Oregon State’s first Pac-12 game of the season takes the Beavers to Fort Collins on Saturday, where Colorado State enters at 2-2 and still trying to sort out exactly what this team is after four games.
Ahead of the 3 p.m. kickoff at Canvas Stadium on USA Network, The Oregonian/OregonLive checked in with Colorado State beat reporter Tyler King of The Colorado Springs Gazette for a read on the Rams - where they stand, what’s changed, and what kind of test Oregon State is walking into.
King said Colorado State’s start has landed about where many expected, even if the path there has looked a little uneven. The Rams opened with a rivalry win over Wyoming, then followed with a victory over Southern Utah before dropping games to BYU and UTSA. He pointed out that the Wyoming result came more convincingly than anticipated and gave Jim Mora’s era an immediate lift, but the bigger picture still looks like a team trying to find its footing before conference play really begins.
“Now, the real work begins,” King said. He added that while the nonconference slate has made the Pac-12 picture hard to read, there’s still a belief Colorado State can reach 4-4 in league play and get to a bowl game in Mora’s first season. Externally, he said, the expectation was probably four or five wins, while internally a bowl has been the baseline goal for 2026.
The quarterback situation is another big piece of the puzzle. Hauss Hejny is listed as questionable on the first availability report, and King said that sounds right based on how the Rams handled him last week in San Antonio. Even though Colorado State had already decided by game day that he would not play, the team didn’t want to rule him out beforehand.
King expects Hejny to try to go, calling him “a bona fide gamer who had an electric first two weeks of the season,” but he also noted that Colorado State showed last week it can move the ball with K’saan Farrar at quarterback. Farrar, a UConn transfer, battled Hejny for the job all offseason, and King said the staff is high on what he can do. In his view, this game could turn into one where both offenses have room to operate no matter who starts for the Rams.
The defense, though, has become the bigger concern. King said it’s tough to pin the problems on just one thing, and he didn’t sugarcoat the last two weeks.
“It’s not hyperbole to say these last two weeks have been a disaster and Mora has said repeatedly that it starts with coaching and scheme,” King said.
He said coordinator Tyson Summers has long preferred a chaotic approach built around turnovers and explosive plays, and that formula worked early when Colorado State was getting takeaways in Weeks 1 and 2. Since then, the Rams have struggled to force turnovers, and tackling has become a problem too.
King suggested that players may simply be ending up in the wrong spots too often. Against Oregon State’s offense, he said, the challenge gets even tougher, and the bye week could be a time for Mora to consider changes.
Then there’s Jesse Legree, who has become the name Colorado State fans are circling. King didn’t exactly project calm optimism there.
“Is prayer an option?” he said.
He said it’s difficult to picture a scenario where Legree doesn’t keep rolling after his fast start to college football. Colorado State’s run defense has been an issue, but King also pointed to UTSA players running free downfield last week. He said the Rams do have some solid pieces in the secondary, but slowing Legree likely requires multiple defenders - “two, maybe three or four” - to have a chance at containing what King called the best wide receiver in the Pac-12 through the first month of the season.
As for how it all plays out, King expects points. Not quite the 104-point track meet UTSA and Colorado State just put on in San Antonio, but enough offense to keep things lively in Fort Collins.
He said the Rams will be hoping for a repeat of the 2017 meeting between these programs, when Colorado State opened Canvas Stadium with a 58-27 win. This one, he believes, will be far tighter.
King picked Colorado State to win 45-42 in a thriller.
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