Oregon State Friday Report: Energy Highlights Day 1

With the Oregon State football team officially underway with fall camp in preparation for the seven-game 2020 slate, BeaversEdge.com gives you the latest info post-day 1with this in-depth report following conversations with Jonathan Smith, Trevon Bradford, & Avery Roberts.

MORE: WATCH: Smith, Roberts, Bradford Talk Day 1 | Mailbag: Over/Under; Interviews; Team Strengths

Quick Hits

- Head coach Jonathan Smith said that all of Oregon State's rapid Covid-19 tests done this morning came back in quick order and were all negative. The protocol involved the team and coaches arriving in various windows between 6 & 7:45 a.m. and having their rapid tests administered. The all-clear results came back for the Beavers just after 8:00 a.m. and the morning meetings and practice proceeded from there.

- Once the Beavers were cleared and were able to take to the field, their first full practice of fall camp 2020 was approximately an hour and a half. The Beavers will practice each day of the week except for Monday leading up to game week.

- In regards to the ramp-up/acclimation period, Smith says that he expects the team to don shoulder pads on Sunday, and move to full pads in the middle part of next week. Given that the team is being very cautious in regards to health, expect the process of getting up to speed to be quite thorough. But, he did add that once the team is ready, he expects this to resemble a typical fall camp as far as live tackling and scrimmages go.

- In regards to player health, the Beavers are in a pretty good spot right now. Outside of Jordan Whittley, who isn't working out with the team currently, Smith only mentioned Tavis Shippen (illness, non-COVID-related) as someone who was limited today.

- Cornerback Nahshon Wright, who had offseason surgery, was a full participant today per Smith. The Beavers plan to ease him into his workload, but Smith said he's cleared and ready to roll.

- Smith also updated us on the status of Jeromy Reichner and Addison Gumbs, who are both coming off ACL injuries from a season ago. He said that both guys were moving well out there today, but that they were going to be cautious once the pads get put on.

Quotable

Jonathan Smith on the readiness of the players

"I feel really good about where we're at. Having those weeks of the lead-up time of getting individual attention with the guys really is paying dividends. We looked sharp out there today. The timing was all quite good compared to day one's in the past."

Avery Roberts on getting back out there

"Today was really exciting. Everyone brought a little extra juice today and it made for a very memorable first day."

Smith on what the Beavers brought to the field today

"There was a bunch of energy out there. You could tell the guys were so excited to be out there flyin' around and competing with one another. Having a bright light at the end of the tunnel now, the guys felt and looked awesome."

Trevon Bradford on physical readiness of the team

"Obviously we didn't have our normal ramp up, but I thought the guys looked really good out there. The guys are excited to be back and everyone had high energy out there. Tristan (Gebbia) and I were just talking after practice that everything looked really good out there today."

Smith on the defensive line and replacing Whittley's production

"We've got some guys. Hodge (Isaac Hodgins) looks really good. Simon (Sandberg) looks as good as he has as far as his body goes. I feel great about those two guys and then we've got some other answers in James Rawls, Shippen, Cody Anderson, Alexander Skelton, and Evan Bennett too. We've got to be able to rotate at the position to be effective."

Bradford on what he saw from the QB's today

"They looked good. They didn't miss many routes and we did really well against the defense today. Coming right out the gate, I thought all those guys were sharp. We were probably 80-90 percent competitions against the defense, so we were solid today."