How Trent Bray's First Year As Oregon State Head Coach Compares To His Predecessors'
Oregon State's 2024 football season ended with a record of 5-7. After three consecutive bowl appearances under Jonathan Smith, Beaver fans were hoping that Trent Bray could get the Beavs back to the postseason.
While a bowl game didn't come to fruition, Bray's first season as the Beavs' head coach led to a better result than what many first-year coaches have experienced throughout the history of Oregon State's program. Bray is the 20th different head coach at OSU since the 1916 season and one of only six from that group to get five wins or more in their first year on the job.
For example, Smith, who led Oregon State from 2018 through 2023, was 2-10 in his first season leading the Beavers. The Beavers allowed 45.7 points per game that year, second-most in FBS. OSU was much better in that category under Bray this year, allowing only 29.92 points per game. However,, the Beavers were worse in scoring offense, posting 24.25 points per game in 2024 as opposed to 26.1 in 2018.
Bray is already two wins away from tying Gary Andersen's win total from 2.5 seasons as the Beavers' head coach (2015-2017). Andersen's best season at OSU was a 4-8 campaign in 2016.
Mike Riley eventually found quite a bit of success at Oregon State in 14 years over two stints. However, in his first season as OSU's head coach, he finished with a record of 3-8 in 1997. Bray's 2024 has that team beat in scoring offense, with the 1997 squad only averaging 17.7 points per game.
In between Riley's stops in Corvallis, Dennis Erickson spent four seasons with the Beavs, going 7-5 in his first year as head coach in 1999. Erickson led OSU to an appearance in the Oahu Classic that season, Oregon State's first bowl game since 1964, at that point.
Dating back to 1916, Erickson is one just four Oregon State head coaches who have won more than five games in their first year. Lon Stiner (1933), Kip Taylor (1949), and Tommy Prothro (1955) are the other three.
Dee Andros is the only other first-year head coach to total five wins exactly at OSU (1965) since 1916.
Time will tell if Bray's staff can accomplish what some of their predecessors did in terms of on-field results. This season had some exciting highs, but the five-game losing streak contained far too many lows. While there's plenty of room for improvement, there's a decent base to build off of in terms of talent...however, we'll see what happens in the transfer portal in the coming weeks.
Bray's second season kicks off at home against Cal on August 30.
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Joe Londergan joined the SI brand in 2023 with G5 Football Daily. With over 15 years of experience in covering and working directly in college and pro sports, Joe's expertise has been featured in Front Office Sports, SB Nation, and XRAY.FM. He is a member of both the Football Writers' Association of America and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers' Association. Joe holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Louisville and a master's degree in sports administration from Seattle University. Outside of his writing career, Joe enjoys golfing, although he admits that while he hits driver decently, his short game is a liability.