Head Coach: Trent Bray is entering his 2nd season as the head coach of the Beavers with a 5-7 record. He took over a challenging situation with an uncertain future and it proved to be a challenging first year, but he did win a Pac-12 title! Now with an offseason to work on the roster and the future more certain let’s see what he can do.
Program Outlook: Oregon State is truly one of the fun programs in College Football and it’s great that the Pac-12 has solidified itself. Their stadium is newly renovated and they have a good infrastructure overall. There’s always some challenges, they don’t have a super great local recruiting base and of course it was still very difficult for them to be left out from conferences like the Big 12 because of TV executives but Oregon State is prepared to make the best of their future.
How does the 2025 Roster look?: Oregon State ranks 34th in the country returning 61.5% of their production per Punt and Rally’s returning production rankings. Key players starts with QB Maalik Murphy, he’s got a big arm that can really push the ball, he kind of got pushed out at Duke and the offense didn’t run as smooth as it should have but he was also extremely clutch at the end of games. He will have some options WR Trent Walker is as steady as they come, he’s not going to make any big plays but he is extremely reliable. Darrius Clemons returns and they made a nice upside pickup in former Miami FL TE Riley Williams. RB Anthony Hankerson was the star of the team last year and he returns but the offensive line will need to replace a few starters. The defense will be led by safety Skyler Thomas, he can make plays all over the place. They also have a good corner in Exodus Ayers and a few other veteran safeties who will contribute. The defensive line will be led by the 310lb nose tackle Tevita Pome’e and they have a few vets up there, the problem is the pass rush, the Beavs had the worst pass rush in the country last year. They do have LB Nikko Taylor back, he was about the only threat last year and getting Takari Hickle back from injury should help. Mentioning players returning from injury Makiya Tongue has missed a lot of the last 2 years, it would really help if he could get healthy. Dexter Foster will contribute at LB too.
Screenshot from FBSchedules.com
2025 Schedule Thoughts: The Beavs had a lot of games to schedule and they put it together quickly but they got a really fun schedule out of it. There’s big games like the Civil War, at Texas Tech, and at home against Houston. There’s also a familiar foe in Cal, a soon to be one in Fresno State and new foes like Wake Forest. There are some road games to fun and interesting destinations at Appalachian State and Tulsa. Their FCS foe will be Lafayette who could be solid in the Patriot League. Sam Houston ensures they play both Houston and Sam Houston the same year. They draw Washington State and Washington State in conference play. Overall the path to a bowl should be here but that opening 6 game stretch is going to decide a lot.
Final Thoughts: Oregon State is primed for a rebound this year, they had bad luck with injuries last year and it really hurt because their depth was completely dismantled by the portal. This is still a work in progress but some guys are back healthy and depth is improved but this season should at least feature enough improvement for a bowl bid while they work toward getting back to the level of talent and depth they’re used to once the Pac-12 is back to a normal conference.
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