After Saturday's win against Washington State, Oregon State Beavers head coach JaMarcus Shephard praised running backs AJ Newberry and Jake Reichle for their performances in a big offensive game.
In particular, Newberry, the senior Vanderbilt transfer, had over 100 yards rushing, as well as receiving, marking the first time a Beaver accomplished that feat in 23 seasons.
"He played hard. He played like he was frustrated, and wanted to find a way to play better for this football team," Shephard said. "I always want our guys to have a little chip on their shoulders, and he does. I just told him 'thank you for trusting us.' You know, he could've went to a lot of other schools and decided to come here. And you know what, he played really really well today. Tonight it was a special experience watching him play the game that way."
While he finished the game with only six touches, Reichle also made major contributions in the 48-30 Beavs win with two rushing touchdowns.
"When he runs the ball, he looks like one of those old-school running backs from back in the day, and he's willing to run through a brick wall, Shephard said of the Lake Oswego product. " He's never wavered from the time that I got here, even when he wasn't carrying the ball very much earlier in the season. I asked once 'hey, have you ever carried the ball much during normal down and distances?' And he said 'no coach, I really haven't,' and so we really wanted to give him the opportunity to do that. Because that physicality that he brings? That really is special."
Shephard also talked about several things from the game that need to be improved going forward, particularly with missed opportunities to get off the field on defense. WSU's freshman quarterback Owen Eshelman presented a challenge, as he finished with 136 yards rushing and a touchdown on 15 carries.
"I really didn't want to let the quarterback for them get out of the pocket and run as much as he did, in my mind I thought that would be the only thing that would start to give him more confidence. I felt like, you know, our guys, we gotta help them get their legs back and make sure they are ready to go for the stretch we're on. Legs looked a little heavy today, and definitely you could see it early on in the game. So some of that friction is caused by ourselves, and we gotta improve those things."
Eshelman also finished the contest with 32 completions on 49 attempts, for 289 yards, two touchdowns, and an interception. Shephard noted he couldn't help but feel like his team missed some opportunities to create even more turnovers.
"I thought that we had some really good opportunities to have some explosive defensive plays, and we just let the quarterback get out of the pocket a couple times. It really hurt us, and really would've given us a better chance to make the game further out of reach than it was. We gotta get better at being able to track the deep ball, we had some times where we're getting PI calls because our guys gotta get their head back[to look for the ball] and be able to track that ball. But we stayed resilient throughout the game, these guys kept fightin'g and clawing, and what I love about what we did is we didn't stay passive."
Now with a record of 5-2, Oregon State have a bye week to rest before a matchup with Fresno State on Halloween night. A win in that contest can secure bowl eligibility for the Beavers for the first time since 2023.
This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/oregon-state as JaMarcus Shephard Discusses OSU's Dominant Ground Game Against Cougars .
