Oregon State 2025 football schedule: Who Beavers play next season
Here’s who head coach Trent Bray and the Oregon State Beavers football team will face in the 2025 college football season.
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CORVALLIS — For the second consecutive year, California football has proved itself to be on a level different to that of Oregon State.
On the opening game of the season, Cal stormed up to Corvallis and took down OSU, 34-15. It was on the back of an impressive performance by true freshman quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele, who threw for 324 yards and three touchdowns in his college debut for Cal.
“It just wasn’t a clean game, not what we were hoping for at all in our first game,” OSU head coach Trent Bray said.
The Beavers took an early deficit in the first quarter after Sagapolutele threw two touchdown passes. An OSU field goal was the lone score on the board for the Beavers in the first half and the deficit was 17-3.
The second half was a much more balanced 17-12 — it was a half that featured two Oregon State touchdowns but two failed two-point conversions.
“I was happy with the way they responded,” Bray said of the second half performance. “They did some good things in the last three quarters of the game. But we dug ourselves a hole so much, it was hard to dig back out against such a good team like Cal.”
The stats back up the scoreboard, too. OSU’s offense garnered 129 total yards in the first half as opposed to 184 in the second half. Quarterback Maalik Murphy and OSU slowed the game down, boosted time of possession and executed at a more efficient clip.
“It was about us and our execution,” Bray said. “(Cal) didn’t do anything we weren’t expecting them to do … It’s just a lack execution for whatever that reason was.”
Once the Beavers came down to Earth and played with a more calm demeanor, they looked like a team with intention and potential.
“Nobody has to be Superman, and that starts with me,” Murphy said. “Just go out there, do your job, play our game.”
Here are takeaways from OSU’s season-opening loss.
Oregon State’s Trent Walker is in for a big season
Oregon State’s shining star of the evening would most likely be wide receiver Trent Walker.
The senior garnered 136 receiving yards on nine catches, including a long of 31. Walker consistently found himself in impactful places, making plays and being a consistent, positive force for the Beavers.
Murphy and Walker combined for three separate plays that resulted in 29-plus yard gains. The flashes that the duo showed in their performances are promising for what OSU’s future holds.
And Walker further cemented himself as a lifeline for Oregon State to turn to when in need of yards. He had multiple third down conversions and posted 53 yards-after-catch.
Walker crossed 1,000 receiving yards for his career on Aug. 30, too. And it was his third time crossing more than 100 receiving yards in a game.
California football stopped the run
One of the more surprising twists of the evening was California’s ability to hinder Oregon State’s run game.
Star running back Anthony Hankerson was held to 42 yards on the ground on 15 attempts. It was the second lowest yardage total that Hankerson has accumulated in a game in his Oregon State career and his second-lowest rush count.
“Cal’s pretty good up front and at the linebacker level,” Bray said. “But we had some ballhandling issues from quarterback to center — just not clean. Same thing in the blocking, we had guys running through the line of scrimmage too much.”
With the play calls leaning toward the throw in the Beavers’ first game, it could be a sign of what Oregon State plans to do with its offensive play calling this season.
Hankerson did have a bit of an active evening catching the ball, though. He caught four passes for 22 yards and consistently found himself as a pass option for Murphy. It’s a unique way for Oregon State to use its star running back but as long as Hankerson is involved, the ability to create dangerous situations is there.
“We’ve just got to find ways to connect more,” Murphy said of the fluidity of the offense.
Murphy and Bray both look forward to dissecting the film and developing a plan that best suits Murphy, Hankerson and the rest of the Oregon State offense.
OSU quarterback Maalik Murphy struggled, showed flashes of promise
In Murphy’s first start for the Beavers, he completed 21 of 33 passes for 244 yards and a 119.7 QB rating. He found a rhythm in the second half and showed signs of effective and efficient play.
He rushed in a touchdown, but threw an interception. His first half lacked flux while his second half looked intentional and driven. There were big plays that displayed top-class football, and there were plays that left more to be desired.
What’s certain, though, is Murphy and company learned from his first game in Reser Stadium. He discussed the connection with his wide receivers, what could be better and what the course of action is.
“I think we’ve got to improve on everything, not just communication,” Murphy said. “I’ve got to be better giving them the right signals, giving them the right assignments and they’ve got to do a great job of hearing it all.
“I’ve got to do my job and they’ve got to do their job,” Murphy said. “I feel like if we did that at a high level, things wouldn’t have went how they did tonight.”
Murphy was reflective and claimed responsibility for his interception but looks forward to correcting the ship. Now that they’ve got the tape to look at and dissect, the work begins, he said.
And Murphy said not all is lost — California was a good learning experience.
“We’ve got things to improve on, we’ve got things to look at and work on moving forward for our next opponent next Saturday,” he said. “It’s all up to us to go in and fix it if we want to be better.”
Oregon State will next take on Fresno State at 12:30 p.m. Sept. 6 at Reser Stadium.
Landon Bartlett covers high school sports and Oregon State for the Statesman Journal. He can be reached at lbartlett@salem.gannett.com or on X or Instagram @bartlelo.
