It’s the night before his team’s regular season finale, and Chris Pendleton is laying on a giant beanbag chair, discussing the status of his Oregon State Beavers.

Kids are being kids in the background, a Disney moving is playing and dinner sounds like it’s on the way, all the while the sixth-year head coach nurses an aching back courtesy of a spirited session in the practice room.

Plenty of his colleagues around the country can probably relate.

And like them, Pendleton’s focus in mid-February is twofold:

One: Narrow the focus onto the thing immediately in front of his team — in this case, Friday night’s home dual against North Dakota State, streaming live on FloWrestling at 10:00 p.m. (ET).

And two: Leave no stone unturned in getting his guys prepared for the fast-approaching postseason.

“It’s more about the process,” Pendleton said. “(After North Dakota State) we’re not worried about the week after Pac-12’s. We’re worried about Pac-12’s.

“Do what you’re supposed to do, win the matches you’re supposed to win and everything else will get taken care of.”

Assessing The Season So Far 

Currently sitting 29th in Flo’s latest rankings (based on projected NCAA team points), it’s been another strong season for the program carrying the Division I flag for the entire Pacific Northwest.

The Beavers boast a 6-2 dual record (3-0 in conference) with the lone defeats coming against #2 Ohio State and #14 Arizona State.

Sandwiched in between them were four January dual victories in a row, which Pendleton believes speaks to the continued growth of his team.

“I’ve been very pleased with a lot of the attitude and the effort that the guys have been giving us,” he said. “I think that we have definitely made some strides and a lot of individuals have made huge gains since the first half of the season, which we’ve been known to do as a program.

“We’re definitely a second half of the year program as far as developing guys and continuing to get better.”

The loss at Arizona State, 23-16 last weekend, still stings for the coach and his athletes. And Pendleton’s assessment is blunt.

“For me, the next morning was waking up and saying, ‘Hey, that’s on the coaches,’” he said. “We should have had our upper weights ready for the fight, and we didn’t.”

Five consecutive losses squandered a 16-4 lead at intermission, but the Beavers quickly turned the page to make the most of the unsatisfactory outcome.

“We took a day or two off, and the sun came up and we got right back to work,” Pendleton said.

“Sometimes the nice part with losses is it makes you really look in the mirror and reevaluate what you’re doing…and the message to the guys was, we don’t really have to reevaluate what we’re doing, we just have to be purposeful with our days that we’re given.”

Looking Ahead — And Listening Closely

Despite the day-by-day approach being emphasized, Pendleton does share some of his overarching philosophy towards end-of-season peaking.

The conversation turns to the importance of rest being greater than ever for athletes — whose heavy prep training/schedules and early sports specialization seems to be leaving guys increasingly beat up entering the college level.

“The next couple weeks is more about recharging the battery — and then just really pulling deep in the athlete’s mind and finding out what’s going to be the little thing that’s going to turn the plug,” Pendleton said. “Is it pushing hard in the training to find another level? Is it pulling back, letting them just feel like a monster because of the recovery?

“A lot of different things go into it, and it’ll be more individualized with each of the athletes, which gives my assistant coaches and myself time where we can roll up our sleeves and really make an impact on the kids.”

Of course, knowing exactly which buttons to push is a skill all unto itself. And in many ways, it depends upon countless hours put in long before the moment of truth arrives.

It’s also heavily dependent on one specific skill according to the Oregon State head coach —  listening.

“It’s about spending the time really listening to what they’re saying, what their friends (and) teammates are saying,” Pendleton said.

“An athlete will tell you a lot from their self-talk. So when coaches put the time into having those conversations you can figure out what your athlete really needs faster than (doing) anything else.”

Whether it’s sitting down for lunch, taking a walk or grabbing a quick coffee, these seemingly inconsequential interactions are critical to building a rapport with each individual.

“Then I can start kind of reacting and going off personal experience — going off 26 years of being in a Division I room,” Pendleton said.

“(I) can kind of tell the old war stories and say, ‘Hey, no matter what you’re going through, somebody else has already gone through this…This is a problem that has been solved before. Let’s solve it together.’”

A Senior Swan Song For Two Stalwarts

Not to be overlooked, Friday is also Senior Night in Corvallis, where the home crowd will have its chance to honor roughly eight young men who have poured themselves and their efforts into the program.

For some — several of whom have already graduated, thanks to Oregon State’s trimester-structured academic calendar — an opportunity still exists for them to wrestle again next season. But for others, like Maximo Renteria and Matthew Olguin, 2025-26 is the last hurrah.

“I want to just kind of look at Max and Matt and just take a big, huge, giant step back and remember what we’re doing as coaches,” Pendleton said.

“I think there’s a lot of things that are getting lost this day and age with NIL, transfer portal and all the negativity. But the positive is you have two guys that came to Oregon State — Matt and Maximo — that are going to be first-generation college graduates for their families, that are going to go on and impact the world in a positive way.”

Now in his third season at Oregon State after transferring in from Illinois, Renteria — ranked ninth at 125 pounds — is putting together his best one yet.

In 2024-25, he went 1-2 at the NCAA Championships after winning a Pac-12 title. It’s quite possible even greater feats could be on the horizon this March.

As for Olguin, he too began his college career elsewhere — at the now shuttered Fresno State program. But for each of the six years since, he’s been a Beaver.

Along the way, he’s qualified for NCAAs twice, won a Pac-12 title and fought through the adversity/absence of a serious injury. All that remains is to write the final chapter of his collegiate story.

“I’ve just been unbelievably blessed to be a part of their journey and I am incredibly proud of them,” Pendleton said.

“I will probably get a little bit more emotional watching them graduate, just knowing these guys are ready to go and impact the world, and we had a good part of their journey and helped them go about the right things.”

Watch Oregon State home duals this season live on Flowrestling.