Wake Forest Coach Jake Dickert on Oregon State: "This is a Power Four football team"
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On Saturday, Oregon State welcomes the Wake Forest Demon Deacons to Reser Stadium. Leading up to the game, Wake Forest coach Jake Dickert spoke with Winston-Salem area local media. Defensive coordinator Scottie Hazelton, edge defender Langston Hardy, and cornerback Karon Prunty also spoke with the media. This piece features highlights from those conversations.
Wake Forest head coach Jake Dickert on the matchup with Oregon State
“...You know, it’s going to be a challenging week. We get to head cross country to Oregon State. I’m very thankful for this game, even for myself to just get familiar with taking a team across the country, because we’re going to have to do it quite often in this league. So, I’m excited about the challenge. I’ve been to Oregon State. It’s a tough place to win, but we need to get our minds back to the dark, and work and prepare this week to get ourselves in a good position to go win a football game against a good, tough opponent. Another homecoming game for them, another tough environment, and our guys got to be ready to go.”
Wake Forest head coach Jake Dickert on how the cross country trip changes his team’s itinerary
“Yeah, we’ll be out there Thursday afternoon. So you know, obviously gaining time going west. So we’ll stay on course throughout really the course of the week, and then on Thursday after that practice we’ll leave this building about 12:30 [Winston-Salem local time] and hit the 5 hour flight out west.”
Wake Forest head coach Jake Dickert on staying motivated against a winless opponent
“It’ll be a good maturity test, from my standpoint, and there’ll be about 10 other people in this room that I’ve experienced playing there. Coach Bray, tons of respect for Coach Bray, he’s an absolutely fantastic coach. The narrative is wrong in my opinion. I know exactly what he’s going through during these kind of couple transitional years out there. And they have played what I would think is the hardest schedule in the country. I don’t have facts on that, but - I mean - two top ten teams, a Houston team, an ACC team [California], now the second ACC team. So they lost a couple good, close games, and they’re trying to find their breakthrough, right? So they’ve been in some close, tough football games. We’re going to play the chainsaw in the indoor [Wake Forest’s indoor practice facility] and get used to the environment, and it’ll be rocking in there. I mean, it’s a passionate, strong fanbase. You know I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: this is a power four football team in my mind. Always has been. Look to the history of success, and in my opinion, always will be [a power four football team]. So you can throw out the record. It’s going to be a tough, scrappy football team that’s going to be fighting, because that’s what throughout the history of their program.”
MORE: Trent Bray Talks Special Teams Changes For Oregon State, Previews Wake Forest Game
Wake Forest defensive coordinator Scottie Hazelton on facing former Duke QB Maalik Murphy
“The guys know him well, and he made a big time play last year, to get Wake. So that’s a big thing, you know what I mean? The guys want to go back there and see that guy again, and see what they can do against him.”
Wake Forest edge defender Langston Hardy on visiting Oregon for the first time
“No I haven’t [been there before]. None of my family’s been out there. My dad [former NFL linebacker Kevin Hardy] is actually going out there on his flight that leaves today, so he’s going to be out there, have his little road trip out there.”
A reporter follows up with “and what is he doing?”
“Advanced scouting? I don’t know. He wants to go out to the Oregon Trail and stuff like that. So, I don’t know. I’ve never been out to Oregon, so it’s going to be a cool, cool experience.”
Wake Forest corner Karon Prunty on how he wound up at Wake Forest
“Uh, that’s kind of a crazy story as well. So, it’s crazy because when coach Dickert was at Washington State, they had offered me in the portal. So, when I committed to Colorado State at first, coach Banks [Wake Forest safeties coach Freddie Banks], safeties coach, he’s the one that recruited me there. And then I got a call, and coach Banks was like “I’m at Wake Forest. You want to come play for Wake Forest?”, so that’s how I got here. And then coach Jackson [Wake forest cornerbacks coach Chevis Jackson] ended up coming and I didn’t even know that, because I thought ‘Coach B’ was going to be my corner coach. So once coach Jackson ended up coming, I was just like ‘dang!’ like it all just came together: coach Jackson coached me and coach Ben [Wake Forest director of strength & conditioning Ben Iannacchione] was my student conditioning coach that came as well. So that was just a crazy moment right there.”
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Matt fell in love with radio during his college days at Oregon Tech, and pursued a nine year career in sports broadcasting with Klamath Falls' and Medford's highest-rated sports radio stations. He currently lives in McMinnville wine country and is excited to talk about the Beavers again.