Brian dictated his interviews from Media Day and I thought you'd like to see them first hand. Lots of content to digest, but I thought you'd all like to see these notes (they are raw and not edited).
Head coach Gary Anderson
On offseason conditioning and weight training:
If you look at us in the weight room, the numbers were quite staggering. When Coach Simons (Strenth coach) goes though there and he watches them workout for a month or two it was very easy for him to get an identification on where he sat at from a strength standpoint and he’s the best out there in my opinion, so I go by exactly what he tells me. So we decided to take a bit of a risk and challenged those kids very, very hard for a long period time in the weight room. I think it’s made them mentally tougher, it’s definitely made some serious strength gains in that area and that’s good. It’s something we identified, we saw it, we communicated to the kids, and we shared with them in a team meeting exactly where our vision is where we can be a team that can compete for 12 games of a regular season. And they accepted the challenge, they aren’t there yet but they are moving forward.
How the team has changed between first taking over and now:
The knowledge we have of the kids and the knowledge that the kids have of us. And I say most of that is trusting each other, now I would say that we do have a family environment, if you see team meeting we have right now you can see it’s a family environment where people are going to get in front of people and they are going to tell stories about themselves that not real comfortable that they have maybe never really told before.
How do you define success in 2015?
I want these seniors to walk out of here with their heads held high, their chests puffed out and that they feel dang good about Oregon State University. And then the other thing is I want to make sure that they're gonna walk into every game and in their minds, they truly, truly believe that they're gonna jog out of that tunnel and that they're gonna win that football game. If we can do that, I think we'll be in good shape (and) at the end of the year, we'll be excited where we sit.
Quarterbacks coach Kevin McGiven
Biggest change in the quarterbacks from spring ball:
Managing the offense, when we were spring ball we were getting them a feel for the operation of the no-huddle and the procedures we wanted to use and how the offense is structured and set up. That’s what I’m looking forward to is what their growth was like over the summer; mentally with their film study, what they learned from spring ball and their teammates, and also physically. Hopefully they have their minds and bodies ready to go.
When he wants to name a starter:
Ideally sooner than later, at that point you can start to invest more reps and know who the quarterback is going to be starting game one. We are going to let these guy battle it out and compete every day and when the time comes when we feel someone has separated themselves we’ll get behind him. But there is on set date.
On using a two-quarterback system:
The situation that we don’t want to create is a quarterback going into a game looking over his shoulder and he’s not going to feel comfortable and not feel like the team isn’t his. We to put a quarterback in a position that he play with confidence and feel the coaches and the players are behind him.
WR Hunter Jarmon
What made the summer so tough:
The quality and quantity of running. Never ever did so many suicide-gassers in my life. Lifting wise, (Coach Simon) pushed me to limits I never thought I could be pushed to. I think every guy feels the strongest they have felt in his life.
Expectations for the receiver groups:
I feel (the receivers) really underrated (compared to the Pac-12) we don’t get much credit because we were so young last year, I think we will surprise some guys this year.
Who would win in a one-on-one matchup against Larry Scott:
(Laughs) The DB’s like to think can do that, they can all the talking for us, but they know who the real champions are – receivers win every time.
WR Jordan Villiman
On his new playing weight:
I’m actually 224 right now, I’m not in the 230’s anymore (started the season at 238-240), and they made me lose weight. I gained muscle, got faster, this offseason was fantastic. Everyone got bigger and in better shape.
The loss of Richard Mullaney:
A loss losing Richard, that’s 1,000 yards and that’s veteran leadership and he has been playing for so long.
What he expects from the quarterbacks:
All I know is that whomever plays for us better be ready to go because college football is no joke, I tell them that every day that they have to be ready.
QB Seth Collins
What he brings to the team:
One thing I bring is excitement and a little energy when it comes to being on the field. I’m confident in my abilities and what I can do out there.
What he was working on during the summer:
Everything, every aspect of my game and I think that’s how it should be. Every aspect of my game I need to improve.
QB Nick Mitchell
Feelings entering the quarterback battle:
I’m excited, a lot of training go on throughout the summer since the spring game, so I’m excited to go out there and compete.
Improvements needing to be made since spring game:
Consistency in the throwing game for me personally. Just getting out there and throwing with the receivers all during the summer so we are on the same pate, trying to complete more passes and taking care of the football – I had a little bit of a turnover issue, threw a little more picks than I would have like to during spring ball.
S Justin Strong
On summer conditioning:
I tore some tendons in my toe so I out for most of it, so I was on the bike and doing weight stuff. I am clear now, from what I’ve seen that was one of the hardest conditioning I’ve seen in the Pac-12.
**Strong was out five weeks with toe injury. One final doctor’s appointment before he is able to take the field.
LB Bright Ogwoegbu
How the linebackers will be affected after the loss of Darrel Songy:
It was tough at first, losing a player like Songy being the impact that he is, but we will bounce back. It’s nothing that’s going to derail us or anything we are still going to be the linebacking crew that we’ve always been, we are still going to make plays, we are still going to fly to the ball, we are just going to be one man short.
K Garrett Owens
How special teams practice differently:
Special teams before, it used to be we kicked and did special teams in the beginning, then we were kinda done and didn’t have much to do. Now he have alittle bit in the beginning, a little bit in the middle and sometimes Coach Anderson will throw a kick in at the end during team stuff. He’ll say “end practice on a field goal, if you make we’re done, if you miss it you gotta run”. It’s different because it puts pressure on you in practice, which helps during the game.
HB, TE, (LB?) Ryan Nall
On switching to defense after losing Songy:
Nothing has been said to me personally, obviously if they need somebody on defense to help fill in then I’m there for sure. But right now I’m sticking on offense.
CB Larry Scott
Who would win one-on-on against Hunter Jarmon:
Me! (Laughs) hands down.
Expectations for this season:
Greatness, we are going to the national championship, if you aren’t striving for that then you’re just playing just to play and that’s not what I play for.
DL Luke Hollingsworth
The state of the defensive line:
We got a lot of depth, there is a lot of good players and I think everyone can contribute if given the opportunity that’s a big benefit to the whole team.
Getting Kyle Peko eligible:
It’s huge, he’s a big body, the more bodies that we have on the defensive line the more depth and as you saw last year we needed all the depth we could get with all the injuries. One more body just helps the team get better as a whole.
Summer conditioning:
It was a beast.
Head coach Gary Anderson
On offseason conditioning and weight training:
If you look at us in the weight room, the numbers were quite staggering. When Coach Simons (Strenth coach) goes though there and he watches them workout for a month or two it was very easy for him to get an identification on where he sat at from a strength standpoint and he’s the best out there in my opinion, so I go by exactly what he tells me. So we decided to take a bit of a risk and challenged those kids very, very hard for a long period time in the weight room. I think it’s made them mentally tougher, it’s definitely made some serious strength gains in that area and that’s good. It’s something we identified, we saw it, we communicated to the kids, and we shared with them in a team meeting exactly where our vision is where we can be a team that can compete for 12 games of a regular season. And they accepted the challenge, they aren’t there yet but they are moving forward.
How the team has changed between first taking over and now:
The knowledge we have of the kids and the knowledge that the kids have of us. And I say most of that is trusting each other, now I would say that we do have a family environment, if you see team meeting we have right now you can see it’s a family environment where people are going to get in front of people and they are going to tell stories about themselves that not real comfortable that they have maybe never really told before.
How do you define success in 2015?
I want these seniors to walk out of here with their heads held high, their chests puffed out and that they feel dang good about Oregon State University. And then the other thing is I want to make sure that they're gonna walk into every game and in their minds, they truly, truly believe that they're gonna jog out of that tunnel and that they're gonna win that football game. If we can do that, I think we'll be in good shape (and) at the end of the year, we'll be excited where we sit.
Quarterbacks coach Kevin McGiven
Biggest change in the quarterbacks from spring ball:
Managing the offense, when we were spring ball we were getting them a feel for the operation of the no-huddle and the procedures we wanted to use and how the offense is structured and set up. That’s what I’m looking forward to is what their growth was like over the summer; mentally with their film study, what they learned from spring ball and their teammates, and also physically. Hopefully they have their minds and bodies ready to go.
When he wants to name a starter:
Ideally sooner than later, at that point you can start to invest more reps and know who the quarterback is going to be starting game one. We are going to let these guy battle it out and compete every day and when the time comes when we feel someone has separated themselves we’ll get behind him. But there is on set date.
On using a two-quarterback system:
The situation that we don’t want to create is a quarterback going into a game looking over his shoulder and he’s not going to feel comfortable and not feel like the team isn’t his. We to put a quarterback in a position that he play with confidence and feel the coaches and the players are behind him.
WR Hunter Jarmon
What made the summer so tough:
The quality and quantity of running. Never ever did so many suicide-gassers in my life. Lifting wise, (Coach Simon) pushed me to limits I never thought I could be pushed to. I think every guy feels the strongest they have felt in his life.
Expectations for the receiver groups:
I feel (the receivers) really underrated (compared to the Pac-12) we don’t get much credit because we were so young last year, I think we will surprise some guys this year.
Who would win in a one-on-one matchup against Larry Scott:
(Laughs) The DB’s like to think can do that, they can all the talking for us, but they know who the real champions are – receivers win every time.
WR Jordan Villiman
On his new playing weight:
I’m actually 224 right now, I’m not in the 230’s anymore (started the season at 238-240), and they made me lose weight. I gained muscle, got faster, this offseason was fantastic. Everyone got bigger and in better shape.
The loss of Richard Mullaney:
A loss losing Richard, that’s 1,000 yards and that’s veteran leadership and he has been playing for so long.
What he expects from the quarterbacks:
All I know is that whomever plays for us better be ready to go because college football is no joke, I tell them that every day that they have to be ready.
QB Seth Collins
What he brings to the team:
One thing I bring is excitement and a little energy when it comes to being on the field. I’m confident in my abilities and what I can do out there.
What he was working on during the summer:
Everything, every aspect of my game and I think that’s how it should be. Every aspect of my game I need to improve.
QB Nick Mitchell
Feelings entering the quarterback battle:
I’m excited, a lot of training go on throughout the summer since the spring game, so I’m excited to go out there and compete.
Improvements needing to be made since spring game:
Consistency in the throwing game for me personally. Just getting out there and throwing with the receivers all during the summer so we are on the same pate, trying to complete more passes and taking care of the football – I had a little bit of a turnover issue, threw a little more picks than I would have like to during spring ball.
S Justin Strong
On summer conditioning:
I tore some tendons in my toe so I out for most of it, so I was on the bike and doing weight stuff. I am clear now, from what I’ve seen that was one of the hardest conditioning I’ve seen in the Pac-12.
**Strong was out five weeks with toe injury. One final doctor’s appointment before he is able to take the field.
LB Bright Ogwoegbu
How the linebackers will be affected after the loss of Darrel Songy:
It was tough at first, losing a player like Songy being the impact that he is, but we will bounce back. It’s nothing that’s going to derail us or anything we are still going to be the linebacking crew that we’ve always been, we are still going to make plays, we are still going to fly to the ball, we are just going to be one man short.
K Garrett Owens
How special teams practice differently:
Special teams before, it used to be we kicked and did special teams in the beginning, then we were kinda done and didn’t have much to do. Now he have alittle bit in the beginning, a little bit in the middle and sometimes Coach Anderson will throw a kick in at the end during team stuff. He’ll say “end practice on a field goal, if you make we’re done, if you miss it you gotta run”. It’s different because it puts pressure on you in practice, which helps during the game.
HB, TE, (LB?) Ryan Nall
On switching to defense after losing Songy:
Nothing has been said to me personally, obviously if they need somebody on defense to help fill in then I’m there for sure. But right now I’m sticking on offense.
CB Larry Scott
Who would win one-on-on against Hunter Jarmon:
Me! (Laughs) hands down.
Expectations for this season:
Greatness, we are going to the national championship, if you aren’t striving for that then you’re just playing just to play and that’s not what I play for.
DL Luke Hollingsworth
The state of the defensive line:
We got a lot of depth, there is a lot of good players and I think everyone can contribute if given the opportunity that’s a big benefit to the whole team.
Getting Kyle Peko eligible:
It’s huge, he’s a big body, the more bodies that we have on the defensive line the more depth and as you saw last year we needed all the depth we could get with all the injuries. One more body just helps the team get better as a whole.
Summer conditioning:
It was a beast.
