Oregon State OC Ryan Gunderson: "We Have to Finish Games"
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Oregon State football offensive coordinator Ryan Gunderson has faced plenty of scrutiny over the last five weeks. After the team dropped a close contest to Houston over the weekend to fall to 0-5, Gunderson spoke with media on Tuesday to give his perspective on the situation.
When asked to reflect on the offensive performance against Houston
"We obviously ran the ball a little bit more violently, more effectively...I think when a game happens like that you usually tend to dwell on the things that you need to do better. I think they're playing hard, and I'm proud of these guys. But we gotta learn how to finish, how to finish games off."
What's on your mind heading into this week against App State?
"The goal is to win the game, but the mission is to continously get better. We need to improve, we need to improve with communication, with effort, with toughness, with execution, with route detail, with everything. We need to put ourselves in the best position to win games, and now that we're in these positions to win we have to finish."
On offensive lineman Tyler Voltin's return last week, and what he brings to the line
"With Tyler, last year up until he got hurt against SDSU, I thought he was playin' better than anybody else on our offensive line. So it really sucked that he had to go down. In those situations you feel good for those guys who worked so hard to come back. We got a lot of stories like that you know, Jacob Strand got hurt last year he came back, Tyler Morano has been hurt and he was pretty involved in the last game. Now it's about getting them on the field and getting them confident, ready to turn it loose."
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On what App State does defensively
"Coverage-wise they are a little different than what we're used to. They'll do some stuff that's not necessarily what we've seen. They change the fronts, they're gonna pressure our edges, so we need to have a plan in place that accounts for all that stuff. They're a good football team, and it's also in a tough place to go play."
On App State struggling more against the pass than the run
"I think we need to run the football to be a winning football team. We've got good players on the offensive line and good running backs, so we need to have an identity. That being said a lot of running the ball in today's day and age of football is if they're taking it away, you have to have answers. With the RPO world of football now, defenses dictate where the ball goes a lot of the time, so we have to be a well-rounded football team."
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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.