The No. 2 Oregon Ducks head to Oklahoma State on Saturday looking for a cleaner showing after a 34-27 win over Boise State that left Dan Lanning and his players pointing to plenty of room for improvement.
That makes this trip a useful measuring stick. Oregon’s last meeting with the Cowboys turned into a 69-3 rout in Eugene, and this version of Oklahoma State is still in the middle of a major reset under first-year coach Eric Morris.
Oklahoma State opened the season with a 24-10 loss at Tulsa in Morris’s debut, a rough start but one that fits the scale of the overhaul. The Cowboys brought in 91 new players last offseason, including 21 transfers from North Texas, where Morris went 12-2 last year.
The new faces are all over the depth chart, and several of them will be central to how Oklahoma State tries to respond. Quarterback Drew Mestemaker followed Morris from North Texas after throwing for 4,379 yards, 34 touchdowns and nine interceptions last season, but he had a difficult first game with the Cowboys. Against Tulsa, the junior former walk-on completed 29 of 49 passes for 241 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions.
Wide receiver Wyatt Young was one of the few bright spots in that opener. He caught eight passes for 84 yards and already has a built-in rapport with Mestemaker from their time together at North Texas, where Young posted 70 catches for 1,264 yards and 10 touchdowns last season.
Linebacker Ethan Wesloski also made an immediate impact, finishing with seven tackles in his Cowboys debut. Last season at North Texas, the fifth-year linebacker earned second-team All-American Conference honors after piling up 113 tackles.
Running back Caleb Hawkins led the Oklahoma State ground game with 79 yards on 18 carries against Tulsa. The sophomore was even more productive last year at North Texas, rushing for 1,434 yards and 25 touchdowns.
Oregon and Oklahoma State have met only twice. The Ducks are 2-0 in the series, with the first matchup coming in the 2008 Holiday Bowl, a 42-31 Oregon win.
That game also carries a little Oregon history: it was coach Mike Bellotti’s final game before handing the program to offensive coordinator Chip Kelly. Bellotti remains the Ducks’ all-time winningest coach at 116-55, and Kelly’s first game in 2009 was a 19-8 loss at Boise State, the same opponent Oregon saw last week.
There’s also a reminder of how far Oklahoma State has fallen from its recent standard. Former coach Mike Gundy went 170-90 over 21 seasons before the program unraveled, going 3-9 in 2024 and 1-11 last season.
For now, though, the threat level looks low. Oregon did not exactly light it up against Boise State, but Oklahoma State does not appear to be on that level, and the Cowboys’ roster still needs time to settle after last offseason’s massive turnover. The Ducks, meanwhile, have a clear chance to sharpen things up.
Early prediction: Oregon 57, Oklahoma State 13.
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Makhi Hughes Just Delivered The Oregon Reminder Fans Didn't Want
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Oregon Film Review Raises A Bigger Question About The Ducks O-Line
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One of the more notable wrinkles was the way the guard spots changed during the contest, a sign that the staff may have been searching for the right combination or managing something minor along the interior. For a line that is usually judged by stability as much as performance, those in-game adjustments naturally raise a bigger question about how settled Oregon really is there, and whether the answers are as clear as the rest of the offense would like them to be. [Read more 🡒]