Notebook: Oregon State football's first open scrimmage of 2024

Oregon State football opened its scrimmage on Saturday, Aug. 10 up to the families of players and media.

We're going to do this one first-person style, armed with a yellow legal pad and a pen — both of which were stolen off my dads desk the last time I visited. This is everything I took in and wrote down.

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The quarterbacks are separating themselves

Head coach Trent Bray said the complete opposite when he addressed the media after the scrimmage, but that's kind of what he has to do with three weeks until Idaho State. Bray said that the competition is wide open and he has no timeline on naming a starter. At this point my betting odds are on a starting quarterback not being named until maybe T-minus 24 hours prior to kickoff of week one.

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That being said, Gevani McCoy got the first reps with the projected first team. He only manned two drives that I saw, although there's always a chance I missed one. Both ended in field goals and he seemed to operate the offense well enough, but didn't make any massively stunning plays. However the point remains: he got reps with the first team and he played the least to prevent a freak accident.

It's a bit of a victory lap to me and if you want to chalk it up to bias, be my guest. My claim to fame since getting this job was a Babe Ruth-esque shot-calling that he'd be a transfer portal option before he even hit the portal. I'm sure my editor is sick of me bringing it up (Editor's note: he is).

Right now, I think he's the odds-on favorite to be the starter week one — but week one is as far as I'll go on that prediction.

Gulbranson ran the twos, as well as a drive that featured a combination of ones and twos, most notably with adjustments to the offensive line to get left guard Josh Gray reps at center. Gray likely won't play the spot in a live game baring an injury to Colorado-transfer Van Wells, but offensive line coach Kyle DeVan said it's been a point of emphasis to get him cross-training at the spot as his NFL projection from scouts is at guard or center.

Gabarri Johnson ran twos and threes. He was arguably the most impressive, being the only of the trio in the hunt for the starting job to lead a touchdown drive. As I've previously written, this kid can flat out move. I wouldn't ever compare someone to Kyler Murray because it's unfair to do, but there are shades of it with how he can maneuver the pocket and the open field.

Speaking of touchdown drives, the first guy to lead a touchdown drive was... freshman Kallen Gutridge? Yep, he hit what looked to be about a 35-yard strike to tight end Carson Kolb for the score. Was it a busted play by the defense? Yes. But the Wilsonville-product did it anyways. He's probably the fifth quarterback on this roster and if he sees playing time, he's either an absolute world-beater or something has gone horribly wrong, but it was my first look at him in an 11-on-11 sequence and he came away with points.

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Dominic Montiel and Jake Sanders didn't get any reps.

Front seven rotating free and easy

It's a front 14 for this defense, not a front seven to put it plainly. It looked like a hockey line shift, bringing in the next group to spell the first one. The lines between first team and second team are very blurred with the unit, but Bray said it's about getting fresh bodies on the field and not about down and distance personnel.

Young running backs impressing

In another act of asset protection, projected starting running backs Jam Griffin and Anthony Hankerson only played the first handful of series. They're players who essentially get in a car crash every time they're brought down, so it makes sense.

In their stead was a heavy dose of Jake Riechle as well as freshman Cornell Hatcher Jr. and Salahadin Allah. Allah in particular was named a standout by Griffin from his post-scrimmage press availability.

Bray also commented on the run game, saying it was the thing that stuck out the most to him from the scrimmage. While it's been talked about at length that the offense is expected to be more spread out for the passing game, their strength may still be the ground game as it was under Jonathan Smith.

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Exodus Ayers

I couldn't think of a better subhead, but this one is about the freshman defensive back. He exclusively worked with the twos on defense, but turned the head of senior cornerback Jaden Robinson who called Ayers one of the biggest standouts on defense in his opinion.

While it was Gutridge to lead the first offensive touchdown, the defense got on the board with a scoop-and-score touchdown courtesy of Ayers. David Wells Jr. caught a pass in front of the sticks after beating Ayers off the line, but the freshman got the last laugh when the ball popped out of Wells Jr.'s hands and Ayers took it to the house for six.

In defensive back play unrelated to Ayers, safety Jaydin Young found himself in the backfield on several occasions to stuff the run.

Special teams are certainly special

The first three scores of the game by the offense came from kicker Everett Hayes, who converted successfully on his three field goal attempts. The most impressive of which was a strike from 51 yards out. He's in line to be the starting kicker and definitely looked the part.

Punter Josh Green was also booming punts. I didn't have a stopwatch on me to try and track hang times and I can't ever count the distances of punts properly, but Green could certainly flip the field in his handful of attempts.