Q&A: Oregon State AD Scott Barnes on Trent Bray firing, Blueprint Sports, fan frustration

CORVALLIS — It has been a whirlwind 48 hours at Oregon State.

The Beavers (0-7) were blown out by Wake Forest at Reser Stadium on Saturday, head coach Trent Bray was fired on Sunday, and interim coach Robb Akey took the podium Monday to articulate the path forward.

Prior to Akey’s press conference, OSU athletic director Scott Barnes sat down with The Oregonian/OregonLive for a wide-ranging Q&A on the issues facing the Beavers at this pivotal moment.

Here is a transcript of the conversation:

Ryan Clarke: You previously mentioned that Trent might not have embraced the CEO aspects of the job. That it was potentially a limitation. I’m wondering, when you hired him originally, was that something that you thought he would grow into?

Scott Barnes: I’ve had five football hires at the Division I level, all have gone on to Power Five jobs, coach of the year, great success. They’ve all been coordinators. In every instance, the coordinator has not only grown into it but embraced and wanted to sit in that chair and command the enterprise. And Trent, as we moved along, I observed that so many qualities about Trent that make him an excellent coach, but in that scene as a head coach, I observed that that was not something that he was built for in terms of commanding that enterprise as a whole and wanted to make those tough decisions. I have no regrets about the hire, I have regrets about the outcome.

Do you feel like you could have surrounded him with better people and resources?

I think he had plenty of resources, more than enough resources to handle it. I think what I do is when I hire a coach, I empower them to make the hires they want to make around them. And I think if we’re dissecting, and being honest, I think he could have hired some more experience. He hired folks that he was comfortable with, that he knew, and that can create great synergy as well, but I think in doing that, we may have been a little short on the experience around him.

What was your reaction to current and former players reacting negatively to the decision to fire Bray, including some who said the wrong person was fired?

I hadn’t seen any of that. But what I’ll say is, you have folks on both sides of this, right? I mean, literally, there are all sorts of opinions out there. And so, what we do, and what I do is I stick to the values of my leadership and what I think this university and these student athletes, and Beaver nation, deserve. The business of college football is very, very impatient these days, and it’s grown that way, very quickly. That said, given where we started and where we ended, I think in terms of timing, we gave Trent the time he needed to try to sort things out. Given the marketplace and whatnot. So, you know, I wanted to be methodical about it and knew that the front half of that schedule was tough. So, we had some grace there to try to iron some things out. And in the end, those adjustments just weren’t made.

What would you say to the people who don’t think you should be the person to make this coaching hire?

I’ve hired five, and I don’t know of any other Division I, sitting athletic director, who’s made five football hires at the Division I level. All levels. Successfully. All have taken Power Five jobs, have been a Coach of the Year, bowl games, all of that, all the metrics. So, pretty good odds there, I would say, in terms of my track record for football hires. So, stay on board, grab the reins, Beavers unite, and let’s go get this done.

What was your reaction to seeing the “Fire Barnes” sign unfurled at Saturday’s game?

I didn’t see it. Look, if I responded to all the criticism and being in this chair and reacted every day to it … What I look at it is big picture, are we doing the right things for this university? For Beaver nation and our student athletes? Are we making the right decisions? The rest of that is not something I pay attention to nor will. Certainly, patterns and opinions help me formulate where we sit, but I’m not going to look at the one offs, and I’m not going to going to spend time with that. Beaver nation is important to me. Our fanbase is hugely important. But that coupled with knowing the direction we’re heading, making the right decisions in the chair, and pressing onward through this, is what we’re going to do. And I look forward to the opportunity, really, because there is a huge opportunity.

One issue fans have had a lot of questions about is the Blueprint Sports deal for Oregon State’s NIL. Their perception is that it gives up too much while not getting enough back. What is your response?

Let’s put it in perspective first. So, I’ve got four third-party rights agreements I’m in the beginning, middle or end of, including multimedia rights, media rights, and apparel. On the scale, Blueprint just — I mean, it’s important — but it’s a pretty small piece of everything we’re doing. And there’s upside. And if the upside doesn’t work, we’ll move on. So, I know that there was misinformation out there as it relates to percentages, and Brent (Blaylock) tried to clean all that up the best he could. We can continue to communicate, but the reality of this is that we have an outside entity that’s taking control of the Dam Nation collective that would have been left for dead. And we’re going to try to make something of it. There is only upside on this. So, a bit confused by all the banter when, in fact, we have a chance to grow our NIL program, and the nitty gritty of the percentages were off. Brent cleared that up. I’m not going to get into those numbers. Conceptually, we have some upside here. We’re going to execute on that. We’ve got boots on the ground. We have a chance to create some more opportunities for our student-athletes. And of all the things we’re working on, it’s important, but it’s not a huge deal. It’s an opportunity to get better. And if we don’t, if we don’t execute, then we’ll move on. It’s not a loss. It’s only a gain.

You have noted before that revenue share is a bigger and more important piece of that pie. Where do things stand with that, and what does the number look like?

We’re on track to have more assets. Through this last round of discussions with our donors, we will to continue to build on that. And the goal is twofold here. It’s what makes this job, the football head job, the best job in the Pac-12. And that’s from a resource perspective, being in the first quartile of operational resources. And from a rev share, we’ve got to keep building that to be there, but to be first quartile. Rev share, fanbase, facilities, all of that, this is the best job in the Pac-12. Where we’re going with rev share, what our operational support will be, what our fan base is, and what our facilities look like. All combine to make this the best job.

Why did general manager Kyle Bjornstad resign?

You’ll have to ask him about that. But let me talk about the position, because it’s evolving. And two pieces. One is, as we analyze that, we have the funds to hire somebody else. But as we look at the cycle, the efficiencies and effectiveness of trying to bring somebody in right now compared to the bandwidth we have, we have some excellent folks in our operations that can shore this up and do really well with it. And there’s a few things we’ve learned. One is that our data to understand slots and value is growing exponentially. We have so much more information now to make good decisions in the marketplace as we’re going out to hire. Secondly, what we’ve learned is there’s just not much negotiating. We don’t … need an NFL GM to negotiate. There’s just, particularly with the more data that we have, There’s not a lot of negotiating. There’s a couple places where you will negotiate, but mostly say, here’s the slot value, and here’s what we’re doing. And take it or leave it. And then it’s really a perfunctory, making sure that the agent, the coach and the student athlete, get it down, and we get the rev share agreement signed. And those things can happen. But what we will do is — I use the term evolve — this position evolves, we’ll revisit all this when we get through the next cycle and decide what a position would be most valuable to us to advance our rev share, NIL program. And so, we’ve learned a lot and we’ll continue to evaluate that looking forward. Kyle left at a time when we’ve got some time to organize internally and to get to the next cycle, and we’ll evaluate and go from there. This decision to not hire somebody right now isn’t financial. It’s about being effective and efficient right now.

Would it not be helpful to have a single, front-facing person in the GM position during this time where you’re also searching for a head coach?

Number one, I think the general manager position is a misnomer. Unless you’re going to build something like Stanford did, where you have a head coach reporting to a general manager. And we’re not doing that. No. It just doesn’t fit. In fact, most of America it doesn’t fit. So, let’s sort of reboot: what is a general manager? Will we call it that? Because it really isn’t. So, all the aspects that you’re asking about, we have in what we’ve built right now, to get through the cycle. On the other end of that, it’d be great to have a new head coach and make sure that we, when we hire somebody and what that position looks like, that head coach helps define what they need out of the position, and maybe even who it is.

What do you think of the idea posed by Brandin Cooks to have a committee of former players that helps you decide on the next head coach?

We will absolutely have a player, probably more than one right now, likely two former players on the (search) committee.

What does the cost look like in terms of hiring a search firm and forming this search committee?

Well, the committee is free (Laughs). But on the search firm, I can’t tell you what the cost is until we get the deal done. But I’m happy to announce when we do. And it will happen quickly.

Where do you seek to improve the gameday experience at Reser Stadium, and secondarily the way the university chooses to honor both its history and alumni in athletics?

We’re always trying to evolve in terms of gameday experience. We have information that we gather after every game to make tweaks and what folks are looking for. So, our best path forward there is to execute things that our fans want to see, and we’re working hard on doing that. I want to lean into the second part of what you said, because it’s super important to me, and that’s honoring this university’s past in every way we can. Whether it’s banners flying on the west side of the stadium of former great players, whether it’s acknowledging alumni who come back to town at quarter break, put them at the chainsaw so they can rev that up. We’re looking for every opportunity that we can. And what I would like to do and see is a more sophisticated approach to how we’re honoring our history and our heritage in athletics. And that would come from an annual plan that says, all right, here’s the touch points, here are the opportunities, and here’s how we’re going to execute. I think we find ourselves reacting and getting some things delivered in that way, but late. We’ll have an alum who shows up and we don’t know, you know, until the day of or day before, and so we’re rushing and reactive and it shows. I think that’s being more strategic and intentional with an annual plan that says, here’s the things we’re going to accomplish in celebrating our history and heritage, our traditions across the board. And try to involve them, you think, and more ways in terms of not only recruitment of new athletes, but, you know, finding ways to connect with the student athletes that are here. … That’s one of the best things about Oregon State is our history and traditions, and bringing folks back in and honoring them.

Oregon State (0-7) vs. Lafayette (5-2, FCS)

• When: Saturday, Oct. 18
• Time: 7 p.m. PT
• Where: Reser Stadium
• TV Channel: The CW (Channel 32 in Portland)
• Stream: DirecTV (free trial) or Fubo (promotional offers). Streaming broadcasts for this game will be available on these streaming services locally in Oregon and Washington, but may not be available outside of the Pacific Northwest, depending on your location.