2023 Season Preview – Oregon State Beavers
2022 Record – 10-3; 6-3 Pac-12
Bowl: VS. Florida in Las Vegas Bowl (W 30-3)
2023 Schedule
- 9/3 – at San Jose State
- 9/9 – VS UC Davis
- 9/16 – VS San Diego State
- 9/23 – at Washington State
- 9/29 – VS Utah
- 10/7 – at California
- 10/14 – VS UCLA
- 10/28 – at Arizona
- 11/4 – at Colorado
- 11/11 – VS Stanford
- 11/18 – VS Washington
- 11/24 – at Oregon
2022 Recap
Oregon State started the season off the season with a couple impressive wins over Boise State and Fresno State, two teams that both made it to the Mountain West championship game. They followed this up with a win over FCS Montana State in Portland to finish non-conference play at 3-0.
Conference play started out tough for the Beavers. They started off with a narrow 17-14 loss to USC and then a blowout loss at Utah. Because of these two losses, Oregon State was virtually already out of the Pac12 race and most people stopped paying attention to them at that point.
But the team began to turn things around, albeit against easier competition the rest of the way. After a narrow win against Stanford, the Beavers had wins against Washington State and Colorado before a narrow loss on the road against Washington.
The highlight of the season was in the Civil War against Oregon to end the regular season. After being down 31-10 with just under 5 minutes remaining in the third quarter, Oregon State put together an amazing rally including scoring 21 straight points to end the game with a 38-34 victory over their rivals.
The Beavers ended the season in the Las Vegas Bowl against the Florida Gators. The team hit on all cylinders in that game, getting a decisive 30-3 victory to get their first ten-win season since 2006 and third ever in team history. The team ended the season at 10-3, 6-3 in conference play.
2023 Preview
The big get for Oregon State from the transfer portal was quarterback DJ Uiagalelei from Clemson. He was just named the starter for the Beavers. It was an up and down career at Clemson, so it will be key for him to clean things up to keep the team rolling along this season to try to repeat the success of the 2022 season.
The success on the offensive side is still going to be the running game. Four offensive line starters return which should help produce gaps. In the backfield, Damien Martinez returns after being named Pac12 Offensive Freshman of the Year. In fact, the Beavers return their top three rushers who had over 2,000 yards combined. That is an impressive return of players that should help keep the offense strong.
The defense was the surprise in the 2022 season for Oregon State as they finished first in the conference in total defense allowing just under 333 yards a game. It will be hard to keep up that pace as five of the seven top tacklers are gone. The key to the Beavers season will be how new people step up on this side of the ball.
The biggest question mark will probably be in the secondary. The safeties should be strong with both Ryan Cooper and Kitan Oladopo returning. However, the corner position could be a place of weakness. This could be a bigger problem if the Beavers do not get more sacks this season than the 20 they got in 2022.
2023 Projection
Oregon State starts off the season with a couple non-conference games they should win pretty easily in San Jose State and UC Davis. If they can get past both of these games, the final non-conference match-up against San Diego State should be a good match up. But with the Beavers at home, they should start off at 3-0.
The Pac12 slate starts with a game at Washington State. This is followed with a game against defending conference champion Utah at home.
The middle of the conference schedule is friendly for the Beavers. This includes home games against UCLA and Stanford and road games against Cal, Arizona, and Colorado. All of these are winnable games for Oregon State. If they can get through this slate of games undefeated, they could be right in the conference championship conversation heading into the final two games of the season.
Unfortunately, two of the toughest games of the year are in back-to-back games to end the season. The first is a home game against Washington. This is followed up by the Civil War game on the road against Oregon. The Beavers will likely not make it through these games which will keep them out of the championship game conversation.
Prediction – 8-4