Those bronze statues? On second thought …
Star running back Damien Martinez is the latest OSU football player to declare for the portal (courtesy OSU sports communications)
Updated 4/11/2024 9:25 PM
Had the news come on April 1, I would have laughed it off as an April Fool’s joke.
But it came on April 2, so it was no joke at all.
On the same day, Oregon Staters Jordan Pope and Talia von Oelhoffen announced they had entered the college basketball transfer portal.
Talia von Oelhoffen was loyal to Oregon State, right up to her decision to hit the transfer portal (courtesy Dominic Cusimano)
Pretty soon, women’s hoopers Timea Gardiner and Adlee Blacklock had joined the list. Also, a total of eight men’s players.
And on Tuesday came news that football running back Damien Martinez intended to enter the portal.
I wasn’t surprised at all by the defections in men’s basketball. It has been a rough go the past two seasons under Wayne Tinkle. Interest in women’s basketball has eclipsed that in men’s at OSU, and back-to-back seasons of 11-21 and 13-19 — 5-15 in Pac-12 play both years — opened the door for stars Jordan Pope and Tyler Bilodeau to say sayonara.
Losing Pope and Bilodeau — two of the conference’s best young players — hurts. The other six, not so much. (Who knew Dexter Akanno and Chol Marial have another season of eligibility?)
The six names remaining from the 2023-24 roster — Michael Rataj, Josiah Lake, Nate Meithof, DaJohn Craig, Thomas Ndong and Gavin Marrs — all have some promise. Rataj is a two-year starter and Meithof — a 6-5 transfer from Southern Idaho who missed the season following ACL knee surgery — would have started in ’23-24. In my mind, walk-on Lake was the best player off the OSU bench, and if Tinkle hasn’t given him a scholarship by now, he is off his rocker. Craig, the 6-10 Ndong and the 7-foot Marrs were all freshmen who didn’t play much but have potential for the future.
Still, it’s a tall order for Tinkle, who has three years remaining on his contract. Even if none of them choose to enter the portal, he is going to have to pick up six to eight players to help the Beavers in their inaugural West Coast Conference season in 2024-25.
Of all the departures in recent weeks, the ones that surprised me most were von Oelhoffen and Martinez, for much the same reason. Both initially stayed when many around them transferred. Somebody in Beaver Nation suggested they be immortalized with bronze statues on campus. Not going to happen now.
Two years ago, when Coach Scott Rueck lost four of his top seven players to the portal, von Oelhoffen stayed firm. She quickly became a hero in Beaver Nation. Her star shone even brighter as the OSU women put together a special season that carried them to the Elite Eight.
Von Oelhoffen and Pope were featured in a clever “built, not bought” TV commercial that has run since fall on Pac-12 Network, extolling the blue-collar virtues of Oregon State athletics. The point: No need to leave and seek greener pastures.
Talia, active on social media, played up the loyalty card: “I think the grass is greener where you water it. That’s just always been my focus. I saw it as a challenge to rebuild this program and the culture.”
Later, at the Sweet Sixteen in Albany, N.Y., this: “Where do we submit our application to be America’s team?
… this team is so incredible and so special that we’re America’s team. We’re selfless, we play together, we’re a family.”
Unfortunately, von Oelhoffen left America’s team pretty quickly as the portal window opened.
Some speculated that Talia was seeking more NIL money than Oregon State’s collective, “Dam Nation,” could provide. She shot that down in a tweet: “NIL has played ZERO (!!!!) factor in this decision.” She said her reason was “deeply personal.”
An educated guess: Blacklock left to seek more playing time in another program. Gardiner and von Oelhoffen — two of Oregon State’s three most important players — weren’t on board with the move down from the Pac-12 to the WCC next season. They want to play at the top level, for a chance to reach the Final Four and win a national championship.
The irony of the situation is, they had that at Oregon State. The Beavers had no seniors this season. Had everyone returned — and Rueck found a talented post player to transfer in and help Gardiner and Raegan Beers in the middle — they would have been a bonafide title contender in 2024-25.
On a side note: Will Rueck join the departures? He didn’t respond to my text messages. My money is on him staying — he must have had a lot of say in Oregon State’s move to the WCC next season — but I won’t be shocked if he leaves to take a job in a higher league.
The Martinez situation is puzzling. He was the lone wolf to stay at OSU as first coach Jonathan Smith, then most of the top returning talent fled to Power Five programs after the football season with the breakup of the Pac-12. During the early portion of spring ball, the junior running back was a leader, exhorting the ranks, a player for the younger guys to look up to.
In December, Martinez tweeted, “OSU gave me a chance to shine and get the boat rowing, so I won’t jump ship now for a dollar sign.”
On Tuesday, after word of the Martinez decision to enter the portal became public, ESPN reported that he was in line to receive $400,000 from Oregon State if he were to return next season.
“Not true,” said Kyle Bjornstad, executive director of Dam Nation.
Kyle Bjornstad, executive director of Dam Nation, says the collective is doing well, but “still needs more help”
Martinez, however, did receive “substantial” NIL funding for duties rendered last season, Bjornstad said, and would have made more next season. On Wednesday, in a text to The Oregonian, Martinez made it sound like the dollar sign was an issue. He accused Bjornstad of reneging on commitments.
“I want everyone to know they did not buy me a house. I did,” Martinez texted. “They did not buy me a car. I did. They did not give me $400K. I didn’t receive even $100K of the $400K … all these fans saying I got all this stuff and that (Dam Nation) gave me everything. The collective didn’t give me anything. They lied.”
Martinez was on a $400,000 NIL deal for the 2024 calendar year after reaping $200,000 in 2023. He received a $100,000 quarterly payment in March before his decision to enter the portal, which ended the agreement. During his sophomore year, he was given use of a car through an endorsement deal with an automobile dealership.
“We gave him an NIL activity — a TV commercial that ran for some time,” Bjornstad said. “As compensation, Damien got use of a brand-new vehicle. A couple of months later, he made a decision that he wanted a different vehicle and went and got one. We covered costs for that car, too, through NIL dollars he earned. We gave him the opportunity. We delivered.”
Bjornstad said providing a house for a student-athlete “is beyond what Dam Nation is about.”
“Damien was well-taken care of at Oregon State,” he said. “He has been so happy, so good to work with. He loves it here, and all of a sudden, he’s gone. I mean, I was shocked. Flabbergasted.
“I wish him the best. We’ll miss him. But he is bringing things out that are not factual.”
And by the way: Where did Martinez get the money to buy a house?
Martinez’s agent, Shawn O’Gorman of Miami, did not immediately respond to an email.
Why the late decision to move on? There may have been warning signs. Martinez didn’t play in the Beavers’ loss to Notre Dame in the Sun Bowl. OSU officials passed it off that he had gone home — to Texas — for the Christmas break and it would have been difficult to get him back to practice. Say what? He was your best player. Get him on the next plane. Or have him stay home and meet the team in El Paso. He could have used the rest on his body after a long season and been refreshed for the bowl game. Something was fishy.
It may be, too, that Martinez didn’t like his early taste of offensive coordinator Ryan Gunderson’s system, which is more pass-oriented than run-oriented. The Beavers will operate close to 100 percent out of shotgun rather than the I-formation Brian Lindgren’s offense used. Perhaps Martinez didn’t think the remaining offensive line was anything close to the one he ran behind last season.
Or maybe somebody finally convinced Martinez that Oregon State’s Mountain West-dominated schedule next season wasn’t best for him.
“If somebody says you should be playing on the biggest stage enough times, maybe you listen,” said a former college coach, who asked to remain anonymous. “It’s a rough business these days.”
Bjornstad — who co-founded Dam Nation in November 2022 with former Nike executive Dick Oldfield — agrees with that. (Oldfield is no longer involved.) Bjornstad thinks “outside noise” is influencing young people to make decisions that aren’t in their best interest.
“The system is screwed up,” he said. “So many people — third parties, agents, whatever — get themselves involved, and it’s not for the betterment of the student-athlete. These are people who see it as an opportunity to benefit themselves. At Dam Nation, we have a good, solid system that is working well with student-athletes, giving good opportunities. You have to question how these things happen.”
There are those who think Bjornstad is in over his head, working virtually alone as he handles the myriad duties involved in the collective.
“I’m sure Kyle is working hard, but you need a marketing company to do the daily operations,” said one person close to the university, who also asked for anonymity. “You can’t run it with one or two people or on a volunteer basis. You have to build a business plan that provides for many people handling a variety of duties.”
Bjornstad believes he is handling things just fine.
“I’ll be honest with myself, if I get to the point where I believe that (he is in over his head),” he said. “There will probably be a day when that is true. For now, I can manage it. I want to have knowledge of every single
agreement and transaction that takes place. I have confidence we are being really competitive in the (NIL) marketplace while also being fiscally responsible.”
I asked what he meant by that.
“We have things in place that I would argue are not in place at most other schools,” Bjornstad said. “We’re protecting ourselves and the resources people are trusting us with. It comes down to retention (of athletes) and rewarding loyalty.”
For example, some schools provide recruits money as they arrive on campus. Dam Nation’s system is set up to pay only athletes already on OSU teams, and on a quarterly basis. Martinez, for instance, received a check in late March but will not get another.
“We’re not going to pay them and, two weeks later, they’re gone,” Bjornstad said. “That would not be responsible to our donors. And every student-athlete who receives NIL funding is performing a service for us. Everything I have said we were going to do, we have done. There is a lot of trust, not only between us and the athletes but also between us and (donors).”
According to several sources, donations have been considerable in recent months. One said athletic director Scott Barnes had arranged for a number of $1 million-a-year donors to the athletic department to send half of their contributions to Dam Nation for the 2024-25 academic year. Bjornstad would not confirm that; Barnes canceled an interview that he had agreed to with me.
The source said Bjornstad has lined up a “whale” — a major donor — “who is going to help big-time. Kyle has raised a bunch of money.”
Bjornstad won’t talk numbers, but addressed in general questions I asked about specific sports. One source said Oregon State’s NIL fund for baseball will be competitive with any program on the West Coast.
“There is a very good effort underway and great momentum behind baseball,” Bjornstad confirmed. “We will be extremely competitive in NIL space with baseball.”
Another source said there was significant NIL money available for women’s basketball for next season — that the top four or five players would have been in line to receive more than $50,000 and perhaps as much as $100,000. Again, Bjornstad wouldn’t address numbers, but said, “I feel really good about how competitive we are within women’s basketball.”
One source told me Pope received $100,000 in NIL money last season. No confirmation from Bjornstad other than, “Jordan got a good number.”
Bjornstad emphasized that one thing is “non-negotiable to me” — that Dam Nation won’t be involved in offering money to recruits.
“We’ll continue to focus on taking care of the athletes we have on campus,” he said. “What this collective is built around is rewarding loyalty and keeping the kids we have. I want to provide them opportunities. We are getting extremely good support from fans and alums. We are getting more businesses who want to be involved. We are evolving. We are able to provide more. Is it enough? Will it ever be enough. I don’t know.”
Over the course of several conversations, Bjornstad wanted to make something clear.
“We need more people to jump on board and provide resources,” he said. “We need to continue to drive to keep going. We are flexing our muscles and competing, but still need more help.”
Washington State is in the same boat. The Cougars lost star women’s basketball player Charlisse Leger-Walker, who missed the second half of the 2023-24 season due to ACL knee surgery, to the portal. On the men’s side, Myles Rice, Pac-12 Freshman of the Year, and two others are going. Also, Wazzu lost basketball coach Kyle Smith to Stanford and athletic director Pat Chun to Washington.
“It’s the new normal,” Bjornstad said. “We can do things to mitigate the damage, but it won’t go away.”
And that’s no joke, April Fool’s Day or not.
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