Canzano: Oregon State fans tired of getting 'kicked in the shins'

Entrepreneurial thinkers want to help OSU.

Nikko Taylor signs an autograph for a young fan on Saturday. (Photo: Darby Winter)

I suppose I could roast Oregon State for not holding a concert after its Spring Showcase football scrimmage on Saturday. Or for failing to land a helicopter on the field at Reser Stadium and have “Krazy George” climb out with his drum. Still, a few thousand fans showed up to see Trent Bray’s football team anyway.

I wasn’t in the press box.

I watched the spring game from my sofa on the Pac-12 Network on Saturday, awaiting a fourth knee surgery next week. But the distance gave me some quiet clarity and an unusual vantage point. I flipped around the television channels, viewing a half dozen other spring football games around the country.

Oregon State’s fan base has suffered repeated body blows since August. The football coach bolted to Michigan State. Some key players followed him out the door. It’s been a cruel five-month run for OSU.

Star running back Damien Martinez turned his back on a $400,000 NIL payday, jumped into the transfer portal, telling me: “I just felt it’s best for my future career and to show I’m the No. 1 running back in next year’s draft class.”

Martinez told me OSU fans shouldn’t take his defection personally, but it sure felt that way to some who probably feel like entering the portal themselves.

“I’m just done getting kicked in the shins. Still occasionally very angry. Mostly just sad at this point,” reader Bill M. wrote to me last week.

“College athletics has no soul. It’s dying,” reader Chris H. told me in a note. “The elite universities likely disagree. But if the changing landscape doesn’t include a spot for schools like Oregon State, then I’ll stop watching and caring soon enough. Sad.”

The OSU band and cheerleaders were present on Saturday. The Pac-12 Network showed up. University president Jayathi Murthy spoke to the team before the event. I guess I could slam the Beavers for the modest turnout, but that would be like hanging around after a children’s party taking swings at an already flattened piñata.

I’ve attended 20-plus seasons of spring games at OSU. It has never been a big draw. I’m not interested in whether OSU’s football program is marketing to the few thousand customers already inside the stadium, either. I’m into what the university is going to do to pull itself out of this unfortunate tailspin.

I’ve previously reported that the “Pac-12” is zeroing in on its 2024 football media rights deal. I’m told it will feature The CW Network, where Oregon State and Washington State’s 13 home football games will get exposure to 99.5 percent of American households. Kickoffs are expected to happen in the daylight. Last week, I asked athletic director Scott Barnes to use a baseball metaphor to tell me what inning that TV negotiation is in.

Said Barnes: “This one went extra innings and we’re in the final inning. We’re about ready to win the extra-inning ball game here.”

What’s the strategy with the TV deal?

“Making sure we were in the most homes we could be in,” Barnes said. “Exposure was priority one.”

I’ve talked with a handful of motivated boosters — mostly business owners, entrepreneurs, and CEOs — who have met privately and talked about what they might do to bolster the university’s efforts.

America’s team?

Sell that to the entire country, they say.

A TV deal with The CW would help. But OSU/WSU should amplify that by pouring some of their collective $255 million war chest into a smart national marketing effort. There has never been more awareness of OSU/WSU. And you can’t scrimp your way to prosperity, as they say in big business.

Trent Bray talks with his team on Saturday at Reser Stadium. (Photo: Darby Winter)

The challenge for the Beavers is that they need to think unlike the Beavers right now. That private booster group needs an audience with Oregon State administrators. The athletic department needs to lean into the visionary thinkers and entrepreneurs in the alumni base and trust those who have built brands and won battles. Those folks understand sleepless nights better than most. They’ve lived through them.

That circle of donors has talked about funding a film documentary to tell the school’s story and helping OSU shape a bold national marketing campaign. They’d like to help lobby the Big 12 (or ACC) and fund the school’s NIL collective. I’m told that some of the individuals involved have already spoken with women’s basketball coach Scott Rueck and men’s coach Wayne Tinkle to ask how they might help those programs.

Football is going to drive the narrative this fall, however. It’s why the on-field performance of Bray’s team is vital. The Beavers have almost no margin. They can not fade on the field. It’s why the actual play, not the window dressing was more interesting to me on Saturday.

How did OSU look?

Smallish.

Slowish.

The quarterbacks aren’t ready. The offensive line wasn’t great. Those things may have been correlated. I get it. And Bray’s team had some key players missing, including quarterback Ben Gulbranson and Joshua Gray, a seventh-year senior offensive lineman.

Also, the coaching staff is implementing a new offensive scheme, which takes time and reps. We should cut them a break there. The defense, mostly the same as last season, looked light-years ahead on Saturday. But Bray is a first-year coach who will tee off next season amid an unfortunate fact — he’s without a mulligan.

The Beavers need to get into the transfer portal and spend the $400,000 Martinez left behind. OSU needs a speedy receiver that can take the top off a defense. It needs two offensive linemen and a defensive tackle who are at some Power 4 school today being informed: “You’re not a starter.”

Photo Gallery: First look at Trent Bray's Oregon State team

I asked Bray this week if Oregon State could use that $400,000 to go shopping immediately.

Bray told me: “It opens up some opportunities to get better as a team, yeah.”

Spend the money now, coach. It becomes challenging to fund your NIL collective when fans are drowning in apathy. That’s the paradox Oregon State is facing. It has to get better ASAP and continue to posture like a “Power 5” school. It must use the portal effectively, particularly in the spring. But how do you raise NIL funds when your disenchanted fan base is fed up with the entire system?

I iced my knee on Saturday, took notes, and watched footage of the spring football games at Texas A&M, Michigan, Michigan State, and Texas. I saw Cal, Stanford, and USC, too. A few things became evident: A) very, very, very few schools in the Pacific Time Zone draw fans for a spring football game; and B) Oregon State in its present form looked like a six-win team.

I’m not interested in “A.” Washington went to the College Football Playoff title game last season after an underwhelming crowd showed up for Kalen DeBoer’s spring game in Seattle. Win football games and fans will show. But the “B” thing is a concern for OSU.

Bray’s team needs to find good traction to pair with the marketing campaign and looming television exposure. Are eight wins enough in year one for Bray? Seven? Six? Or does he need to blow the lid off the first season and win 10? You tell me what moves the needle. The objective for Oregon State is to not disappear.

Everyone is focused on the next football season and lots of transition. The USC spring game on Saturday featured a booth set up by the Big Ten Network. It handed out hats branded with the Big Ten Network logo. There was lots of chatter at the Cal and Stanford spring games about the ACC schedules. And Oregon is going to hold a concert next week after its spring game at Autzen Stadium. As many as 40,000 fans may show up to see the Ducks scrimmage. UO is a good bet to be the biggest college football draw in the West this spring.

People around the country are interested to see what happens to Oregon State. They’ll rubberneck, particularly if OSU gives them some reasons. Barnes told me that part of his future football scheduling strategy — adding a home-and-home series vs. Kansas State and Houston — was rooted in forging relationships with the Big 12 schools.

It raised eyebrows.

“It’s more intentional,” the AD said, “much more intentional than it ever has been.”

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