JaMarcus Shephard isn’t interested in letting one bad Saturday swallow Oregon State’s season.
After the Beavers’ loss at Fresno State, the Oregon State head coach used his Monday availability to make the message plain: the setback was real, but it can’t become the identity of the year.
“Last weekend, it was a difficult loss for a lot of different reasons. But, as I said at the beginning of last week, the most important thing right now is that we remain present.
And that’s what we have to do for this particular game. If we start making one game the story of our season, we will beat ourselves, and I’m not willing to do that,” Shephard said.
The defeat came with a little bit of everything that can sink a team on the road. Oregon State never found a clean answer for Fresno State’s running game, the offense put the ball on the ground twice, and the Beavers came up short in the red zone, scoring on four of seven trips.
Shephard pointed to those breakdowns as the kind of issues that have to be confronted head-on this week.
“After the game, I talked about some of the breakdowns we had being pretty straightforward. So now it’s a matter of us just addressing those things and making sure the young men that we are coaching are prepared for this Saturday’s game.
We have to make sure that our mistakes mean something, they have to mean something going forward. We will light a fire under these guys, and make sure they play at the highest level for every single play of this game that’s coming up.”
Even in a loss, there were a few encouraging signs, and one of them was the debut of Adonis McDaniel. He finished with two catches for 30 yards and added a six-yard carry, giving Oregon State a glimpse of the speed element he can bring.
Shephard was quick to highlight the way McDaniel handled his first action.
“I was fired up about what Adonis did on Saturday,” Shephard said. “I thought on the jet sweep he probably should’ve stayed around the edge, and probably would’ve gained a few more yards on that one.
I thought on the perimeter screen that he caught he did a great job making a guy miss and get us in position to go score there. I thought he made a great catch on a low ball right over the middle of the field.
He showed that he was ready for the moment, and that’s definitely gonna give him an opportunity to be even more a part of the offense moving forward.”
As Oregon State turns the page, the offense will still run through the same two names that have carried it much of the season: quarterback Braden Atkinson and receiver Jesse Legree.
Atkinson took more punishment than usual against Fresno State, but Shephard made it clear he’s seen him handle that kind of day before.
“[Braden] got hit a few more times that he might be accustomed to. But guess what, it happened earlier in the year too that he got hit a bunch in a game, and so it’s not like it’s something that he’s never experienced.
But he still stood in there strong and tough, threw for 370 yards or whatever it was. We gotta make sure that our offensive line is prepared to protect him, and that’s somewhere I think we can do a really good job.
But I think both Braden and Jesse need to just focus on six seconds at a time. Everyone on this football team needs to have a specific set of skills that they can use after a play to reset themselves for the next play.”
The next chance to respond comes Saturday, when Oregon State meets Texas State for the first time as Pac-12 conference mates. Kickoff is set for 7:30 PM PT on The CW.
Shephard said the possibility of adversity was never a surprise.
“I have looked in the camera during earlier interviews and told everybody that there was going to be some adversity this year, and guess what, we ran into it,” Shephard noted. “Were we planning on running into it?
No. But, we do make a plan so when adversity occurs we are able to respond appropriately.”
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