Oregon State Beat Writer Answers 5 Questions About Beavers

Each week, we ask a journalist covering Cal’s next opponent five questions about that opponent. As Cal hosts Oregon State in a nonconference game on Saturday, we asked Corvallis Gazette-News sports editor Les Gehrett five questions about the Beavers.

We’ve included excerpts from each Gehrett response, but it may be helpful to listen to the entire video for each response.

— 1. What was the reaction last year when Oregon State realized it would be a member of a two-team conference, and what was the reaction when it learned recently that the Pac-12 would be rebuilt with the addition of members?

“Last year was a shock.”

“There was a lot of frustration. There was a lot of anger. I think some of that anger is still there.”

“Being part of the Pac-12 was the best-case scenario for Oregon State University…to blow it up and seemingly blow it out with the clear goal of outpacing Oregon State and Washington State, which feels kind of frustrating like.”

“Rebuilding the conference, I think there’s some excitement about that… it’s the best plan out there.”

—2. How does playing a season as an independent differ from being a member of a conference?

“This is a really weird show.”

“The challenge of creating a program like this in such a short period of time, it’s almost hard to overstate how difficult it is. It’s like you’ve got a wedding, you’ve got a venue, a band, whatever, and then everyone cancels on you two weeks before and you have to re-book everything.” .”

“The 2025 schedule was just announced. That schedule includes two games against Washington State. It’s kind of a necessity.”

—3. What was the reaction when Jonathan Smith left for Michigan State and how is Trent Bray different from Smith?

“The reaction was tough, especially because Jonathan was the quarterback of arguably the best football team this school has ever had (the team that beat Notre Dame 41-9 in the Fiesta Bowl in 2000 and earned a No. 4 ranking) at a time when the program was miserable.” “I came back here as the head coach; it was in really bad shape and the job he did to rebuild it from where it was was a really good job.”

Gehrett stated that moving to Michigan State made sense. “But I still think there’s a lot of pain and he leaves when you need him the most.”

“The main difference was Jonathan was a former quarterback and Trent was a former linebacker. Oregon State fans are very happy to have him.”

—4. Is Oregon State’s 4-3 record what you expected this season?

“I would say the expectations are a little bit better than that… Some of the tougher games are at the end of the schedule.”

“Given the injury issues and where the team is schedule-wise, 7-5 would be a pretty good result for this team right now.”

—5. Can you briefly walk us through how QB Gevani McCoy and running back Anthony Hankerson fared with the departures of DJ Uiagalelei and Damien Martinez?

“Losing Damien was tough. Losing DJ was unfortunate. The guy they were really unfortunate to lose was (2023 freshman quarterback) Aidan Chiles, who went to Michigan State with Smith.”

“McCoy transferred from Idaho. He’s a veteran guy, a dual-threat quarterback. What they like about him is his maturity and decision-making. The passing game, that’s what it is, you look at the stats (3 touchdowns, 5 interceptions)”

“Hankerson was job sharing with Jam Griffin to start the season and he was working really well (before Griffin got injured, now he was giving Hankerson a bigger workload).”

“Hank runs really hard. He’s had a good comeback; he trained a lot better when they had the Jam.”

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