What Oregon State interim coach Kefense Hynson said after Beavers’ Sun Bowl loss to Notre Dame

After the No. 19 Oregon State Beavers fell to No. 16 Notre Dame 40-8 in the Sun Bowl on Friday in El Paso, Texas, OSU interim coach Kefense Hynson talked to reporters about his team’s performance.

Hynson addressed the decision to try a fake punt late in the first half, he credited Notre Dame for being “a really, really good football team.” And he expressed his pride in the Beavers for finishing the season despite some challenges late in the year.

Here are Hynson’s remarks, edited for brevity and clarity.

Hynson: Obviously not the result we wanted. Hats off to Notre Dame. I think that’s a really, really good football team. They are what we saw on tape, defensively speaking. I think they’re really stout, really good. I appreciate their head coach. I got to know him a little bit during this experience and I think the Notre Dame fans and everybody in South Bend should appreciate that guy because I think he does a really good job, he’s a really good person. I’m proud of our team. We finished, which is something that we talked about all week. Again, obviously this is not Pop Warner. There are no brownie points. You play to win the game and all those cliche things, but at the end of the day, we wanted to finish the season that we started. There were a lot of guys that played in this game that could have made arguments not to play in it. A couple guys at this this table right here. So again, man, I’m proud of this team. Love this group. Appreciate the opportunity. Questions.

Q: I asked you at halftime but just in this context, you guys were down by seven with one minute to go to left in the half. In hindsight, do you agree with going for that fake punt or how do you kind of evaluate the situation?

Hynson: You learn, you live and learn. I’m not a hindsight person, I guess. I don’t know when the good time is to fake a punt. I’m not afraid of anything. I tell people all the time. I thought that was the right thing to do. So we did it. It didn’t work. So it sucked, it’s the worst play call in the history of football. I own that. But if it would have worked, it would have been a pretty cool call, it would have been reversed. So, I don’t live too high or too low. I had confidence in our defense that if they did stop it, we were kind of midfield. But we needed to do something, I felt like, on offense to try to get a spark. And so, it didn’t work, it didn’t work. You live and learn. I’m not going to lose any sleep over that one.

Q: You talked about trying to get an offensive spark. It seemed like you guys really dug in your bag, trick plays, reverses and things like that. But why did that offense never really seem to get going?

Hynson: I credit their defense. I think they got a really good team. I mean, they’re one of the top 10 defenses in the country. So it’s not like this is just an anomaly. We knew going into the game that we needed to really work to get some points. And we shot our shot, but hats off to them. They played good defense. They got, there are 9, 10 seniors, fifth- or sixth-year seniors playing on that defense. I think that’s a testament to a good program that develops players and recruits at a high level. So, wasn’t our day, though.

Q: How proud are you of the way this team responded, not only to where they were but all the craziness that took place this season?

Hynson: Super proud. I thought our guys practiced hard. They played hard. They blocked out the noise. They competed. They finished, like I said. In today’s college football round, it’s kind of the cool thing not to play in bowl games if it’s not the playoff. And so I thought we had a group of guys that played, that finished, that enjoy playing the game. This guy right here, Kitan (Oladapo), Kitan’s going to be a high draft pick, I think. He could have not played in this game and nobody would have batted an eye. But the dude played in the game, he finished the game, was out there on one leg at one point in the game. And I asked him, “Hey, bro, you got a future after this game. Are you sure you want to keep going?” “Coach, I’m going to finish this thing.” And so, I appreciate that.

Q: How challenging was this stretch, these last five weeks where, obviously, players are leaving, you’re putting players in maybe roles they haven’t played before, and then obviously coaches in positions they haven’t served on the staff — just how tall of an order was getting ready for this game over the last one?

Hynson: It’s all relative to me. This is football. It’s a game. It’s a sport. Obviously, we love it. But there’s people going through real stuff in life. So relative to that, it wasn’t hard at all. If you’re talking football, yeah, it’s difficult, but who cares? Nobody cares, right? Notre Dame doesn’t care. So you play the hand you’re dealt. That’s life, right? We all got something going on in life. You play the hand you’re dealt and you do the best you can. I’m not an excuse maker. We had 11 guys to go suit up and play, didn’t get it done. So I’m not going to sit here and bemoan how hard it was.

Q: You said yesterday that the players needed to take this game like a Week 13 game and not like a Week 1 game. How do you think that they came out and played today?

Hynson: I thought the operation was pretty clean. Defensively, I thought we played really, really hard. We made stops, and then the fake punt, it’s a 7-0 game probably at halftime. So yeah, I thought our defense played really well. Offensively, I thought we executed, we had a bunch of different personnel groups going and guys playing different spots and it didn’t … at times, maybe it was a little messy, but I thought it looked like football from where my vantage point was. We just, we didn’t get it done against a really good defense.

Q: Ben (Gulbranson) obviously playing about 30 snaps this season. What did you make of his performance today?

Hynson: Ben played well, and I expected Ben to play well. Me and Ben go back. We’d practice and split the team up in practice and I’d call one side, Coach (Brian) Lindgren would call another, and Ben was always my quarterback. So I’m super proud of this dude. I feel like he and I kind of came into this thing together and we’re going out together. Proud of him.

Q: What do you make of this senior group and the way that they leave this field?

Hynson: I get emotional thinking about it. Because I love these dudes. Like, I came in with Kitan. He was our first class. And so I’m super proud of these dudes.

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