Oregon State is down 11 starters for Friday’s Sun Bowl game in El Paso, Texas. Notre Dame has a similar number.
Is this a bowl game, or a spring game?
Many of Oregon State’s prominent names playing in the Sun Bowl are the future, but weren’t a big part of the Beavers’ 2023 regular season. The Beavers are going with their third-stringer at quarterback and starting two freshmen at inside linebacker. Of OSU’s 10 first- or second-team all-conference players, six won’t play.
Yet, Oregon State coach interim coach Kefense Hynson couldn’t be more excited.
“You can mourn the loss of the guys that are not playing, or you can really dive into the guys that are playing. We choose to dive into the guys that are playing,” Hynson said during Thursday’s Sun Bowl news conference. “I tell them every year, guys show up in bowl games that the world doesn’t know yet. This is an opportunity to do that.”
It’s opportunity, not what if, that has charged Hynson every morning since he was named OSU’s interim coach for the bowl game in early December.
“You don’t know until a guy gets on the grass and gets between the lines. You just don’t. So I’m excited to see which guy gets that opportunity and runs with it and makes a name for himself,” Hynson said.
That goes for Hynson, too. Oregon State’s receivers coach the past six years, this is Hynson’s first opportunity to serve as a head coach. Throughout the process, Hynson has been open about what’s at stake and confident. If there’s such a thing as winning the news conference before a bowl game, Hynson did that Thursday. He was direct and open about questions from a large, mostly Notre Dame-focused media contingent.
“It’s not surprising to me why he’s earned this opportunity,” Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman said of Hynson. “You can tell by the way the players have rallied around a real leader.”
Hynson knows this is a one-game deal for him. After Friday, he returns to his post as receivers coach, under first-year head coach Trent Bray. Hynson is thankful that Bray allowed him to coach the bowl, “when he could have very easily coached the game. … Honestly, it just speaks to what kind of needs to happen in college football: to give guys opportunities, and be intentional about it. It was important to him to give me this opportunity so that I can be a better coach for it.”
Hynson even showed a feisty side at the news conference, when asked about being an underdog in the game. Notre Dame is a 6½-point favorite over OSU in the Sun bowl.
“Man, to be honest, I’m not into the underdog thing and I think it’s really cliché,” Hynson said. “Anybody, anywhere can claim that. I think it’s got to be something inside of you. … I’m not into throwing the underdog card out there to try to motivate. If you’re not motivated to play against this team on this stage, I probably can’t help you.”
That’s not to say Oregon State won’t have its challenges. It’s particularly stark on offense. The Beavers have only four offensive starters from the regular season playing Friday — center Jake Levengood, right guard Tanner Miller, tight end Jermaine Terry II and receiver Silas Bolden. Notre Dame has plenty of missing faces, too, but not many on defense, which was one of the country’s best in 2023.
The Beavers have some reason for offensive optimism, though. Quarterback Ben Gulbranson has eight games of starting experience from the 2022 season. Running back Deshaun Fenwick, taking over for Damien Martinez, is a senior with plenty of experience and more than 2,000 career rushing yards. The starting tackles, Tyler Morano and Jacob Strand, only lack of playing experience because they played behind two future NFL offensive linemen in Taliese Fuaga and Joshua Gray.
“We’re going to do what we do well, and that’s got to be good enough, you know? There’s no magic pill we can take. We don’t have any ringers coming in here,” Hynson said.
— Nick Daschel reported from El Paso, Texas.
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