Jaden Bray 'proved that I can be out here' with Oklahoma State football first team

STILLWATER — From the outside perspective, it seems Oklahoma State receiver Jaden Bray had a pretty smooth true freshman year.

The Norman High product arrived in January of 2021 and quickly acclimated himself to the Cowboy offense, despite having played only a couple of years of high school football.

He bypassed a redshirt year and jumped straight into game action, finishing fifth on the team in receiving yards with 250 — a team-best 19.2 yards per catch — and two touchdowns on 13 grabs.

And his impact was immediate, catching six passes in the first two games, including four for 85 yards and his first career touchdown in the second week against Tulsa with top receiver Tay Martin sidelined by injury.

But the truth of Bray’s freshman season is more like the well-known metaphor of the duck — calmly gliding along the water, but furiously paddling below the surface.

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“When you’re first out there, all the nerves are jumping,” Bray said last month following the Cowboys’ spring finale, in which Bray once again showed his dynamic playmaking ability.

It was in the spring game of 2021 when Bray made his first big impression on OSU fans, but it was also a moment that springboarded him into summer workouts, and eventually, fall camp.

He made multiple impressive catches that day and showed that his raw talent was capable of translating to on-field production.

“It was really big for me coming in early, learning the offense,” Bray said. “Spring was pretty hard for me last year. Just coming in as a young player, overwhelmed with a lot of college stuff, like how practice goes. Ending spring like I did was pretty big for me.

“It definitely gave me a little more confidence coming into the summer, building me up. It just proved that I can be out here as well as all these other great athletes.”

After his strong start in the first two games, Bray found himself sidelined with a foot injury, missing the trip to Boise State. When he returned, he went three games without a catch.

As the season wound down, he re-emerged with four catches for 68 yards combined in the Bedlam and Big 12 championship games. Then he had a crucial touchdown in the rally to beat Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl.

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“Once you start making those first catches, you start getting your rhythm and your confidence comes back,” Bray said. “Then you’re just playing football. It starts to feel like high school again, just feeling more comfortable.”

The 6-foot-2 Bray played at 187 pounds last year, but was listed at 200 for the spring, showing the expected development of a young receiver with the commitment to better prepare himself for the physical requirements of college football.

Bray spent the spring running with the first-team offense, though coordinator and receivers coach Kasey Dunn emphasizes that the spring wasn’t about depth charts, but improvement for a group of receivers that had several freshmen involved last year.

“Those kids are out there and they’re playing fast,” Dunn said. “I wish there was a set depth, but there’s really not. We’re just out there, just filling in blanks and putting guys in different positions and trying to put together the best group that we can for the fall.

“With all that depth, it makes it easy to shuffle some guys around and see where they fit best.”

For a group that lacked depth — either because of youth or injuries — last year, the coming season offers a plethora of options.

“Those guys are skill guys. We play fast,” head coach Mike Gundy said. “We would love to play eight a game and rotate ‘em in and keep ‘em all fresh. We’ll see if some of these young guys are ready to play when we get to the first game, but we certainly should have more depth than we had last year at that position.”

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma State football: Receiver Jaden Bray recounts freshman season