Oregon State gets back to Reser Stadium on Saturday for its 2026 home opener, welcoming Texas Tech in a 4:30 p.m. PT kickoff that will air on CBS.
This is only the third meeting between the Beavers and Red Raiders. Texas Tech won the first matchup, 15-14, in 1959, then handled Oregon State 45-14 last season in Lubbock.
For Oregon State, the return home comes after a long stretch away. The Beavers have played their last three games on the road, and this is their first game at Reser Stadium since Nov. 8, 2025, when they hosted Sam Houston. The last time OSU played four straight away from home was 1998.
JaMarcus Shephard is in his first season as Oregon State’s head coach after being hired last November. He arrived in Corvallis after two seasons at Alabama, where he served as assistant head coach, co-offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach. Before that, his résumé included stops at Washington, Purdue, Washington State and Western Kentucky, along with a reputation as one of the country’s top wide receiver developers.
That reputation was built in part at Washington, where he coached in the 2023 national title game. The Huskies finished second nationally in passing at 343.7 yards per game and averaged 36.0 points, with Rome Odunze and Ja'Lynn Polk leading a loaded receiver room.
Odunze put up 92 catches for 1,640 yards and 13 touchdowns, while Polk had 69 receptions for 1,159 yards and nine scores. Both were taken in the first two rounds of the 2024 NFL Draft.
Oregon State’s opener also gave fans plenty to chew on at quarterback. Braden Atkinson started his first game for the Beavers and delivered 29 completions on 48 attempts for 376 yards, a touchdown and no interceptions, while also adding a 3-yard rushing score. The yardage total was the third-best of his college career, behind only a school-record 538 yards against VMI on Oct. 25, 2025, and 443 at Western Carolina.
Against an FBS defense, it was easily his best performance. Atkinson’s previous game against that level came at Auburn last November, when he threw for 210 yards in a loss. His debut also fit the same pattern he showed at Mercer, where he topped 300 passing yards in seven of 11 starts and won the 2025 Jerry Rice Award as the top freshman in the FCS after throwing for 3,596 yards, 34 touchdowns and 11 interceptions while completing 66% of his passes.
Atkinson became the eighth different opening-game starter for Oregon State in as many years. He also became the 13th different Beaver quarterback since 1996 to throw for at least 300 yards in a road game, and just the fifth to do it since 2015.
Jesse Legree made his own entrance in a big way. His first career catch went for 71 yards from Atkinson, and he finished the day with five receptions for 136 yards and a touchdown.
That 27.2-yard average per catch ranked fourth among Beaver road performances since 2010, and his 136 receiving yards made him the 16th Oregon State player to reach that mark in a road game since 2010. He scored his first career touchdown on a 7-yard pass from Atkinson late in the third quarter.
The 71-yard grab was Oregon State’s longest reception since Anthony Gould’s 61-yarder against Stanford in 2023.
Sailasa Vadrawale also made his mark against the Cougars, picking off a pass and recovering a fumble.
Oregon State’s numbers after one week are eye-catching. The Beavers rank first in the Pac-12 in passing offense at 376 yards, second in total offense at 402 yards, first in punting average at 47.8 yards per punt, and tied for first in red zone offense after scoring on all three trips.
Atkinson leads the league in passing yards, while Legree leads in receiving yards per catch at 27.2. Oregon State also ranks tied for first in opponent fourth-down conversion defense, having stopped the only attempt it faced.
Saturday’s game also puts Oregon State on CBS for just the sixth time in program history, and the fourth time since 2023. The Beavers beat Washington State on CBS last season, 10-7, and opened 2023 with a 42-17 win at San Jose State on the network.
The other CBS games came in the Sun Bowl against Missouri in 2006, Pittsburgh in 2008 and Notre Dame in 2023. Across those games, Oregon State has scored and allowed exactly 102 points.
There’s also a notable early-season setup for the Beavers: they open 2026 against two ranked opponents, Houston at No. 23 and Texas Tech at No. 12.
That has happened only four times before since the AP poll began in 1936, most recently in 2012 when Oregon State beat No. 13 Wisconsin and won at No.
19 UCLA to start 2-0 before finishing 9-4. The other instances came in 1960, 1953 and 1950.
Oregon State is the only team scheduled to face two top-25 opponents to open this season.
Saturday also lands on a date with a little history for the Beavers. Oregon State has played on Sept. 12 only seven times and is 4-3 on that date.
The last Sept. 12 game came in 2015, a 35-7 loss to Michigan in Ann Arbor. The last win on the date was in 2009 at UNLV, when Jacquizz Rodgers rushed for 166 yards in a 23-21 victory.
As a home-opener program, Oregon State has usually handled business. The Beavers are 86-34-9 all-time in home openers and have won four of their last five and nine of their last 12 since 2014. They won nine straight home openers from 2002 through 2010, and their 55 points against UC Davis in 2023 remain the most in a home opener this century.
In Other News...
JaMarcus Shephard Signals What Oregon State Must Fix Before Texas Tech
JaMarcus Shephard spent part of the week trying to steady the conversation around Oregon States loss to Houston and turn the focus toward Saturdays home opener against Texas Tech. The Beavers are still sorting through the aftereffects of that game, and Shephard said the staff is working through both performance issues and the injury picture as the schedule tightens. He pointed to the run defense and the teams leadership as areas that need to sharpen up quickly if Oregon State wants a better showing in Corvallis.
The availability report remains part of the story, with several players still working their way through the week and the roster picture not yet fully clear. Shephard said some situations are more immediate than others, and the Beavers will keep monitoring who can get back on the field in time for the Red Raiders. For a team trying to reset in a hurry, the difference between being short-handed and getting a few key bodies back could matter just as much as the matchup itself. [Read more 🡒]
Oregon State Faces Its First Real Test Against No. 12 Texas Tech
Oregon State gets its first real measuring-stick game of the season Saturday, when No. 12 Texas Tech comes to Reser Stadium in Corvallis for a September 12 matchup that should reveal a lot about where the Beavers stand early in the year. It will be televised on a major network and carries the kind of attention that comes with a ranked opponent, especially one that brings a defense that was among the nations best a season ago and a roster loaded with veteran talent.
For Oregon State, the challenge goes beyond simply matching up at the line of scrimmage. The Beavers will need to navigate a game in which Texas Tech arrives with the look of a team built to stay in the conference race all fall, and that level of experience usually shows up quickly once the ball is kicked off. Even with Reser Stadium providing a home-field edge, this is the sort of game that can expose what still needs work while also showing whether the Beavers are ready for the kind of test that defines a September schedule. [Read more 🡒]
Oregon State Faces A Passing Game Test It Can't Afford To Lose
After the loss to Houston, Oregon State is already looking for answers in the passing game, and assistant coach JaMarcus Shephard made it clear the Beavers wont be rolling out the same approach when they face Texas Tech. The offense is preparing a different set of plays for a matchup that now carries extra weight, especially with the Beavers trying to get more comfortable throwing the ball and finding something that travels better on the road.
Texas Tech coach Joey McGuire has noticed the challenge on the other side, pointing to Oregon States passing attack as one of the more interesting parts of the game. The Red Raiders are also coming off their own tune-up against Abilene Christian, so this one is less about early-season novelty and more about whether Oregon State can settle in quickly enough to keep a difficult environment from exposing its young secondary. [Read more 🡒]