Four Oregon Players Oklahoma State Coach Eric Morris is Watching on Saturday
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The Oklahoma State Cowboys are preparing to play the most talented team they'll play all year.
The Oregon Ducks (1-0) come to Stillwater after edging out Boise State in their season opener and are looking to end Oklahoma State’s (0-1) streak of winning 30 straight home openers, which is the longest streak in the country.
Oregon has been to two straight College Football Playoffs and has its eye not only on returning to the playoff but finishing the job it failed to do last year — winning the program's first national championship in the CFB era.
Here are the five players from Oregon that Oklahoma State head coach Eric Morris has his eye on going into Saturday’s game, based on his comments during Tuesday’s press conference.
QB Dante Moore
To no surprise, Morris talked eloquently about the Heisman Trophy candidate.
“He has a really smooth stroke,” Morris said. “I mean the ball gets out fast. He has a quick release, he’s accurate, he’s athletic. I think he’s the full package and somebody that I think is going to play football for a really long time.”
Moore threw for 378 yards and three touchdowns last week against Boise State. Last season he threw for 3,565 yards, 30 touchdowns and 10 interceptions as he completed 71.8% of his passes. He wasn’t a huge threat to run last year, but he did rush for a career-best 156 yards and two scores.
EDGE Matayo Uiagalelei
Moore talked about the entire front four, which includes Uiagalelei, who like Moore passed on the NFL to return for another season to try and pursue a CFP championship. Last season he had six sacks last season and 10.5 sacks the season before, with 18.5 for his career. He had a sack in the 23-0 CFP quarterfinal playoff win over Texas Tech.
Like the rest of the defensive line, he’s hard to deal with.
“… [he’s] long and aggressive and gets to the passer, sets the edge in the run game,” Morris said.
NT A’Mauri Washington
At 6-3, 325 pounds, Washington is an absolute mountain of a man inside and the biggest reason why the Ducks can be so effective at stopping the run, Morris said.
Washington was all-third team Big Ten a year ago after he finished with career highs of 33 total tackles (15 solo), 4.5 tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks and eight pass breakups. Oklahoma State quarterback Drew Mestemaker will have to keep track of Washington inside the tackles. It also makes center Tyler Mercer a big part of the offensive game play for OSU in terms of protection.
FS Koi Perich
Morris mentioned the “transfer safety” on Tuesday and that’s Perich, who was an all-Big Ten second team selection at Minnesota last year. He’s the classic run-stopping safety after coming off a 2025 in which he finished with 82 tackles, three tackles for loss and one sack. He also broke up two passes, forced one fumble and returned lone interception for a touchdown.
Perich had 11 tackles in his Oregon debut against Boise State. He figures to be one of the busiest players on the field on Saturday.
The Ducks Defense
Morris didn't mention any other players for Oregon during his Tuesday press conference, but he did talk about the Oregon defense in general and how impressed he was with the unit.
“We don't have a huge sample size yet from this year, but obviously they're fast, they react, they tackle well, they create a bunch of issues,” Morris said. “For us to stay in front of the change and not … getting in a lot of third and longs will be something key for us.”
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Matthew Postins is the publisher of Oklahoma State on SI. He is an award-winning sports journalist who was formerly the editor of the College Football America Yearbook and covers the Big 12 Conference for Heartland College Sports.
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