After the No. 16 Oregon State Beavers’ saw their regular season end with a 31-7 loss to rival and No. 6 Oregon on Friday night in Eugene, OSU coach Jonathan Smith talked about his team’s performance, the Beavers’ opponent and his own future.
Smith called Ducks quarterback Bo Nix “legit” and said the Pac-12 championship matchup between Oregon and No. 4 Washington next Friday would be “fascinating.”
Rumors had swirled about Smith being the top candidate to become head coach at Michigan State, but Smith said “no decisions have been made.”
Here’s a transcript of Smith’s postgame news conference, edited for brevity and clarity.
Smith: Well, obviously tough. Had chances at battling and first half, the end of the first half, and then the start of the second half, our opportunity with fourth and 2 and weren’t able to convert. And then it was just like slowly getting out of hand and we just couldn’t have enough offensively. I’ll say a couple of things. That quarterback … Bo Nix is legit. That guy is a good player. I thought we had some stress points for him. He extended, got outside and made some big-time throws. I think the fourth down thing they converted a little bit early, a couple of fourth and shorts that extended drives. We had a couple opportunities to continue the game and we didn’t. I felt like defensively we wanted to make them earn it, put drives together. Their explosive offense, not giving up the 50-yard hits. And we did a lot of that, but offensively we couldn’t get anything going in the second half and whatnot. So I appreciate some of the effort, we had a couple new starters out there and going and battling in and doing some stuff. But that’s a good football team. That’s going to be a good football game next weekend, going back to back against these two opponents, that’ll be a fascinating game.
Q: You were missing two starters on the O-line, running game struggling. They also seemed like they were stronger this year.
Smith: You play us, you’re going to try to stop the run and they did a good job of it. We could not get that going, got one-dimensional and couldn’t score enough.
Q: Jonathan, there’s a lot of reports out there that you’re in line for the Michigan State job. Have you interviewed for that job? Or do you plan to interview for that job?
Smith: No decisions have been made. I asked this team to take the approach to lock in for four months. And now it’s a little bit the start of conversations with so much uncertainty with the Pac-2. I’ve taken the same approach. So decisions, time and all of that, we’ve been locked in for the last couple months. We’ll go from there.
Q: Have you have you addressed your future with the team?
Smith: We talked about outside noise throughout the year. Talked to the team just a couple of days ago about a bunch of rumors and talk and all this, asked them to stay locked in and prepare for this game. I appreciate this group because I think they’ve done it.
Q: What have the conversations been like with Scott Barnes?
Smith: Scott and this administration does a lot of work, trying to navigate unprecedented times. And so we’ve met weekly and talked about that approach. Not just football, the athletic department, scheduling, all of that. So that’s been a weekly conversation.
Q: When you go through a decision like this, how much do you listen to your heart and how much do you listen to your head? Because obviously this decision changes not only your future but also the potential future of the program in Corvallis.
Smith: Yeah, I think there’s a process that you reevaluate every year. We’ve kind of spoke to it. It’s not just myself, every position coach, every player now with the transfer portal. I think you go through a season, dive into it, and then you reevaluate.
Q: Anthony (Gould) seemed really emotional after the game. Just talking about the pressure of all the outside stuff. How did you feel like the team carried that? Did you feel like it maybe got to be a little bit much?
Smith: I do think this team was locked in. It’s a good team that stuck together. Look, we had some tough losses. Tonight, yeah, it was a little bit of a runaway, but everything else this season. These guys have been going and I appreciate this group.
Q: Coach, you said no decisions have been made. When do you expect a decision to be made?
Smith: Don’t know. To be determined. Don’t know.
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Q: Coach you’ve obviously faced off against two of the best teams in back-to-back weeks. Do you have an opinion on potentially which one might have been better?
Smith: That’ll be interesting. We played both those teams and the quarterback play — the elements were a little bit different last week — but I’ll tell you, the way the Ducks played right now, they are going to be tough to beat.
Q: Jonathan, talk a little bit about that sequence at the end of the first half. You know, you guys have a chance to go into the halftime break down seven.
Smith: Bo Nix. I mean, they get to about midfield, there’s about 22 seconds. We want the ball to come out kind of quick, we pressured him. We don’t contain it very well. He’s a really good athlete, and you get that much time you put the ball back across the field to a big-time receiver. That changed huge momentum at halftime.
Q: The last two weeks you guys have had more than 200 yards rushing. Tonight, not even 100. What happened?
Smith: Yeah, give them some credit. Taking it away. We weren’t able to stay on the field, convert some critical third, fourth downs to be able to stay on the field to gain some rushing yards.
Q: With everything that’s gone on, conference realignment, Pac-12 going to a Pac-2. What’s it been like for you as a coach, coaching through this season and just dealing with all the noise outside?
Smith: Coaching this year has been fun. I appreciate this group. Yeah, there’s been some adversity, distractions going on, but I’ve enjoyed every minute of this year so far and those guys in the locker room. I really appreciate senior week last week, recognizing those guys because again, I’ve got a deep appreciation for them.
Q: Scott released that statement earlier this week saying that the priority was to get you signed to a contract extension. Have you guys had discussions about that or is that tabled right now?
Smith: I’m going to keep those between me and Scott. Like I’ve said, we’ve met weekly throughout this entire season. With so many things going on, I’ve been well informed.
Q: The bowl game that’s coming up, you don’t know the date yet, but do you have anything about which bowls want you?
Smith: I didn’t even think about it much. Playing in a bowl game, this group, that’s our reward. Definitely. I think there’s still beauty about that in college football. The teams that have a solid season get to extend into a bowl.
Q: You could see that Gould was emotional after the game. If you’re telling your team all season to kind of just focus on the week ahead, week ahead, what was your message now that the season’s essentially over?
Smith: I talked about in the locker room, they just did a better job executing than we did. Give them some credit, they’re a good team. I appreciated their effort.
Q: How’d you think DJ (Uiagalelei) handled the game?
Smith: I thought he battled in there, man. I thought early on we had a couple of throws that he may have been a little tighter in there. But then he got into a nice rhythm, made some creases. We asked him to carry the ball a few times. I think later in the game as it went on, his protection didn’t hold up very well.
Q: Was there a conversation with Aidan (Chiles) about his playing time today?
Smith: We talked to him earlier this week. We got to the point it felt like, with the weather changing, like it was not being fair to either guy to have Aidan warm up, sit there for potentially a half hour, go in, then he’s going back out, DJ coming out, so we decided this game to let DJ roll.
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