Breaking Down Oregon State’s Strengths, Weaknesses, & 1 Thing That Could Upset the Cougars
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Houston football is set to take on the Oregon State Beavers on Saturday, Sept. 5, inside TDECU Stadium in Houston, Texas.
The two teams will have an exciting rematch after Houston narrowly escaped last season’s game with a 27-24 overtime win on a game-winning field goal.
Oregon State is a completely new team and staff now, and the Beavers have far different strengths and weaknesses than last year.
Oregon State Football’s Strengths, Weaknesses, & 1 Thing That Could Upset the Cougars
Strengths
The strength of this Beaver’s squad is no doubt their starting quarterback Maalik Murphy.
The veteran has been around college football for a long time, and he has had plenty of experience at Texas, Duke, and now Oregon State.
While Murphy doesn’t use his legs a lot, he is know to be an elite pocket passer with a strong arm.
His 2025 season was up and down; however, his 2024 season with Duke is where he showed exactly the type of player he is.
At Duke, he passed for 2,933 yards and 26 touchdowns, making himself one of the best quarterbacks in the ACC.
Now, with young receivers on the team looking to make their mark, such as junior transfer Xayvion Noland, sophomore transfer Aeryn Hampton and redshirt sophomore Eddie Freauff, the passing game could be the top strength of Oregon State’s team.
Weaknesses
Unfortunately for the Beavers, they had 35 players enter the transfer portal last season. They also did not retain any of last season’s staff, which puts the program in a state of uncertainty.
The plan was to hire a new coach to completely come in and shift the culture of the program, and the Beavers did just that by hiring JaMarcus Shephard.
Previous to Oregon State, Shephard had been an assistant at Washington and Alabama, so he knows what it takes to build a top-tier football program.
However, these things take time, and bringing in 37 new players from the transfer portal and high school class is a super high roster turnover which won't fully click over night.
The main weakness of this group is the lack of experience with each other. The talent of Oregon State’s roster is undoubtedly there; however, with an entirely new roster and coaching staff, it would be a hard task to upset a Houston team at home against head coach Willie Fritz who is entering year three with the Cougars.
1 Thing That Could Upset the Cougars
One area to watch out for this game is no doubt Oregon State’s passing game against Houston’s secondary.
While the Cougars have several athletes in the secondary, there are a lot of new faces and it is hard to be completely on the same page as a unit on the first game of the season.
Houston lost three veterans in the secondary to the NFL in Latrell McCutchin Sr., Marc Stampley II and Zelmar Vedder, who will be replaced be new faces.
The way Oregon State can potentially upset Houston in this game is if the Beavers use Murphy’s elite arm talent along with their new trio of talented wide recievers in a way that overwhelms a new look Houston secondary.
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Ashton Grissom is a staff writer for Houston Cougars on SI. He is currently a senior at the University of Houston and majoring in Sports Media Production with a minor in Marketing and Spanish. He also works for two student organizations: The Cougar and CoogTV. You can find Grissom on his Instagram (@ashtonagrissom8) or Twitter (@ashtongrissom8).