BEND -- Oregon State players "maxed out" at the end of their summer workout program last week, when the Beavers hit the weight room and lined up for another round of sprints.

Coach Gary Andersen recently wondered aloud if the grind had become not only physically and mentally taxing, but slightly boring, by that point. Yet running back Ryan Nall offered a slightly different assessment of the summer.

"Going into fall camp, I feel like I'm in the best shape of my life, honestly," Nall said. "I feel like I can run 60 plays in a row, up-tempo, and come back and run another one."

The Beavers are not sugar-coating their place in the Pac-12, as they are coming off an 0-9 mark in conference play and are projected to finish at the bottom of the league standings again in 2016. But after a second offseason with Andersen's staff, coaches and players do feel more confident and prepared heading into Friday's first practice of fall camp.

"Time is a very valuable tool, and that's exactly what we have a year later," Andersen said. "We understand each other. We know each other. Knowledge comes with time, and that's what we've been able to go through."

That greater knowledge and experience starts with all aspects of building a football team.

Players called this offseason training program -- where performance and effort earned "wins" for the whole team during a simulated season and earned individuals a replica WWE championship belt -- even more difficult than last year. The difference, receiver/running back Paul Lucas noted, was that the Beavers leaned into the challenge rather than simply "trying to get through it."

During the player-run football-specific drills, where NCAA rules limit coach involvement, leaders like Nall, quarterback Darell Garretson and receiver Victor Bolden took charge. And coaches and players notice a better grasp of the technique, tempo and terminology of the Beavers' spread offense and 3-4 defense, with offensive lineman Gavin Andrews comparing that adjustment period last year to "like speaking English (with the former scheme) and now this is your new English, and it's like friggin' German."

That time also builds human relationships.

Though much of Andersen's staff had previously worked together at prior stops, the player-coach dynamic was largely new. Players have unique personalities and are motivated in different ways. Coaches offer different styles of teaching. To revamp OSU's culture following that trying 2-10 season,

about the legendary New Zealand rugby team, the All-Blacks, and implemented several leadership and team-building techniques and mantras.

Now when players and coaches meet to set new goals every six weeks, everybody has a better idea of the expectations and what is realistically attainable.

"The difference is that everybody knows what can happen if you don't put the pieces together," receiver Seth Collins said. "One missed assignment turns into 11 missed assignments. One missed tackle turns into a touchdown. I think everybody just understands the urgency of Game 1, Game 2, Game 3, right off the bat.

"The demeanor of practice is different, because we realize the outcome that can happen."

Fall camp is the final step toward the progress the Beavers hope to show in 2016.

What exactly will that look like on Saturdays? That's another answer that can only come with time.

But entering Year 2 of Andersen's tenure, the Beavers feel a difference.

"The most important part of it right now is they know where they sit," Andersen said. "They're not pounding their chests and telling people how great they are or what they're gonna do or how many games they're gonna win.

"They're talking about getting better and they understand that they have to take the first step before they can take the second -- and that's to win a football game at this point."

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