Oregon State 2020 Signing Day with Jonathan Smith

On the Oregon State edition of the 2020 Inside Pac-12 Football Signing Day Special, Pac-12 Networks’ Mike Yam & Yogi Roth interview Oregon State head coach Jonathan Smith on the highlights of the Beavers recruiting class.

Episode Transcript

(00:11):
Time to get fired up. Weare all about National Signing Day. I'm
still not one hundred percent sure whatthe deal is because I felt like we
just did this a couple of weeksago. It's like, yeah it is,
and it's not as dramatic, butthere's some nice impactful gets and overall
for the few that signed, likeabout forty in this conference today, Mike,
it's a big deal. So we'llgive them their love. And it's

(00:32):
a big deal for an Oregon Stateteam that had a tremendous amount of success.
Jonathan Smith, you look two yearsago compared to last year, a
real force in that division. Iwould imagine things at least with the class
we talked a couple of weeks agoabout this pretty good for a squad.
Well, it's the quote that westeal from Jonathan Smith all the time,
common things and uncommon ways. Right, they go to the transfer portal,
get a bunch of talented players,they go to the junior college route,

(00:54):
get a bunch of talented players,and they're still getting into big high schools.
And the biggest thing is you wantyour program talked about in those high
school was in southern California and northernCalifornia, a variety of packed to a
footprint type states. That's exactly whathe's done. So look this program.
They lost small last year? Canthey win small this year? I think
this class will help him do it. Yeah, something tells me that Johnathan
Smith, when he goes back tothe tape, it really will come down

(01:14):
to one or two plays last seasonand potentially closing some of those games this
upcoming season. But the head coachright now of the Oregan State Beavers is
with us right now. Coach,appreciate you giving us some time here.
Congrats on the class. But Istarted off the conversation with Yogi about the
success you guys had a season togo two wins a couple campaigns ago five
last year. How different is recruitingthis year compared to when you first got

(01:38):
the job. Yeah, there's noquestion that winning helps in recruiting, and
I think we did show that we'reheaded in a good direction. Being more
competitive winning some close games than thenlosing some close games. But showing progress
from year one to year two andbeing able to sell that message to recruits
and their families definitely help and wefelt it in this class. Coach,
when I look at this class andreally every last you've had guys coming out

(02:00):
of high school maybe are ranked ashigh as other players, but you fign
seven guys over the last two yearsthat are quote unquote four star players coming
out of high school. Like,how has the creativity continued among your staff
building this roster completely? Well,we're definitely always evaluating, kind of looking
for the right fit for our place, and there's really good players that fit
our place, and then we're gonnago chase them and let them know what

(02:23):
Organ State playing here is all about, and the coaches and who they surround
themselves in the locker room, showingthe progression not only just of year one
to year two, but also themultiple examples of guys coming that have played
at organ State and gone on andplay in the NFL. Because most of
these guys want to chase that dreamof playing at the highest level and they've
got an opportunity to do it here. And I think again that message has

(02:44):
been resounding in a lot of homesof recruits. So I want to talk
about a home of a recruit.I a chance to talk to Isaia Newell,
running back recruit. For you guys, he's a fascinating young man.
He's gone through a lot, youknow, through a tragic car accident when
he was eleven, then lost hisfather as he was older as a teenager.
Well, what have you learned aboutthis guy and how's he going to
fit into the ethos of the program. Yeah, he talking about a first

(03:07):
class individual. His work ethic,you know, his mom Robin does an
awesome job of continuing to teach characterto him. He's a good football player
that loves to play the game.I think he's going to be a great
fit for our locker room and hispassion for improvement. He's a physical runner
and he's got good size that youknow, get into the weight room.
He's going to be a force inthis conference. Coach, you'll get made

(03:28):
reference to some of the guys thatyou brought into this program. I feel
like the last couple of years whenI've been on campus with you, we
do talk about transfers that can reallyprovide a boost. The portal itself has
created a lot of conversation nationally aroundcollege football. Your program, in particular
in this conference, maybe doing thebest job of everyone dipping into that portal
and making sure that you're getting somepretty good guys as well. How do

(03:49):
you and your staff evaluate some ofthose players and figure out who is a
right fit when when guys already havecollege experience. Yeah, you know,
it's it's interesting because we just wantto use every avenue that we can to
add to this roster, and nowwith the transfer portal, that's one avenue.
We want to be able to takeadvantage of some of the guys that
we've been able to get had previousrelationships through coaches when they were getting recruited

(04:14):
at high schools. We definitely doa lot of background and homework on these
guys talking to the current roster they'reon. Once they're on the portal,
and not every guy on the portalsa fit forward and State or any school,
and so you got to do aton of homework on them. But
once they're on there and we feellike they're fit, we're going to chase
all avenues to better our roster.Some of the guys that might be chasing
some receivers and maybe locking them down. I love your JC secondary, you

(04:38):
could argue, I mean, Iknow you return some players there, but
all four of them, I feelI could play a region right Alton Julian
being two headliners for me, whatdo you think about their skill set and
their opportunity to impact early on defense? No question, those two guys you
mentioned, we wanted to get longer. We wanted to go into a little
bit older player in the secondary tocomplement what we had. Go back and

(05:00):
Ray jon Alton Julian, even JonathanRiley's safety, you know, I'll have
length. We want to make thatroom even more competitive. We were excited
about Alton Julian especially, He's gotthree years to play. We're not talking
about just a two year player onjunior college. So I think we've added
some depth to that room and allthree of those guys will have the opportunity
to compete right away. Coach,I remember being on campus two years ago,

(05:21):
walking off the practice field with you, and you made reference to your
team's defense. You felt good aboutthe offense. He said, Hey,
these guys just got to come upwith some stops. If we get that
will be okay. Last two seasons, you've now had some growth here.
Yoga just asked you about the secondary. Just big picture this for me,
your team's defense right now. Howconfident do you feel like there's another big

(05:42):
time jump based off of what wesaw last year. Yeah, I am
confident that we need to make thatjump. We do got a lot of
players, especially upfront defensively, comingback, feel awesome about this coaching staff
and our players efforts in regards towork ethic and so they're going to improve
and we can make a big step. That's a some of the reason we
went in the emphasis of older playersin the secondary because we felt confident of

(06:02):
what we got coming back in thefront seven, and we get that back
end even playing at a higher level. I think we can be a really
good defense. Coach, you're talkingabout this team. Defense is going to
continue to improve. Offensively, You'vealways been successful there. Within the current
roster. You have now curious aboutJamar Jefferson. I mean, this is
a guy who was a freshman AllAmerican, banged up a little bit last

(06:24):
year. How's his off season been, what's the status of his health?
And you expect him to be thefeature back that can carry the load in
spring and then of course the fall. Yeah, we're counting on him in
a big way. You know,he did have the monster freshman year,
dealt with some things this second yearinjury wise, he's been working out,
he's feeling better, but we needhim to be able to have the big
year that we think he can becausewe are losing some guys some production offensively.

(06:47):
But with Jamar coming back, thescheme we run, we can feature
him and we hope to see thatthis fall on him having a big time
year. Coach, you mentioned someof those pieces that you're losing as AA.
Hodgens was probably one of two ofthe most entertaining wide receivers that we
had last season in his conference thanMichael Pittman probably that other guy you lose
him in terms of the replacement playmakerson the outside, I mean, Oregon

(07:11):
States had a pretty good tradition ofhaving some good wide receivers. Who's that
next wave. Yeah, you know, we're going to count on the really
the group kind of competing for thatin the spring, and we've got some
guys that have that have played.Traymon Bradford gets his, you know,
an additional year Redshirts last year,he'll be counted on big Taijon Lindsay Colby
Taylor, Josiah Irish needs to againtake a step and so we've got a
group in there that we feel goodabout and so you're right though, we

(07:35):
got to find a way for thoseguys to replace that production because Hodgens was
so good and really so productive inthe red zone, scoring so many touchdowns
for us. Did coachmis just makereference to champ or did he not say
his name? Because he is Imean I might be like a half inch
taller than him. So he reallyis my hero whenever he comes up with

(07:57):
a big play on the football field. Just to be clear, do you
not forget about my guy? Yeah? Oh I don't. He's a fan
favorite in our plays too. Beyondyou guys, Oh, I love that
all right, coach, I wantto take us into the coaching staff right
now. Last year there were somany type games Mike reference one score games
two your first year. Last yearyou had a handful of tight ones.
How do you show up in offseasonprograms, workouts, etc. A mindset

(08:20):
of closing things out and you're inyour opinion, Yeah, I need to
talk a lot about finish. Andwe got into some of the specifics after
being able to digest the season,and you're right on. I mean,
we had multiple games that came downto one possession, whether it's offensively being
able to finish on the field withthe ball, to run the clock out
or flip side two minute and beable to get some stops. And so

(08:41):
that'll be a point of emphasis andheading in the spring ball, putting those
guys in those situations more recreating thegame for him, because if we can
take that next step in that regardand finishing games, we feel good about
our chances this fall. Coach,it was an absolute joy to watch your
football team close the gap continue toimprove a season ago. You had us
on the edge of our seats ona lot of these games. I'm sure
you'd prefer to be on the otherend to some of those close ones as

(09:05):
well. Something tells me it's goingto happen for your team this upcoming season.
So best eluct this offseason, enjoya little bit of downtime, and
we'll see in a couple of weeks. Okay, I appreciate it. Guys
always coming on all right, JonathanSmith. You can see sort of the
excitement around this program, and fora lot of good reasons. I know
we showed some of those close lossesthere. The reality is down the stretch.
I mean, I think, yo, you could have made an argument
maybe before we can say it getsto a bowl game. Johnathan Smith might

(09:28):
have been the coach of the Yearin this conference and you asked him about
the secondary. There's some dudes rightnow who can ball for this team.
It's really impressive in terms of theirgets on that back end. I go
back to those JC players. Imean there's four of them right Ray,
Jean Wright brother and Nashan right who'salready on the team, and Mike Are.
These are tall guys. They're notyou and I played six three.
I mean this is long you're talkingabout. Jonathan Riley, Ron Horgs the

(09:48):
third. I mean, these aredbs that I think will come right in
and be able to compete and havea major impact. I mean, in
this conference, you gotta be ableto play the deep ball, you gotta
be able to play the pass,you gotta be able to play man coverage
times. I think this makes thatgroup much more competitive. Do they all
play, Probably not. I don'tknow if we'll see four brand new starters
coming from the junior college ranks,but they'll all be in the mix.

(10:09):
And I think that's the biggest thingfor this program because they got to slow
some people down. We think they'llscore Drews and Jeb he's gonna be just
fine. They've got playmakers and widereceiver. They did a great job in
recruiting that position as well, referencedJamar Jefferson. Their offensive fronts good enough,
so defensively they can limit some explosiveplays on the back end. It's
gonna be a much improved team andthey'll have every opportunity in my eyes,

(10:31):
with their schedule holes layout to getto a bowl game. Schedule was tough
a season ago for this team,so it is a little bit different there.
We showed some of the numbers onthe defensive side and the jump that
they took two years ago to lastseason. I want you to do a
little bit of a deeper dive herebecause you made reference to ze Nuwell,
who with during the interview with JonathanSmith, just giving me a sense of
like what this kid's story is.He's fascinating. I had a chance to

(10:52):
spend a bunch of time with himon the phone. He's from the Bay
Area, Walnut Creek, and thisis a guy who's eleven. He's with
his family in a car accident.That is does not you wouldn't want to
wish it upon anybody. Fast forwarda couple years later, his father passes
a whim and this is a guywho, to me is mission minded.
He's really focused because he has talkedto him and his mom. Jonathan referenced

(11:13):
his mom, and he's gonna comein with a maturity that's different than most
recruits. I mean, think aboutit. You know, you're a very
mature young man, but there's alot of us that weren't he included.
And you come into college and youknow you want to just go and have
fun. You can't handle being astudent athlete. He's gonna handle it.
He's gonna thrive, and he's gonnaraise the level of competition in that room.
Obviously learning still from Jamar Jefferson,but you lose our Tavis Pierce.

(11:37):
I think the depth there is impressive. And then overall, like getting a
guy from northern California, I thinkit's good for Oregon State to remain in
the pack to a footprint. We'retalking about these recruits. I think when
Jonathan Smith took this job is probablyhis hair was on fire because there's a
lot of different things that he hadto focus in on. It's another year
had some success last year as weapproached spring ball at this point, what's
those one or two key ingredients thatputs this team over the top. Well,

(12:00):
we obviously talk about the defense,right we know they need to get
Tristan JW. But to me,it's like year one, you lose big,
Year two you lose small. Yearthree you should win small. And
that's all about confidence. And we'vetalked about it ad nauseum. Here it's
hoping versus knowing, hoping things gowell, hoping you get the win versus
knowing we're going to finish. Youknow, when you can drive the length
of the field, no, wecan get a stop. So how do

(12:22):
you do it? You do withthe mindset of hammaca Rashid junior, elevating
the defensive players, trey Ron Bradfordand that group on the offensive skill position
standpoint of course, Tristan being thesignal caller. So I like this team.
I think they're sneaky, tough,and they're the opportunity I think to
get to six wins not for nothingto the division a little wide open at
this point when you consider Oregan obviouslyis a powerhouse, got a couple of

(12:43):
new coaches, there obviously at WashingtonState and at you dub. Just something
to consider. By the way,I mentioned spring ball, We got you
covered PACK twelve Network Saturday, Aprileighteenth. Who do not want to miss
the Oregon State Spring game on PACtwelve Network and the PAC twelve Now app