Oregon State gets a shot at No. 12 Texas Tech on Saturday at Reser Stadium, and one of the biggest questions around the Red Raiders is how their pieces fit together this early in the season.
Texas Tech beat reporter Don Williams of The Lubbock Avalanche Journal sees the quarterback workload leaning heavily one way. In his view, Will Hammond should handle most of the snaps, while Thomas Castellanos is likely to see fewer than 10. Williams pointed to Castellanos’ dual-threat résumé and experience, but said his short time in Lubbock makes a heavy workload unlikely this soon.
The Red Raiders are also trying to replace a major edge presence after David Bailey moved on. Williams said Jamond Mathis can’t fully replace Bailey, calling Bailey “close to a once-in-a-generation level pass rusher” for Texas Tech. Bailey’s 14 ½ sacks last season were the most by a Tech player in 16 years and left him just one-half sack shy of the school single-season record.
Still, Mathis made a strong first impression. With San Diego State transfer Trey White and top-50 national recruit LaDamion Guyton sidelined by injuries in the opener, the Kent State transfer stepped in and posted team highs of 6 tackles and 2 ½ sacks. Williams also noted that Miami (Ohio) transfer Adam Trick is the other starting edge defender and that White and Trick are the players Tech probably expects to lead the team in sacks by season’s end.
There’s also some lingering bitterness in Lubbock over the Brenden Sorsby situation. Williams said Texas Tech people believe other Big 12 schools, though not all of them, piled on after Tech did not part ways with Sorsby until it had to, following the conference’s federal lawsuit.
Joey McGuire, Williams said, is using the idea that the Red Raiders are the most hated team around as a season-long motivator, especially with the Oct. 24 game at Cincinnati in mind. Kansas State AD Gene Taylor drew the loudest public criticism when it looked as if Sorsby might play, but Texas Tech does not face the Wildcats this year.
At safety, Williams thinks the concern has eased a bit. Peyton Morgan, Malik Esquerra and Oliver Miles III were all top-100 Texas recruits in 2024, but none had started or played much before last week. That changed when senior Brenden Jordan was suspended two games for a team rules violation, forcing Morgan and Esquerra into the lineup.
The result was encouraging. Texas Tech allowed just 119 passing yards and didn’t give up a pass play longer than 18 yards.
Williams said the young safeties handled the moment well and avoided obvious breakdowns. Even so, he called this week a tougher test because it comes on the road and because of the numbers Braden Atkinson and Jesse Legree posted in their Oregon State debuts.
As for the game itself, Williams is taking Texas Tech 37-20. He said the Red Raiders are nearly a four-touchdown favorite, but their red-zone issues from last season are still hanging around after they managed three touchdowns and four field goals against Abilene Christian.
He also pointed to Oregon State’s early promise in the passing game and Texas Tech’s four-game losing streak in non-conference road games, a stretch that includes McGuire-coached teams falling at North Carolina State in 2022, Wyoming in 2023 and Washington State in 2024. In Williams’ view, the Red Raiders still have to show they can handle this kind of setting better.
In Other News...
Oregon State Still Has Jaheim Patterson And Van Wells For Now
A Benton County Circuit Court judge has given Oregon State a little more breathing room in the case involving Jaheim Patterson and Van Wells, extending a temporary restraining order that blocks the NCAA from enforcing its new age-based eligibility rule against the two players. Patterson and Wells had already filed suit challenging the rule, and for now the decision keeps them available as the Beavers move through the next stretch of their schedule.
The ruling does not settle the dispute, and the judge signaled the NCAA could still come out on top once the case is fully heard. For the moment, though, the key point for Oregon State is simple: Patterson and Wells can keep participating while the legal process continues, with another hearing set for later this month. [Read more 🡒]
Oregon State Faces One Massive Test Against No. 13 Texas Tech
Oregon State gets a far stiffer measuring stick this week than it saw in its opener, with No. 13 Texas Tech coming to Corvallis for the Beavers' first home game against the Red Raiders in 2026. After putting together a strong offensive performance against Houston, Oregon State will spend this week trying to translate that momentum into something more sustainable against a ranked opponent that brings speed and proven playmakers to the field.
Will Hammond and the Beavers' offensive line will be under the spotlight again, but the bigger question may be how Oregon State handles Texas Tech through the air and whether its defense can make the Red Raiders work for everything. The Beavers showed real growth in pass protection as the Houston game wore on, and now they have to build on that against a Texas Tech group that can test a secondary in a hurry, making this one of the early season's biggest checks on where Oregon State really stands. [Read more 🡒]
Oregon State May Have An Opening Texas Tech Didn't Want To Show
Texas Tech got through its Week 1 opener against Abilene Christian with a win, but the performance left enough room for Oregon State to take note. The Red Raiders were expected to roll and instead had to work through a game that exposed some early-season rust, the kind of uneven showing that can matter when a team is trying to build momentum before a tougher test.
Oregon State will spend the build-up to the matchup looking for any hint that Texas Tech is still sorting itself out, especially on offense. The Red Raiders did get production from JKoby Williams, who handled a heavy workload as both a runner and a receiver, but the broader question is whether that translates cleanly against a better defense or if the opener was a warning sign dressed up as a win. [Read more 🡒]