Oregon State’s putrid start to the 2025 season has led to the end of Trent Bray’s tenure.
According to ESPN, Bray is out after the Beavers lost 39-14 to Wake Forest at home. The defeat dropped Oregon State to 0-7.
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OSU has been outscored 36-18 this season as it ranks 123rd in points per game and 128th in points allowed per game. There are 136 teams at the top level of college football. The Oregon State offense is turning the ball over nearly two times a game and the defense is allowing opponents to average 6.7 yards a play.
Bray was elevated from defensive coordinator to head coach after Jonathan Smith was hired at Michigan State. Smith took over a program that was 1-11 in 2017 and turned it into a winner as the Beavers posted 25 wins over his last three seasons and even went 10-3 in 2022.
But the dissolution of the Pac-12 has not done Oregon State or Bray any favors. OSU and Washington State were left behind when other members of the conference found safe haven in the ACC, Big Ten and Big 12. The Pac-12 will re-form in 2025 when teams from the Mountain West join the two holdovers, but the conference won’t have the relevancy — and, most importantly, the media rights revenue — that it once had.
Without a real conference the last two seasons, Oregon State and Washington State have been forced to scramble to fill schedules. The teams will play each other twice over the second half of the 2025 season and Oregon State has played five power conference opponents during its first seven games.
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The closest the Beavers have come to a win this season was a 27-24 overtime defeat to Houston on Sept. 26. The Cougars overcame a 14-point deficit in the fourth quarter to force overtime and won the game with a field goal. Saturday, Oregon State lost to Wake Forest as Demon Deacons QB Deshawn Purdie made his first career college start and threw for four touchdowns.
