Trent Bray Talks Special Teams Changes For Oregon State, Previews Wake Forest Game

Oregon State head coach Trent Bray, and the Beaver football program at-large, has been under fire from fans and critics alike in the last two months. Bray and athletic director Scott Barnes took a step towards fixing the ongoing issues that have led to the team's 0-6 start to the 2025 season.

Here are some highlights from the transcript of what Bray had to say. Watch the full media availability below.

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Opening Statement on Wake Forest:

"Just still looking ahead at Wake Forest. Talented team, quarterback's a super talented guy. They play well on both sides of the ball, play fast, physical. Going to be a challenge."

On handling special teams in the coming weeks:

"Yeah, coach [Robb] Akey is going to take it over. And he'll be working with the special teams and among with some other help from assistant coaches and all that. But, yeah, we've decided to handle it that way."

On a familiar foe in Jake Dickert:

"Yeah, I think his teams are well coached and they play physical, they play hard, a lot like his Washington State team. So, we expect them to come in here and play hard and be a challenge."

On keeping everybody engaged ahead of the Pac-12 restart next year:

"Yeah, I think finishing strong is the emphasis and you know finishing this season out strong and the way we want it to go. And obviously momentum moving forward is a good thing. There's no question."

On Scott Barnes' statement where he expressed disappointment in the program:

"It is disappointing. I mean, we're 0 and six. That's disappointing. That's not where we thought we'd be or anything. What has to change is I think what what we saw last two weeks, we're in position to win games and we're not making the plays to win those games. Last week was, I mean we had three opportunities at the end of the game to do it. So we got to, you know, we got to keep coaching these guys and put them in positions to be successful and then we got to go out and make those plays when we have the opportunities."

On the decision to fire Jamie Christian:

"It's been an evaluation of the whole year. I do believe in coach Christian. He's a good coach and he's proven that through a long career. I believe in him. You know, the last two weeks we've had short weeks. You know, obviously short week playing on Friday and then the travel made it a short week. So, it wasn't the time to do it then. And then just an evaluation of okay, we got a finally full week into a bye-week if we're going to do it. This would be the time and it just continued to be a problem. So, we made that decision."

His message to the Oregon State community at the moment:

"When things are going wrong or not going the way you want them, you need more. That's when you need to pour into stuff. So, I guess that's what I'd say. Backing away and removing yourself from it isn't going to better the situation. If we all want to get through this, I'm talking to everyone, we got to put more into it."

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