How Oregon State RB Coach Ray Pickering Stays Positive During a Slump
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After practice on Tuesday, the media had the chance to speak with numerous coaches and players from varying position groups. They discussed keeping the focus after a rough start to the season, the upcoming challenge against Houston on Friday, and reflected on some details from the Oregon game.
RB coach Ray Pickering
How does your upbeat personality serve you at a time where a team is going through a rough stretch?
"Ah man, that's when it's needed the most. Leadership is all about through the good, through the bad. Not coming off of what we do, not turning into different people. Just doing our job, that's what we constantly preach in our room... any chance we get, any opportunity we get on any given day to play football, man, it's a dream come true."
Is there anything that you do with the players to make sure you can keep their spirits up?
"I like to tell them to be themselves, you know, just being mindful of human nature. Not beating them up too much or beating myself up too much, more so being something that a big brother or an uncle or a great dad would be. So just having that type of relationship with the kids, but like you said just keeping them upbeat, and lookin' at some of the smaller details that we are doing good. Take pass pro{tection} for an example, we are awesome in pass pro, I think we've yet to give up a sack in the {halfback} room."
What do you have to do on Friday night to be successful against a really good Houston run defense?
"It's what we do every week, you know we talk about what it takes at the start of the week. First of all we gotta have incredible ball security to give ourselves a chance, that's one thing that we live on, intense ball security. And then I think we just need to be enamored with our game plan and how we wanna attack this bunch. Just having the abiity to make people miss in space, structuring this thing to where we know we wanna see defenders, the angles that we want to hit them with, and playing with speed."
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True Freshman corner Trey Glasper:
How do you tune out the noise, considering the struggles and an 0-4 start? How do you keep yourself in the right mindset when preparing for another week?
"It definitely starts in the room with the rest of the DBs. Coach Chance and coach Cooper are constantly on us about straigning in on what's happening in front of us, not what's goin' on around us. It really doesn't mattter how many fans are in the stands, whose there, it's really just what's happening in front of me and am I doing what I'm supposed to be doing."
What's the mentality like, given that teams will come after you a lot, being a young starting corner?
"I'm always gonna be myself, be my own biggest critic. At the end of the day I know that if I go out there and let up a play, nobody can tell me somethin' I don't already know or I haven't already started thinking about, about that last play. Next play mentality, not letting a bad play cloud my mind about what's going on in front of me."
Offensive Lineman Jacob Strand:
You and Dylan Sikorski haven't yet been available at the same time this season. Both of you are back this week, do you feel like you can start to build some consistency on that left side of the line?
"I feel like me and Dylan mesh really well together, and all the guards really. Our minds kinda think as one, we can see everything together and we communicate really well."
Do you feel like if all you starters can stay healthy at the same time, is there potential for better production in the run game if you have all these pieces?
"Absolutely. It's all about reps really, working towards goals together, gettin' the little things down. Finishing the blocks together, I think that the more we do that, the better it'll be."
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Inside Linebacker Aiden Sullivan:
On the emotions of getting a start at Autzen stadium, and how he assessed his play
"I was really excited. My first start, I've been here for almost two years, so it was good to be able to go out there and play the game I love... I feel like personally I started a little bit slow, second half I feel like I figured some things out. But it's an opportunity I've been waiting for, and I think I could build off it going forward."
On Houston QB Conner Weigman being dual-threat, how they keep him from getting out of the pocket, and how to gauge his decision-making.
"We've made a few adjustments, some of our coverages...I don't wanna tell you too much, but we might have a guy for him so he doesn't get out of the pocket...I just say make a full-speed decision, go out there with some confidence, know that he plays fast but I play fast too."
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Ben Pahl is a sportswriter and broadcaster based in Portland, Oregon. His work covering college and professional sports has been featured by the Orange Media Network at Oregon State University as well as KBVR.fm. His other career stops in sports include the Portland Pickles baseball club and the NBA G-League's Rip City Remix.