2026 Season Teaser

Josh and Rob are BACK for season 4 of Chainsaw Crew! The guys express their excitement for the upcoming 2026 football season for the Oregon State Beavers under new head coach JaMarcus Shephard. Thanks for listening! GO BEAVS!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:30

Four of James on the crew, baby. We are back in action. Way back, back back. Shout out to Chris Berman, baby, dude. I have been fired up today, Josh, to get back on the mic and just talk with you. We're one day through fall camp, man. I just cannot wait for football season to get going, dude. There's a ball of energy over here all the way out here in Texas. Can't wait to get back to the West Coast. It's gonna be closer to you. More beaver games for your boy. Come on now. We're both rocking the white white jerseys, dude.

unknown 1:02

I love it.

SPEAKER_00 1:03

Not playing whatsoever. But Josh, dude, we haven't spoken on camera in a very long time. How are you? You gotta check in with me, man. You've had a long summer, you've been coaching ball, you've been doing a lot of things, man. Golfing. Let the people and let me know how you've been doing, what you've been up to.

SPEAKER_02 1:17

Rob, how's it doing, dude? It feels great to see your beautiful face. And I'm just in awe of what I just witnessed with that intro video that you created. Like, I I literally got goosebumps again watching that thing. So, what a way to get this thing started, right? Uh this this summer's been crazy. Uh, I ended up coaching some baseball with my son Jacoby, and uh it went it went very good for us. And uh I I think we were all kind of surprised at uh just how it went. Baseball is baseball, and it can it can go 500 different ways, it feels like. And some weeks it feels like it's stacked against you, and other weeks you feel like you're unstoppable. And uh the boys got hot at the right time, and we ended up taking county and taking third and state. So it was just a crazy experience, and I was so thankful to be able to share that with Jacoby and just everybody else. I mean, what experience for these kids, man. Some of these kids have never even sniffed a baseball field before, and for them to be able to experience that as a coach, man, that that's that's what you love. And before we get into what you're talking about, I mean, talking about what we love. I mean, Marcus Shepard is what I love right now. And I mean, good lord, Rob. That guy, he's cooking, he is in the kitchen cooking every day, it seems like. And we saw it with his presser, and we'll I'm sure we'll touch on that here in a little bit later. But you hinted you hinted on it a little bit. You're gonna be making a move here soon. What's been going on with you the last few months?

SPEAKER_00 2:43

A lot of things, man. A lot of good things. Just life is crazy, like you always say, dude. And life's a blessing, too, man. It's just it's so great. I am engaged. Uh, Brittany and I, I got on a knee on uh the 5th of July out there on Lake Michigan. So we are engaged. And shout out to my beautiful fiance, man. This sweet background that you see on YouTube. She made it, she made our logo, she does all of it, man. We are a non-AI podcast. None of the stuff we do is AI, okay? I want to be very clear on that. Okay, I make it, my fiance makes it, Josh makes it, we do all of it, okay? And she put in a ton of effort to make that thing look really cool for us. So if you're on YouTube, we appreciate you. If you're not, give us five stars on that Spotify, on Apple Podcasts, Amazon, wherever you're getting your podcast from, man, please give us five stars and download this show. Please, please, please. It's the best way to get an accurate number of how many listeners we have. But summer's been great, man. Besides my A's who are terrible. If you guys don't know, I've been podcasting for the House Always Wins Media Network as well. And it's been a really, really tough summer. But good news. I will be in Fenway Park Friday night. I'll hopefully, hopefully, Adley Rutschman will be off the I. I mean, I have his Orioles jersey, right? And it was a great run for me. Shout out to my buddy Connor. He went to an O's game because he lives in Virginia, and I was like, Can you get me a Rutschman jersey, please? And he was like, Well, they only have like one white one, and it was like a small. And I was like, Okay, obviously, I can't do that. I was like, Can you customize like an orange jersey? And dude, he went through the ringer to get me this jersey and he shipped it all the way to me. What a homie! What a run for that jersey. I knew it was gonna be there's no way he was gonna re-sign in Baltimore, and their their core is basically ending over there. So he's a Red Sox and they're on fire, so I get to see them on Friday night against the hottest season. Get to see them on Friday night against the A's, and the A's are terrible. So uh gonna be a good time regardless. I'm excited to go to Boston, but what I'm more excited about is Marcus Shepard, man. This Oregon State football program currently, as we stand. We are one day through fall camp. And I don't know if you guys have done it yet, but there's a 37-minute presser on YouTube. 37 minutes, Josh. What was the max amount of time that Coach Smith, Coach Bray would give the press? I think 37 minutes total between the two of them is weird. For the year, for the year, yeah. It's incredible, man. The way he speaks, it's every time he talks, I'm like, we're going 12 and oh. This is gonna be unbelievable. And if I'm gonna if I'm gonna die betting on the beeves, so be it, dude. That's what I feel like right now.

SPEAKER_02 5:28

It's just been incredible. I I texted you after uh I listened to it, and it just feels like every time he talks, like everyone's just gonna listen, like they're going to shut their mouths and they're going to listen and take in everything he has to say. And just my takeaways quickly from that presser. It was we talked about it in the in the season last year, was just a breath of fresh air, and that's exactly what it is. You have a guy coming that's taking the helm of this football team, and he is coming, and he is thoughtfully answering every question to the extent that he can. And you we just haven't seen that in many years, Robin. Just never got that. And the way he answers questions, like it's hook line and sinker for me. Like, I'm like, I okay, whatever. If that's what you say, coach, we're rolling with it. Rolling. Yeah, let's go. I'm ready. Let's go. And I think it's a settlement of what this season could potentially be. And you heard it when he was talking, he was answering some of those questions, and he I think he knows where they sit right now, and there's still work that needs to be done. And I think that he realizes that this fan base isn't asking for the world right now. We just want to see that turn, see improvement, and see some fight out of this football team this year. And I think this Shepard era is gonna give us every ounce of that. You talk about mental toughness, those guys I I text you, Rob, they might be one of the most mentally tough teams in the whole nation this year. I he's not gonna let them fold. I promise you that. And you sent me a video of him out there uh at practice, just trucking dudes. Like, that's what I'm talking about. Get off your heels. That's what I'm talking about. Like, you just Bray Smith, you just never got that. It's it's so cool, Rob. It's so cool. I can sit here and talk about it for hours. It is just so wild to me that this is this is who is in charge of this football team now, and it is going to be such a breath. And I'm gonna say that so much this year, no matter how this season turns out. I don't care if they win two games, four games, six games, whatever it is. I promise you, the turnaround from the last few years is gonna be so noticeable, and it will have people talking around the college football landscape.

SPEAKER_00 7:47

100%. And he also did a video today with John Canzano, which is about 40 minutes long. I'm about halfway through that. I didn't get all the time in the world today to read. It's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 7:57

The unfiltered one without every day, it's pretty sweet.

SPEAKER_00 8:00

Just such a brave people person, and yeah, Jamarcus is the CEO of the program 100. But he has such a good support staff around him right now. Aran Hodges, dude. This guy is incredible. I I I love this. If you follow him on Instagram, he is just he's a man's man, he's a badass. And I I have been loving the energy from just the strength and conditioning side of things with with Coach Eaton, and then down to Aran and all the other coaches. All the the welcome to the fight has been pretty much like the main saying from Mac uh from Coach McIntyre, and how you do anything is how you do everything. This I love all of the sayings so far, and the social media side of it has been incredible. Day one's obviously super exciting for social media teams and posting great content, but there's still a lot of unknown about this team for sure. And as we know, Jamarcus was the only head coach in the nation to not give Phil Steele a depth chart, which who who cares at that? I mean, it's a depth chart, it's a spring depth chart, essentially, right? Because it can mean two things, right? And Phil Steele, of course, turned around and picked the Beaves to finish last in the new Pac-12. So, okay, thanks, Phil. Appreciate you, brother. It can mean two things, not giving out a depth. And what I typically think it means is I don't think Jamarcus wants to give out any information about this team whatsoever, does not want to give Houston any type of information about our team for game one. That is obviously the easy answer. The other side of it, the thinking side of it, is let me just break it down. Does he not know who's gonna start at a lot of positions? Because they asked him today, and they asked him many times, who's gonna be your quarterback? And he basically says it's an analytic job. If they'll know from the numbers and our data that who's gonna be the starter. And he also said, if any of those guys tell you who the starter is, I'm gonna be very upset. So he he has a very specific way of doing things, and I respect the hell out of it for sure. I think Jamarcus is he's just such a great person to listen to. And every, like you said, every single answer that he has just exuberates a bunch of confidence out of me as a fan. I just feel so good that this man is leading our beloved beaver football program. So I feel really good about everything going on right now. There's really been no negative press. Phil still try to make it a negative thing by oh, Jamarcus Shepard didn't give me a depth chart. It's like it's not, I don't think it's personal whatsoever. And I don't think Jamarcus reads into any of that stuff because again, they asked him about hey, a lot of people are picking you seventh or eighth in the pack-12. Like, what do you think about that? And he's just like, I don't pay attention to that. Which social media actually said his social media guy so did a ron's so boys, we gotta stop clicking those links, all right? We gotta stop, okay? It's a lot going on. We have a lot of fans currently going through that, like, oh, my crypto money bought me a car. Stop clicking the links, guys. But it I don't care about a depth chart right now, man. There's a couple of websites who are basically guessing, and we'll pretty much know who's gonna be the starting quarterback. I mean, it's it feels like Malik's job to lose at this point. His arm strength is absolutely gonna be the best out of all those guys, but we'll see, man, going forward. And we don't really know the exact identity of this offense until they step on the field and play a game. I know Mitch Dallin has done a lot of different things in his career. He's really only called plays at a very small school, and they were pretty run-heavy because no one else could stop the run in that league. So we'll see. It there's so much unknown, and I'm not gonna sit here and make speculation about what this team is going to look like day one. Because look, we'll do a full breakdown of this whole thing in a couple of weeks here before we get started for this season. But this schedule sucks. I hate it so much. It's not easy for a new head coach, a new coaching staff, ton of new faces, new players on this team. It's it's difficult. Two top 25 teams back to back to start your year. It's going to be an uphill battle right away. So I'm really, really excited to see how these guys come out and respond to this early adversity of all right. Hey, here's a great test for you. We're gonna go on the road to Houston, 11 a.m. kick local time, 9 a.m. West Coast. It's gonna be hot, it's gonna be muggy, gross. How are we gonna do it, boys? I think the energy is going to be so much better on the road from these guys just because of the coaching staff and what Jamarcus brings. But Josh man, I I think right now I feel really good about the team, even with a really difficult schedule. How are you feeling just one day into fall camp or super early into the thing in August? But how are things going in your mind for this future of this football program?

SPEAKER_02 12:27

I think it's going as good as it possibly can right now. And I I I think as we as we look ahead to some of the schedule and just talk about the brutality of that schedule to start the season and just what you have to deal with. I was actually talking to somebody yesterday about it, and I said, if there's any way that you can come out of that first two-game stretch with Houston and Tech and be one-on-one somehow, it that that's a huge win. Huge win to start the season, and just so much momentum going forward. How is Shep going to deal with this early advert adversity? Like you're you're coming out and you're getting punched in the mouth. And to be honest, thank God Oregon's not in there because it it would just suck, it would just be so brutal. And I think you'll find out really quick what this football team is made of. And I I agree 100% with what you said. I am willing to bet money that this team as a road team it's just not gonna look the same from what we've seen over the last few years. This team, this team's going to compete, they're gonna fight, they're gonna have that mental toughness. Now, do they have the best players right now? No. Are they going to get beat? Yes. I I we we know that right now, and that's just stuff that this staff is going to have to deal with. Now, there's plenty of I feel like winnable games down the stretch after you get out of those first two games. How do you take care of business in those games that you need to take care of business, Rob? That's the big question this year. Can he do it? Can Shep convince them to do it? And I think I think Malik will be the biggest difference this year. If he has turned the corner at all, Rob, at all. And given if Dalin and Shep have instilled any confidence into him, I think that he has the capability to be a very, very good quarterback this year uh with his team. I highly, highly hope they try to run a quicker offense, and I hope that they allow Malik to get the ball out of his hands a little faster. And that is all stuff that we can sit here and hope for. But if there's a recipe for success, I think that's it for this offense. Defense, I he talked about it in his pressure, right? You you really just don't know right now what you're gonna get out of both sides of the ball. And you're hoping that this philosophy that they have of they want to go out and get turnovers and takeaways on defense and then have this offense go down and not make mistakes. Yeah, I think that's what every team in the college football landscape hopes to do. Can't they do it? Oregon Strait offensively has struggled a ton and they have struggled against really bad defensive teams. Can you go out and take care of business? Can the defense go out there and win you a few games when the offense isn't rolling? So I I think there is a recipe for success. Now, does that recipe get used by Shep in the kitchen to allow this team to be successful this year?

SPEAKER_00 15:27

I would like to think so. And I think they have a lot of good pieces in place, especially on offense. If this team is truly going to be a throw-first type of team, then they have a lot of good weapons at the wide receiver spot. There's a lot of guys there who have good experience. I look at Xavier Nolan, who came in. There's also Bubba Hampton who comes in, Aaron Butler. There's a ton of good talent. Eddie Frioff, there's a lot of guys out there, Jason Jameson Powell, Jesse Legree. There's a lot of good names in this room. And we talked about it way long ago in our early offseason podcast, the last episode of this. It's a pretty good room, and really excited about this group. They asked Jamarcus today about Eddie Frioff, and he first thing was he was he's I know Jamarcus was going to love Eddie just because he's got that good body pause, but he he is a great, he's a great guy to mold and become a good receiver because Eddie just has so much raw talent, he just needs to hone it in. And you could tell the message has been clear that a lot of these guys care, and I'll and Eddie wants it really badly for the rest of his team just because of the year they went through last year, right? And and Jamarcus was honest. He said, look, when their coach gets fired last year, a lot of these guys took their foot off the gas, and a lot of these guys gained some weight that they shouldn't be gaining, and they kind of mailed it in for the year, which obviously, yeah, we saw that, right? We saw that in the Tulsa game, Sam Houston game. They they did not give a you know what about those games. So this year, it's it's about the discipline, man. It's about the culture of this team, it's about just finding your identity again. And he Jamarcus wants to put Oregon State back on the map. Obviously, yeah, that's great. Okay, and he's talking about we need butts and seats. Every single seat needs to be filled in Reese Stadium when Texas Tech comes in, especially again for Montana too. Those are not, especially Texas Tech, that's not an easy game. But Montana, not an easy game, okay. That's yeah, you see FCS opponent, you see FCS opponent like, ah, we should win that one. No, dude, Montana is borderline FBS level, they're a very good program. So it's gonna be it's gonna be tough, man. And you gotta go to UTEP, you gotta go to Colorado State. There's a lot of unknown in our conference, too, coming into a brand new conference. So I'm really excited just to see how this thing kind of plays out for this year because there's so much unknown that you really can't guess about anything until you see this team play the first couple of weeks against two really good programs. One of them you had on the ropes last year in your own stadium when your team was awful. You were terrible last year. You had them on the ropes and you let it slip away. Okay, so there is some hope there going into Houston, being like, look, we ran it against these guys and we had a shot. Now we have a whole new group, a whole different mentality. We can do it this time, right? Who cares about an early season ranking? Preseason rankings mean nothing. If there's a 24 next to Houston, who cares? What do they do to earn that? Nothing. Some idiot at AP was like, I think they're 24th. That's how that works. So anything is possible, man, and anything can happen, especially week zero, week one of college football. It'd be great to shock the world, like you said, and start one-on-one. That'd be that'd be insane. I think the more gettable game is obviously Houston. I just think Texas Tech on the defensive line is going to cause some issues. Our old friend Jojo Johnson's on that defensive line.

SPEAKER_01 18:41

So JoJo.

SPEAKER_00 18:42

We'll see how that works out, man. And I'm excited to get Brian Jensen back on this podcast as Josh locked him in for the Texas Tech week. So we'll talk about some things. There's been a lot of plenty of drama with the Texas Tech football program, and they get to come into Corvallis for our home opener. They lose their quarterback to a gambling scandal issue, and they wanted to play Texas, even though Brian told us very clearly last year that they don't want to schedule anybody tough in their non-conference. So a lot of drama going on with Texas Tech right now. So is this an opportunity for hey, you're going to come into Reese Stadium and not be ready to play? Maybe we can punch you in the mouth early and then make it a ball game. That's I think I think that's going to be I'm excited to see how this team comes out to play this right away, every single week, because I know they're going to have a ton of energy. And I know like everyone talks about oh, the middle eight, the last four of the second quarter and the first four of the third quarter are the most important. It's like, okay, right now I just need them to have an extremely good plan to start a game, go down and score, go up and get a stop right away. Because there was not a whole lot of that last season, right? It was, hey, good kickoff return from Wake Forest. Oh, they scored on the second play of the game.

unknown 19:47

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 19:48

So it was too much of that. I well, obviously, I think we've moved on from that, right? I do think that's a whole new group of guys, different motivation, and we'll see how it plays out defensively because a lot of new faces out there. I do want to say really quick though, with the new NCAA ruling, Jaheen Patterson and Van Wells are technically allowed to come back. And Jamarkish mentioned today that they are working to get them back. It's going to be pretty tough for them to get ready for game one if they haven't been in spring camp and in fall camp. Jaheem declared for the NFL draft and he didn't get signed anywhere. So he's eligible to come back. And I'm really curious to see how that played out and see if he's going to be ready to play game one because Jaheem would be an incredible addition to this. And same with Van Wells. Great experience, you know, guys with snaps. Oregon State is the sixth oldest team in college football. And that's a lot of snaps. That is. That equates to a lot of good experience, right? And I think that's that can only be a good thing, right? Especially after last season. So I I there's so much to talk about with this team. It's incredible. There's so many different guys at positions, new weight losses, weight gains. We've just a lot of things going on. And it's all great stuff right now. It's all very positive. I need to see what happens to this team when they get punched in the mouth. How do they respond? Because last year it was lay down and quit. I don't anticipate that at all to happen under Jamarcus Shepherd and this staff. It just doesn't feel like the way he talks, the way he speaks, that's going to happen. But it's you're gonna have some adversity. You're guaranteed it, right? That's what Jamarcus talks about all the time. How do you respond?

SPEAKER_02 21:22

For sure.

SPEAKER_00 21:23

That's gonna be the main question this year.

SPEAKER_02 21:25

And I think uh the way that he talked about it in the press conference about what this what completes this team, right? And he even took it down to the janitors and the staff and the lot of them and stuff like that. But at the end, he said having the fans in the stadium is what's gonna complete this team this year. Like that's just so crazy to me. Like I think he acknowledges the fact of the struggle of filling research, and we see it every year. We see it every year, Rob. We see it people bailing at halftime. Like it it's just it's just crazy. I I have one goal this year, and I'm I I have a feeling you'll like this goal, but I don't want to stop watching an Oregon State game period this year. I I don't care if they're losing. Okay. I just want them to be competitive from start to finish. That's it. Don't give up. Don't roll over and die just because it it sucks. Show us that you want to be there, right? We have zero say in what happens on that football field. We're just two lunatics that love Oregon State and the many sports programs that it offers. But my lord, do not give up. And I think that you have the greatest person in the world to lead this team to not do that. I really do. And if he's gonna dummy it down to every single person that steps foot on that campus, that has any role around this football team, or even without the outside this football team, is what's going to make this team successful. Dude, it I I'm getting goosebumps just talking about it. It's just it's just so wild to me. I would have never thought in a million years we would have to be talking about an Oregon State head coach that has so much energy, just even in a freaking press conference after day one of camp. You know what I'm saying? Like, I just don't get it. I just he didn't he didn't sleep the night before either. No, it's crazy dudes he's at the facility at like 4 a.m. I know it's just so crazy. Like having a guy that wants it just as bad as everybody else is what's going to fuel this fire, and it will continue to fuel this fire. And you'll get so many student athletes that come in and want to buy into that when they see that Shep wants it more than anybody else in the world. Like it, I'm bought in. I'm I'm bought in right now. I don't I never played football. I'd go put pads and a helmet on for him right now.

SPEAKER_00 23:40

Yeah, I feel the same. Every time he speaks, I'm just like, God, dude, this is just so infectious. I and I'm all in, and I love the guy. He even said, like, I could find myself here for a very long time. We've heard coaches say that before, so I I don't want to put too much into that right now. But dude, I I I'm just overly excited. And like you said, man, when Reese Stadium is going, man, and it's third down, and you hear the it's a different environment, dude. You want to hear it again?

SPEAKER_02 24:11

You want to I do, I do.

SPEAKER_00 24:18

It gives you life, right? I remember being in that stadium when Jamarcus was the wide receiver coach for Washington, and when that third down chainsaw was ringing, because that was the year our PA system wasn't even in yet. The loudest thing in that stadium was always the chainsaw, and they add that little reverb to it, dude. It's just it just sounds it horror. It's a horror film. That's what Reesear Stadium needs to be. You need to be walking into the afterlife that is hell, that is Reese Stadium. Okay, that is what this new age of orte football needs to be. There's not going to be a ton of students, obviously, in in on campus for Texas Tech because school's not started yet. That's on everybody else to show up for that game. And look, tickets are cheap right now, y'all. I've been seeing people on Facebook being like, this is ridiculous. Why football tickets so cheap? That's a good thing. Sporting events right now are ridiculous, but if you can get into an Oregon State football game for 10 bucks, you can bring the family for 40 bucks? Yeah. Come on, dude. That's an incredible deal. You have no excuses to miss any home games this year. I I know sometimes it's a little difficult, but a lot of the games are at a really good kickoff time. You don't have to use that excuse of like, hey, the game ends late and I get home late. No, there's a lot of games that start at three o'clock this year. They already put out the kickoff times for home games. And for most of our conference games, I think they're all out. So there is no excuse. And what Jamarcus said today, excuses are just for losers, essentially. There is no excuse for Beaver Nation. Okay. I understand with this new Pac-12, it's a little bit different, right? It's not the same. This isn't USC. This isn't Washington. But it is what it is, man. This is what Oregon State football is right now. In order for us to get back on the map, we have to dominate this conference, okay? Because right now, look, Boise State is what plus 156 to win the conference on FanDuel. They're a runaway favorite with this conference. And then it's like San Diego State's 470. Fresno State's like a distant 570. The Beavers are plus 1,500 to win this conference. They're picked seventh by FanDuel to finish in this conference. Okay. I want to be in a situation where I am just mother F and everybody who said the Beavers were going to suck. Like Phil Steele and all these betting sites and just every other fan base, the Oregon fan base who just wants to try to belittle us all the time. Like, oh, Oregon State So is a football program. That's so funny. Yeah, man, we got uniforms and everything. I'm so tired of the negative comments from everybody else, man. And it's the funerals end today, to quote, we are Marshall, man. It's over. This season is about turning that tide and starting this new leaf, and we're going to become dominant in this Pac-12 conference. Okay. Dominant. We're not just going to be like, well, we might win it this year. No. I want us to steamroll these guys. Okay. And this year it's going to be an uphill battle for sure. A couple of really tough games. You go on the road to Boise State at some point this season. Obviously, the flex game with Wazoo is going to be a little bit odd. So you're going to have a couple of you're going to have a couple of tough road losses probably looming for you on in this conference slate. It's about getting better and it's about growing for the next year. Okay. By year two, we should be in a spot where we have a good chance to win this conference. That is my goal for Jamarcus Shepard. Because look, the portal and everything that goes on in college football, turning a program around, we've mentioned it before. It's so quick now. You only get that two years, right? What had happened to our old friend Jonathan Smith at Michigan State? He didn't even make it very long. They don't give you that time anymore. Okay. And it even happened to our own Trent Bray in the middle of his second year. They're like, bye. This is this is a train wreck. Get out of here. And I don't blame Scott Barnes for doing that whatsoever. It was a train wreck. He's right. The coaching staff was terrible. And Trent even mentioned that to John Canzano. He mentioned that my staff isn't the greatest that I hired at Oregon State. And he had a hard time firing guys. This is about turning that leaf. We're starting a new revolution here at Oregon State football. And it starts with Jamarcus Shepherd, and it starts with Mitch Dallin, and it starts with Mike McIntyre. Those guys are so, so important going forward and just building this up, right? Want to build this foundation on rocks, not sand. That's what Jamarcus always says. So here we go. New Pac-12, baby. It's it's about it's about dominating. This is where it starts, right here. Lots of new head coaches in this conference, Josh. Three of them to be exact. There's Shep. There's Coach Moore at Wazoo, who we all know, Trump raises DC. And Jim Mora at Colorado State, which was really an interesting fit for Jim. He's obviously had a ton of success in his career, you know, formerly at UCLA, did a lot of good things at UConn, but he chooses Colorado State because he was like, I know I want to get back to the West Coast, which, hey, credit to you, man. That's great. Colorado State is, I feel like, a sleeping giant potentially in this conference. They have a great stadium, a lot of good facilities there. They've also been you know painted as the little brother of the state compared to Colorado. But I mean, what does Colorado have to do right now? They stink too. It's a really conference, man. And there's a lot of good young coaches right now in this conference. We've Bronco Mendonhall still in this one, former B. I'm calling me crazy. I think this is a really, really fun conference. I'm all in on the Pac-12 and being obviously it's the it's the best G6 conference. I'm not really all in on this whole like we're a power conference thing. I won't do that. I don't think it is. Just you know, living here in Austin, the SEC, they do things just way differently. And I we're not there, obviously, right? We have to build this up. And we have to build this up first, and then we can be like, hey, back to is pretty dang good. Okay, we need schools like Texas State when we obviously we need Oregon State and Washington State to be really good because we're supposed to be the front runners in this conference going forward. Boise State's gonna be good. We know that, right? San Diego State's up and coming right now. They had a pretty good year last year. It's about the Utah State, Texas State, Colorado states. They need to kind of figure some things out and get to a more premier spot in football. I think they have a lot of good leaders in this conference. I think Fresno State's another sleeper, too. They could be really good as well this year. So I'm no conference media day though. Like Josh, do you care? Is that a big deal?

SPEAKER_02 30:40

No, I mean, it is what it is, right? I there's bigger fish to fry in this new era of the Pac-12, and that's just not one of them right now. I I understand what some of the frustration and that that people may have, but give me a break, right? I I I just is it the end of the world, Rob? No, is are we gonna be fine going forward? Yes, like it is our media days are cool, right? You you get to sit down and you get to listen and see all the head coaches come through and just get a vibe for each of the teams, right? I could care less about every other team in the Pac-12 right now. I could. I don't give two flank raps. And I've always felt that way. It's Oregon State or blessed right now. It's Jamarcus Shepherd and Co. or blessed right now. I went into this baseball season with Cammy with uh very small goals, and there were four baseball teams at Jacoby's level. I told myself that we were gonna be the best baseball team at this level at the end of the year. That's what we were, okay? I hope Shep comes in with that attitude too. I hope he does. I hope he wants to be not just out of the new head coaches, but in this new era of the Pac-12. Why not start writing history right now? Come out, gasp, foot on the pedal, and freaking go. Just don't stop, don't look back. And who freaking cares who's trailing behind you, right? So let's go. I I Rob, I sit here right now and I am so ready for football. I I'm so ready. I'm I I just cannot wait for this to happen. And as it gets closer and closer, the hype is gonna get more real because we're Shep is gonna keep coming out and speaking absolute truth and facts to us. So from this moment on, I do not care about Boise State, whoever else wants to sit back and look at us because they're all in my rear view mirror right now, and I hope that's what this team is looking at too.

SPEAKER_00 32:37

Yeah, and I hope that these newcomers, especially schools like Texas State. Uh, I I drove through San Marcus the other day, man. They have billboards all over the place. They're building a new Buckeys out there, it's gonna be open here pretty soon. San Marcus is gonna be an awesome place to go visit when I get to come back to the state of Texas. They're really excited to be in this new conference, and I that makes me excited that a school that was in the Sunbelt, they feel like they're moving up tremendously in life, right? And they are because this new Pac-12 is very good. But there's a lot of people being like, Oh, this is just Mountain West, too. Who gives a crap? You just took all the good schools from the Mountain West. It's like, yeah, that's what you have to do to survive. And then the Mountain West and the Pac-12, they settled their thing in court. So it's like, yeah, the Mountain West folded. They knew they had nothing to give, right? They had no fight in that. So they they settle and they go, Yeah, okay, now we're focused on our we're focused on UTEP and Northern Illinois and San Jose State. Good. Okay. This is where we grow. This is where we take to the next level, right? So I'm excited for Texas State and their growth, right? I think they still need to do a couple of things to uh improve their football program for sure. Defensively, they were terrible last year, and they're not gonna be used to playing programs like Boise State and Washington State and Oregon State and Fresno State all the time, right? They've been kind of skating by in a sunbelt. So it's gonna be a big test for them, and I think it could be an uphill battle for them as well in year one. But I think this is gonna be a really fun conference, man. I think it'll be really good when they get a ninth and tenth football school for sure. It's a little quirky right now with eight. Yeah, the flex game is definitely kind of you know, a little bit lame, but once they get that ninth and tenth school, whoever it is, I I don't I don't really want to speculate right now. It's just too much of a conversation, but I'm excited to go forward with this conference. And yes, I know we you kind of have to tamper your expectations. It's not gonna be like the old pack, it's the new one, okay? We have turned the page, okay. We can be that school who runs the conference now, okay. This is the football program to do it. We have the leader to do it now. It's about the players winning games, and it's that's all that matters going forward. We don't have to think about anything else. We can just focus on the games going forward. And we have a few, not a few, we have a lot, actually, a couple of handfuls of questions here from our great loyal listeners. And thank you guys so much for coming back to us for season four, man. We cannot say thank you enough. And if you are looking to potentially promote your business, go ahead and give us a follow, a message. We will put your business's logo on this screen on YouTube and we will shout you out on all audio podcasts. Give us a message, man. We're open to do it. We want to help you guys out, help the Corvallis community out, and just the state of Oregon in general. It's it's what we want to do. We want this to be a community-building type of podcast. And hey, there's a lot of podcasts that you can get your Oregon State information from. We appreciate you guys coming to us every single time. And it's it's it's something that we love to do. Josh and I, I again, I was super excited to come back on here and talk ball with you and just to you know talking to my computer again. I just I couldn't wait to talk about Oregon State football. And I appreciate all you guys who chimed in, whether it was on X, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, wherever you were, we appreciate you. Now, Jim, our buddy Jim Clapsadalon X. He basically asked, like, what each facet of the team has to do to reach a bowl game this year. Okay, and we kind of mentioned this a little bit earlier. I think offensively, they need to find their identity early in the season, find out what they want to do, find out what they're good at and go. Okay, you need to find out what you're good at. When we had Smith here, it was obviously a run the ball a lot, play action, get your playmakers in space and go. There needs to be a lot of that. Defensively, I think they need to be opportunistic in year one. Okay, a year one defense is going to be probably a little bit of a difficult team to deal with. I think there's going to be some head scratching moments for sure. I think there's going to be a lot of growing pains for sure with a lot of these guys on defense. We'll see how the defensive line holds up this season as well. We've we've we've documented the defensive line the last couple of years very well. It's been a struggle to get to the quarterback. So hopefully they can create more of that this year. And of course, which no one asked Jamarcus Shepherd today about this, but special teams. Special teams, okay? They put the special in special teams last year for sure. Okay. It was it was brutal. It was the worst unit in the country. And I just say, man, literally just be average and coverage and protection and make your easy field goals. And I think this team will do so much better. Josh, any any notes, any disagreements, any agreements from that?

SPEAKER_02 37:12

No, it's funny. Looking through these questions, I think we kind of already touched on them, not meaning to, but uh I I agree with everything you say. I think offensively you you gotta find it early, right? And we talked about how do you make Malik successful? Quick passes, that stuff, right? Defensively, we talked about it already. You need to have this defense come out and give the offense an opportunity to be successful in in some games. You can't do it one or the other, right? You're just not a good enough team right now, probably to do that. Defense has to be better. You gotta come out and get stops, and you gotta give the offense a shorter field. And then special teams, it just needs to be 0.3% better than what it la what it was last year. Yeah, it needs to be way better than that. You are a point a 0.3 percentage catch away from winning a couple extra games, it felt like last year with this with that special teams. Uh but that but that goes into our next questions that we have from Spencer and Sean on X. And and their question was basically what should the expectations be going into the Houston slash this season? And again, I think we've already touched about it, touched on it about it, but you just have to be so much better in every aspect of the game this year. You can't have any question marks about what this identity of this football team is gonna be seven weeks into the season, and that's what we were doing a lot last year. We were seven, eight games in, and we're like, I just we still don't know what we are like offensively. Like, can we run? Can we throw the ball? Not really, we can't do anything. Defense was a little bit better, but you still struggled. Like, there was games that you just it just it was just it was bad. You cannot have that this year. The identity, no matter what happens, has to be set against Houston. There's no questions asked. We can't be coming out of that game and be like, okay, what's gonna happen this year? Like, we we just didn't get any answers. We have to have all of our answers coming out of that Houston game, and like we just talked about before, special teams has to be so much better, so much better, Rob. We were three or four plays away, I felt like on special teams from being a six and six, seven to five football team. Isn't that crazy? How disgusting is that that you feel so much better about being six and six and seven to five, just and Trent Bray is probably still here by catching a few more snaps and making some field goals. That's it. That's football sometimes, though. You have to be good at every single position. You can't, yeah, and when you're lacking in special teams, that's what's gonna happen. You're gonna lose games, you're absolutely going to lose game. Special teams, effing joke, what an all-time quote from Trent. There's but it's so true. It was, it was legendary quote, right? There's lots of new faces this year. How are those new faces going to be productive, Rob? Are they going to be productive? But how well does it gel with the returning core that you have right now? Because if if Shep and Co. If Rob, if they can get it to gel very, very, very early on and very quick, there's potential, Rob. There's very, very, very high potential that this team could be sneaky dangerous going on through the season.

SPEAKER_00 40:32

Yeah. And I think if they have a lot of good things happen to them in those first two games against really good competition, they may not win the games. But if they fight and scratch and claw their way late into that game and find themselves maybe lose by two scores against Houston and then do the same thing at home against Tech, that is a win. Right now, they're currently 18 and a half point underdogs going on the road to Houston. So Vegas doesn't think we're going to compete in that game. I think this year's team is going to remind you a little bit of a combination of the 2018-2019 Beavers under Smith, where, yeah, they're clearly building something. You can tell that they have an identity, but you know, it's just the talent's not all the way there yet. But they're scratching and clawing in games. They haven't quit whatsoever. That I don't have expectations, honestly, for this team. I think going into it, I just want to see how things go the first four or five games, and then we can kind of tamper it from there. But I just need this team to scratch, claw, and fight. And I think they will. I think so far the message has been clear from the players that they have brought in that these guys have an attitude about them and they want it so bad for each other. I mean, the the workout they did on the beach the other day, where it's just send me on the back of their shirts. It's very military, and I love that. They're literally doing a workout where they're carrying their teammates. And I think it's it's very symbolic, obviously. I think it's cool. Some people may call it gimmicky, some people may call it performative. I think it's really cool. And I think it's sending a direct message to our guys, especially the guys who are returning, that this is how it's done. It's not what this is not how it was before. This is how you do things. So it could be a really special season. It could be a very memorable season as well. And I I'm really excited to see this team just take the field, man. I I want to see how they play against a very solid Houston squad that, again, took them to the ropes last year, just didn't know how to close the game out. And then we can judge Texas Tech when they get into town and whatever they want to do with their quarterback situation. We'll talk about that later. But I'm done on TikTok. He says that the Houston game is going to define the season just like the Cal game did last year. If we are competitive, we have a chance to win the pack. If we get destroyed, we could see another two-win season inbound. I think that's a bit of an overreaction off of one game, especially in a hot environment, first game of the year, early kickoff for sure. I don't know if it's going to define the year. The Cal game definitely showed a lot of signs, right? Our problems were our problems pretty early in that game, but I don't think one game on the road against a good team is going to define our season necessarily, but it's going to tell you a lot about how this team wants to compete for 60 minutes, all four quarters. Hey, what if what if you're down, you know, 31-10 in the third quarter? How are you going to play? Are you going to go down and score and make it a two-score ball game and be like, hey, we have a puncher's chance the rest of the way? That is what I want. I just need you to be fighting all four quarters. I don't I again, like you said, Josh, I want to sit there through the fourth quarter and be like, these guys are still playing their ass off, and I'm going to watch. So that's that's all I want from this team. And I don't think one game is going to truly define this season for a first year head coach in a new place, new team, everything. So yeah. And then Turner on TikTok. This one's for you, Josh. I'll answer, I'll let you answer this one. Do you think Malik Murphy will end the season as the starting quarterback?

SPEAKER_02 43:46

I I really think that might be the million dollar question for a lot of for us, for a lot of Orgas State fans. You have to believe that he's going to come into this season uh a little bit more elevated. Than what we saw last year, right? And I think you will see very early on what this coaching staff believes that his capabilities are and what they're gonna do with them. If they if they think Malik can still throw the ball and he has the on for it, he has all the talent in the world to do so, then you let him, you know, take his shot. And Shep talked about it in the press conference this this afternoon is you're seeing quarterbacks, seeing you're seeing the quarterbacks making better plays, better decisions, and that's what you want to hear because it felt like almost every decision they made last year was just terrible, it was just the wrong one. And if Malik does finish the year as QB1, I think that is a testament to Shepard and Dalin, right? To the staff, because they came in and they took over and they took somebody that struggled really bad last year. Like it was beyond belief, I feel like some games, and they turned it around, they made him buy into what they were selling, and he bought in. I think that is also a testament to Malik. Is he gonna buy into what they're selling, right? Because it's easy to come in here and just go through the motions, right? But I always told the kids before our baseball games set the tone, right? You come out and set the tone, you can control what you can control, and you let everybody else come in, and uh and you you guys will figure it out together. Malik has to set the tone from that first snap, game one. If he can't, I I fully believe that he can run the year as as QB1.

SPEAKER_00 45:34

And it's really interesting because Braden Atkinson had a really good year last year at Mercer. He can sling the rock around a little bit. Brady Jones has had some success prior at Western Michigan, but you know, I don't think he's truly in the race right now. I think I do think it is Malik's job to lose for sure. But Braden Atkinson can sling the pill. And Malik's arm strength obviously plays better than everybody else on the roster. The one thing that sticks out to me about Malik is when he had time to throw him in that one throw that he made to Tazuretics last year against Wazoo, that little back shoulder just dart that he threw. I'm like, oh, I'm like, I see it. I understand what the hype is about your arm for sure. It's incredible, right? When he puts it in the right place, you're like, oh my goodness. But then there's times, you know, like the app state game where he's just running with his head cut off and he's just lobbing it up for nobody. So it's about being smart, right? And they're gonna put that into their analytics side and they're going to basically run the numbers and they're gonna figure out who the best guy is. And when I I I don't, I don't I don't hate it, I don't love it. I think eye test is obviously huge for a quarterback as well, but it'd be great if Malik can get through the entire season, man. That means things are going well for sure. And we'll see. I don't know if one quarterback stays throughout the entire year as a starter. Things happen too. It's just it's football. It is what it is. Corey's watch page on TikTok tunes in and he says, Beevs win eight games this year. Malik Murphy ends the season as a beloved OSU quarterback. So to build off of that last one from Turner. Yeah, there you go. There's your answer from Corey's watch page. And then Colton on TikTok too said Coach Shepard gets a statue built outside of Reese Stadium in 20 years. Hey man, if if Mike Riley hasn't gotten one yet, it's that's pretty crazy. But I love it, dude. I love the positivity so far under the Shepherd area. And then another guy, uh, anonymous user on TikTok said, is Oregon State the sleeper team of the new Pac-12? Josh, I don't think we're a sleeper. I think we're, you know, we're a former Power Five program who got caught into some turmoil. I don't think there's necessarily sleeper whatsoever right now. Obviously, coming off a five and seven and then a two and ten year, yeah, people are definitely down on you nationally. But I think this is an opportunity for Oregon State to maybe not necessarily be a sleeper, but kind of, you know, wake the beast up a little bit and get going again for sure. I don't I I don't know if sleeper is the right term necessarily.

SPEAKER_02 47:55

I think dark horse is a better term. Yeah. Because I I I I I I agree. I don't think they're a sleeper, but I still think you're still Oregon State. You're still got that same brand, just the same name. That that hasn't changed, right? Handful years of getting the worst thing in college football, shoved up your booty and having to deal with it, like it sucks. But I think uh I think uh I I think people still want to come into Corvallis and they want to be you. And I think that's a testament just to to the college and the university itself. Yeah, they're not coming in here, and I don't think they're expecting to you know just walk all over you right now. And if they're paying attention to anything that Shep's putting out right now, it's you when you come into Corvallis or Oregon State comes to you, you you better be ready because they're they're gonna punch you right back in the mouth.

SPEAKER_00 48:47

Couldn't say it better myself. And what Jamarca said today, too. He says, We need you here at the stadium, or we need you tuned in. And hey, I capping, I will I will be tuned in for sure. I am not missing a game this year. Now that I'll be living, you know, in about a month, I'll be moving to California, Northern California. And uh that I love that drive. And I can I can go to more home games for sure, Jamarcus. I'll be there for you, buddy. I'll do anything for you, Shep. I will you tell me to run through a wall, I'll say how fast do I need to run. Okay, jump how high? I'll do it. Okay. Anything you say, coach, I'm down for you. Okay, and the last one here from AJ on Instagram. This is not about the team on the field per se, which I think this is a great question. Thoughts on game day experience for football games? Will they remain the same as the past couple of years, or is there going to be changes with a new athletic director in place? And we haven't even mentioned Kevin Griffin, our new athletic director. Seems like a straight shooter, former football player. He seems like a very nice hire for Oregon State University. I think him being around and just being a football first guy, I think that's going to be very, very smart for this university going forward. He had his presser back in June, really impressive speaker. I think he's going to do a lot of good things for Oregon State. Seemed like Jamarcus is pretty excited about him as well. He was apparently at the golf event, and Jamarcus was saying, like, we don't see athletic directors at these types of events very often, so that's pretty cool.

unknown 50:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 50:08

Seems like a straight shooter. Summer's a great time to get settled into Corvallis and Oregon. It's the best time of the year up there. So I am curious, though, because AJ brings up maybe a little bit of a concern with the game day atmosphere the last couple of years at Oregon State. Now, I think the main thing about that is losing makes the stadium pretty lame, right? And I only went to the I went to Reese Stadium one time last year. I went to the Wazoo game. Obviously, they won. It was pretty popping, honestly. And I I don't really have any complaints about Reese Stadium. I think it's a great atmosphere, dude. I think it's the best stadium on the West Coast, in my opinion. So I think a lot of people who have complaints about it, it's sometimes you know, lines are long, bathrooms have been an issue in the past. I understand that. Like that's definitely an issue. But you know, if if I'm at a football game, dude, I'm not there to stand in line and take a piss. You know, like I'm doing, I'm taking, I'm taking care of business before the game so I can get my butt into my seat. Okay. And typically, I'm not a big like, let's go get a beer before the game kind of guy. Like, I'll do that at baseball for sure. Like casual regular season MLB game. Yeah, I'll go grab a beer. At a beaver football game, no. Uh I'm just not that kind of fan. And I'm not telling you how to be a fan for sure. I'm just telling you how typically I go about things. So my complaints aren't the same as yours. Yeah, I would love to have more replays on the screen for sure. But I've been to a game at Texas, I've been to a game at Oklahoma State, I've been to USC. They don't really do replays either. So it's not just Oregon State, it's pretty much all over the country. It's I'm pretty sure it's an NCAA guideline that they have to follow where you can't just spam replays every single time the play happens. So there's good and bad for sure. I think overall, Research Stadium does a really good job. And I think the Oregon State staff that is around the stadium operations has done a really good job to fix all the issues in the last couple of years. Again, Josh, when you go two and ten, yeah, your stadium's gonna be pretty clean, dude. It's gonna suck. There's there's nobody here against Wake Forest. This is crazy. Like, yeah, because they're owing whatever. So, yeah. Any thoughts? Um, how many games did you go to last year? Oh, I went to two.

SPEAKER_02 52:19

See? Any complaints? No, uh, I mean, what what is their complaint about? You know, it's it sucks to suck at that point, you know what I'm saying? Like, if you love the Beaves, you're gonna show up. If you don't, and you're a casual fan, then I mean you're not gonna show up. But I again I think that's the biggest difference going into this year. And and uh AJ had a second part to that question that I I didn't send, but he was also talking about like the DJ and the songs, like the fourth quarter songs, like those need to be better. And I I agree with that. Like, I don't need Miley Cyrus partying the USA playing in the fourth quarter.

SPEAKER_00 52:52

That's fair, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 52:53

Give me a break. Let's see, give me something. Totally fair. I don't need don't stop believing flashing because we're not my 34 points and going into the fourth quarter. I hate that song. I give me a break, but I I think the biggest difference take me back to that game against Washington, peak Oregon State football, right before the collapse. Rob, I have never experienced maybe outs, maybe outside being in Corvallis when they beat USC. Okay, I have never experienced that stadium like that before, and that was what it was dumping rain, Rob. It was dumping, it was a monsoon. That place was electric, electric. I want that. I don't want anything to change because it's the new Pac-12, right? Give me that energy, inject it into my veins. Do it right now. I will do my best effort to make as many football games as I can this year. I will, I promise.

SPEAKER_00 53:51

Same.

SPEAKER_02 53:51

No, I want I want everybody to do the same. We talk about buying into what what they're telling us. I'm telling you, Shep is telling us right now this football team is not complete without us. And that's saying a lot. That is saying a ton. It seems like the dumbest thing is not buy into this football program. Do what everybody do what the players are doing right now and buy into them. Do it ten dollars. It's not a lot of money. Like, don't just go, right? Just go, just go experience the game day atmosphere this year because I promise you, it's gonna be head over heels different than what it was over the last few years.

SPEAKER_00 54:30

One thousand percent it's gonna be a different energy. 1000. And especially when you have a top-tier team like Texas Tech, who just made the playoff coming into your house, man. Like this game means a lot. Texas Tech is never coming back to Corvallis ever again. They're never gonna do this again. Okay, so shout out to Texas Tech for doing this for sure. They could have backed out, they could have been like, eh, we don't want to do that. We already went to Pullman, so we're not gonna do this. Okay, they're doing it. You're not gonna in 2012, we had Wisconsin come in to Corvallis, beat them. Okay. These games are what define your culture, right? And your in your program going forward. You're not gonna get a ton of these programs into Corvallis going forward, right? No one's gonna want to make the trek to Corvallis. So it's about our fan base showing up when it matters. Last year I mentioned Mississippi State fans, they've had nothing to cheer about. They had a huge non-conference game against ASU and they filled that place to the brim. It was just full of cowbell and they lost. But it didn't matter. Their fans showed up because that's what they do. That's what you're supposed to do as a fan base, right? Beaver Nation needs to be there for this team this year, and then they need to make the difference, and they need to make that research stadium intimidation factor come to life again, dude, because the last two years it really hasn't been there. The wazoo games were pretty much the only time where it was like, hey, these fans are showing up for this one because they're used to wazoo, right? Okay, we have to flush that, guys. Yeah, Texas State's gonna come into Corvallis. It better not be empty for Texas State. That's a game that you can win. Okay, that's that's the game you show up for and help your team out and get the chainsaw pumping, man. Make some noise. That's what we need. We need everyone to show up. And that Texas State game is a game I struggle to go to. Um maybe I'll make the drive down to Fresno on uh on Halloween to go to the road game. I'm down for whatever, man. I want to see this team play and I want to see them succeed. I will be doing my part. I want you to do yours. That's all I have. We will be back in a couple of weeks, guys. We'll probably do a another fall camp update. We'll do some position breakdowns, we'll play pocket schedule for sure, and then we'll get ready for Houston after that, and then we're going, baby. It's gonna be a quick season like it always is, but I am so, so pumped to get this thing started. Was looking forward to this all day. So thank you guys so much for listening, watching wherever you are. Make sure you like, subscribe, turn on the notifications, give us all the best ratings you possibly can. If you think we stink, please let us know why, and we can try to do it better next time for sure. But hey, we appreciate you guys so much. Go beaves as always. Josh, any last words, my friend? Hey, for the first time this year, man. Go beaves. Yes, sir.