Mike Parker, Voice Of The OSU Beavers, On Pac-12 Drawing To An End, Future Of OSU Football
750 The Game Staff
The reality of the final season of Pac-12 athletics is beginning to settle in, particularly at Oregon State, who will swim in new waters without membership in a major conference beginning next fall.
Beaver baseball is ranked No. 6 in the D1Baseball.com Top 25. They open a series at Washington State this weekend. Voice of Oregon State Mike Parker joined John Canzano on 750 The Game from outside Pullman and discussed the feeling around the final stretch of Pac-12 athletics as well as some thoughts on Oregon State football coming out of the spring game.
Parker touched on the emotions around making trips, many for the last time, to fellow Pac-12 fields and stadiums as he’s done throughout the 2023-24 year.
“It’s been a strange mix of some sentimentality, bittersweet feelings,” Parker said on 750 The Game. “With each stop that we’re making along the way in football and men’s basketball that I’ve covered and now baseball…
“It’s been difficult, to be honest with you, because this conference has been my entire life. In terms of the framework of when I first discovered sports at the age of seven in southern California following USC and UCLA and then all through my life as a college student and as a broadcaster covering the conference, being involved with it intensively my entire life. It’s been difficult to get my mind around [that] we’re coming to the end of it.”
Oregon State football came out of its spring game on April 20th and are continuing to find traction amidst the ever-changing world of college football. Parker said he did not know entirely what to expect when taking in the spring game, but nothing surprised him when he watched it.
“I didn’t expect to see a high-functioning, well-oiled machine, they’re not that on offense,” Parker said. “I do think the defense is going to be really good and thus give you a chance in every game you play in. Because to me that’s where winning football – even though I know we’re in an age of high-powered offense – Trent Bray is a defensive coach, and I think he’s got a defense that fits his personality and style and he’ll coach them up with his staff to be good and to be in every game with a chance to win because of that defense.”
As for the offensive side of the ball, Parker says he looks forward to seeing the product put together by new offensive coordinator and former Beavers QB Ryan Gunderson.
“I like him,” Parker said of Gunderson. “I like his approach. I talked to Chip Kelly a little bit about him when Ryan was on Chip’s staff and Chip raved about him. That’s praise from Caesar as far as I’m concerned when it comes to an offensive mind. I think Gundy is going to do an excellent job in piecing it all together. But not all the pieces were there to put together in the spring game and I don’t really draw many conclusions from that.”
Listen to the full interview with Mike Parker at the podcast below.
John Canzano delivers the Bald Faced Truth afternoons 3-6 p.m. exclusively in Portland on 750 The Game.
