Oregon State and Colorado State are both starting completely over, and their first taste of Pac-12 life comes against each other.
Bush’s Picks
ORSTCSU
ORSTCSU
OverUnder
Best BetColorado State
Colorado State enters this one with the more cohesive room — Jim Mora brought over 14 players from his UConn team that reached a bowl game together, giving the Rams a head start on chemistry that Oregon State's near-total roster teardown can't match. The Beavers counter with the more proven arm in Maalik Murphy, but a first-year staff installing a brand-new scheme on the road is a tough ask in a conference debut. Slight lean to the home team in a game where both sides are otherwise starting from scratch.
Oregon State
+Maalik Murphy brings Power-4 starting experience, Duke TD record
+New HC Shephard is a proven passing-game play-caller
−Coming off 2-10, 11 empty trips inside the 20
−First-year coach with almost no roster continuity
−Lost lead back Hankerson and depth piece Allah to portal
Colorado State
+Mora imported 14 UConn players who made a bowl together
+Deep 6-man QB room including 4-star Hejny
−Also finished 2-10, worst mark since 1988's 1-11 team
−Fired Norvell mid-season, no proven starting QB yet
−31 newcomers replacing 31 departures means unknown chemistry
Both programs are walking into this one as strangers to themselves. Oregon State finished 2-10 a year ago and turns to first-time head coach JaMarcus Shephard, an accomplished passing-game coordinator now running his own show, with Maalik Murphy — a Texas and Duke transfer who set Duke's single-season touchdown record — the presumptive QB1 over Mercer transfer Braden Atkinson. Colorado State is doing its own version of a reset: Jay Norvell was fired 7 games into a 2-10 finish, and Jim Mora spent the winter and spring rebuilding around a portal class heavy on his old UConn connections. Neither staff has called a real game together yet, and this is both programs' first season in the Pac-12.
The Rams' rebuild has a different shape than the Beavers'. Mora signed 38 transfers, and 18 of them — including 14 who reached a bowl game together at UConn last season — know how to win as a group even if none of them have played a snap in a Rams uniform. Oregon State's roster turnover cuts the other way: Shephard lost lead back Anthony Hankerson and depth piece Salahadin Allah to the portal, and the quarterback room is still an open competition heading into fall camp. There's no market posted on this one yet, which says plenty about how unsettled both depth charts still are.
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ORST Oregon State
CSU Colorado State
What decided both of these teams a year ago was self-inflicted damage. Oregon State came away empty on 11 trips inside the 20-yard line and turned it over in bunches, mostly from pressing too hard behind a shaky offensive line. Colorado State's collapse was messier — a coaching change in October and a quarterback carousel that ultimately cost the Rams both Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi and Jackson Brousseau, who left for Michigan and Cal rather than fight for a job under a new staff. Whichever program cleans up those specific mistakes first will have the early edge here.
Oregon State Beavers
Sep 26?@ UTEP—
Sep 19?vs Montana—
Sep 12?vs Texas Tech—
Sep 5?@ Houston—
Colorado State Rams
Sep 25?@ UTSA—
Sep 19?vs BYU—
Sep 12?vs Southern Utah—
Sep 5?vs Wyoming—
Recent form.
The new arrivals only tell part of the story — fall camp battles decide who's actually on the field October 3. Murphy's arm talent gives Oregon State a higher ceiling if Shephard's passing scheme clicks early, but Colorado State counters with sheer numbers, running 6 scholarship arms — including 4-star Oklahoma State transfer Hauss Hejny — through a wide-open competition. Whoever settles that battle first will already have a leg up by the time these two rebuilding teams meet in Fort Collins.
Oregon State Beavers
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Fully healthy — no injuries on ESPN's report
Colorado State Rams
(0)
Fully healthy — no injuries on ESPN's report
Injury report — info via ESPN.
This is the kind of game that won't move the needle nationally, but it says plenty about which rebuild is further along. A win either way barely changes the ceiling for either program this season — the real story is whether Shephard or Mora looks like he's building something sustainable heading into year two.
