top 25 teams. Like, B-S, man. We want to win these games. The standard here, I don't care what it was before. I wasn't here. Coach wasn't here. We don't care. The standard is we're going to win these games and we're going to be competing, and for example, this is a little thing, but the fans clapping after the game. I'm challenging Beaver Nation: show up, show out, and expect us to win. It's not good enough to lose by 11, or be up in the third quarter versus Texas Tech. No, we're coming to win the Pac 12 this year, and we expect to win every game we play. That's the standard."

While neither Shephard or Layne were in Corvallis last Fall, Stayton native Tyler Voltin is entering his sixth year at Oregon State. The towering guard defended his teammates' strong words.

"[I'm] super proud of the fight that we had tonight, but there's no moral victories either. We got to get back to the drawing board tomorrow and we'll go 1-and-0 tomorrow."

Today, Oregon State's roster has returned to the Valley Football Center in preparation for next Saturday's home game against the Montana Grizzlies. Kickoff is scheduled for 8 PM PST on USA Sports.

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