Get To Know Oregon State Football's New Running Backs Coach Ray Pickering

One of Oregon State's new staff hires this offseason, running backs coach Ray Pickering, met the media over the weekend to discuss getting the job, his philosophy, and much more!

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Q: What About The Oregon State Job Appealed To Him?

Ray Pickering: "The friendship and the connections that I had already with Gundy (Ryan Gunderson), coach (Rod) Chance, and coach (Trent) Bray and a few other guys that are in the building. Making it a great opuurunity and always tell my guys about taking advantage of opportunities at hand and this was the next one. It made the choice very easy, and the people in the room, very easy."

Q: What's It Been Like Getting To Know The Room

RP: "Since I've been here, they wear me to death. They are in my office every day of the week, every second, every minute, and I love it. You want them to be students of the game and soak up as much time with them as possible to build connections. It's ben real real genuine to connect with Hank, Jake, Cornell, and Sallah and things of that nature, because they really want to know my perspective. I'm not just an RB coach, I've been a former OC, I've coached quarterbacks, I've coached OL at Texas, stuff like that. So running a unit on your own, they want to know how I see it and how I can enhance them."

Q: Expand A Little More On Your Relationships On Staff

RP: "Years back when I was a high school coach, I did some online zoom clinics, and was somewhat one of the first coaches to do online zoom clinics. Just about all the OSU coaches were on the zoom clinics, when I was an offensive coordinator in Mississippi. When the pandemic hit, nobody was doing anything, and I had this idea, I'm going to start this zoom clinic. Once it branched out, we had about 700 coaches on there every Friday night, and I met a lot of different coaches and learned about them."

Q: How Do You Approach Hankerson's Workload This Spring?

RP: "Well, I only got four of them right now, so I think I need to back off all them... With a guy like Hank, you want to inspire him to learn the DEF, after the ABC's. At this point I want Hank to become an expert technician at what he does. Something as simple as linebacker location, demenour, critique himself within going back to the practice film. Knowing what to look at, and not putting himself in situations that aren't good. He gets the full effect of everything in that room. What we try and do in that room is to try and balance or eliminate everything to technique and effort. We want to limit the game to technique and effort."

Q: How Have You Attacked The Expecation Of Continuing Strong RB Play Here?

RP: "Certainly... The first day I got here I told them, we call ourselves the MOB, which means make others better. Having that mindset of the guys before us who have paved the way as RBs. That's the challenge we want to present, let's make RBU. When you do relate it to the Steven Jacksons, the Jaquizz Rodgers', and stuff like that, those guys were rolling, so as far as this room will go, it's as far as the offense will go. Tradionally it's been that way and they know that."

Q: Will A Stronger Passing Game Open Up More On The Ground?

RP: "Most definetly... Your game has to expand and you have to be an athlete in the RB room and an every-down back. Those are some critical pieces that we've already notated that he if we get this part of our game going, then we become that all-around guy and they have to defend us. We want them to defend every blade of grass. We have spots we need to be on the field and so therefore we must be of value catching the ball out of the backfield and that's what we're going to create."

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