CORVALLIS - Oregon State’s new athletic director isn’t interested in letting the Beavers sit in the wreckage of realignment forever.
Kevin Griffin, who arrived from Ohio State and met with reporters Thursday in his still-bare office inside Gill Coliseum, made it clear he wants the program to stop treating the conference upheaval like a permanent wound. His view is blunt: acknowledge what happened, learn from it, and move on.
“You have to recognize what that actually did to a psyche of an entire fanbase and a community,” Griffin said. “It was unfair and it was unjust and it was real. We have to use that as a reckoning, but what we can’t do is use it as a crutch.”
Then he added the line he said mattered most in a 45-minute conversation.
“We have to learn from what happened,” he said.
That message lands in a very different Oregon State than the one trying to market itself through realignment pain a few years ago. Griffin’s presence, along with football coach JaMarcus Shephard and men’s basketball coach Justin Joyner, gives the Beavers a leadership group that hasn’t been bruised the same way fans have been by the collapse around them.
Griffin said he heard the same theme repeatedly during his hiring process: Oregon State has a story to tell, and it hasn’t been telling it well.
“One of the prevailing themes I heard from our coaches, our donors, other supporters, administration, in my interview process,” Griffin said, “was we aren’t telling our story the right way. And, in fact, we have a good story to tell.”
He wants that story pushed harder and in more creative ways. One of the first pieces is a behind-the-scenes documentary series on Beavers athletics being developed with Pac-12 Enterprises, the conference’s holdover production arm. Griffin said it is expected to debut next month, and he believes Oregon State will be the first Pac-12 school to do something like it.
That’s only part of the broader reset. Griffin talked about driving revenue and raising the spending floor, but he kept coming back to a simpler idea: Oregon State can’t outspend the biggest brands, so it has to outbuild them in other ways.
“The answer is not money,” Griffin said. “The money certainly helps, but the answer is relationships and people.”
It’s a philosophy that can sound idealistic in a sport built on television money and arms races, but Griffin argued that schools willing to prioritize culture, education and development may be better positioned if college football’s structure ever cracks under its own weight.
That mindset also means Oregon State can’t live and die by the hope that another round of realignment will rescue it. Griffin said no one knows what the future holds, but he was firm about one thing.
“I have no idea if anything’s going to happen again,” Griffin said. “But I can tell you what would easily eliminate you from any kind of consideration is that you’re not performing at a national level.”
For Oregon State, that means building from where it is now rather than pining for a return to what used to be. The Beavers’ conference home schedule this season includes San Diego State, Texas State and Utah State instead of Oregon, USC and Stanford. Griffin said the challenge is to embrace that reality instead of resenting it.
He also believes the most immediate boost can come from the stands. Oregon State’s home opener on Sept. 12 is against Texas Tech, a College Football Playoff team last year, and Griffin acknowledged it could be a lopsided afternoon. Still, he wants Reser Stadium full.
Last season, games against California and Fresno State drew only half-filled crowds, even before the season unraveled further. Griffin said the drop-off made sense.
“I think people were still hurt,” Griffin said. “There was a lot of trauma to Oregon State and Oregon State fans. And it was a reminder - to come to Reser Stadium - of what just happened to you and what got taken away.
“That was hard and there should be a grieving period.”
But the grief, in Griffin’s view, can’t be the endpoint. He said football should be in line for more revenue share once Shephard gets a full year under his belt, and he sees fan turnout as a major early test of whether Oregon State is ready to turn the page.
His office may be sparse for now, but one framed item already leaning against the wall says plenty about the mindset he wants to bring. It’s a reprint of John F. Kennedy’s typed notes from his 1962 Rice University speech, a gift from a former Ohio State colleague.
“We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things,” Kennedy said, “not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”
Griffin will have that reminder in front of him as he tries to steer Oregon State through one of the toughest jobs in college athletics.
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A familiar voice in Oregon State homes and on radio dials is gone. Darrel Aune, who spent decades as the play-by-play announcer for Beavers football and basketball, has died at 83, prompting a wave of remembrance from the athletic department and from fans who grew up hearing him frame the biggest moments in the programs modern history.
Aunes reach went well beyond a box score or a broadcast booth, and his name became part of the backdrop of Oregon State sports for generations. The tributes have centered on that lasting connection, the kind of legacy that only comes from being present through so many seasons, even as the full scope of how deeply he shaped the Beavers identity is still being felt. [Read more 🡒]
Beavers Fans Are Mourning A Voice That Defined Generations
Darrell Aune spent decades as part of the fabric of Oregon State sports, becoming a familiar presence for generations of Beavers fans. The longtime announcer died at 83, leaving behind a legacy built over 29 years calling Oregon State games and helping define the sound of the program for people who grew up hearing his voice.
Oregon State shared the news publicly and offered condolences to Aunes family and supporters, underscoring just how deeply he was tied to the universitys athletic identity. For fans, the loss is about more than a broadcaster, since Aune represented a direct link to so many memorable moments across the years and left a mark that will be hard to replace. [Read more 🡒]