With spring camp in the books and summer workouts underway, BeaverBlitz is taking a closer look at the newcomers and what their spring performances might mean once the season gets rolling.
Linebacker Ja'Bari Odoemenem is one of the more interesting additions in the group. He came in as a 3-star recruit, ranked 130th, out of Duquesne in Pittsburgh, Pa., and checks in at 6-foot-1 and 234 pounds.
There wasn’t a huge sample size to work with during spring camp, but what was visible was promising. Odoemenem looked the part of a Division I linebacker right away, and his size stood out even more when he was seen in full pads at the spring game.
He showed solid speed to go with that frame, and he made a handful of nice plays on the ball during practices and the spring game. His movement through drills also came across as crisp and clean.
The fall picture is a little more crowded. Odoemenem is a senior who spent two seasons at Maine before transferring to Duquesne for 2025, where he played in 12 games and posted 49 tackles, 5.5 tackles for loss, two interceptions and three pass breakups. That’s real production from a player who’s been around and has logged meaningful snaps.
Even with that résumé, the linebacker room is loaded. Sullivan, Davis and Goodman are all back from last season, and Dylan Layne arrives from Idaho after earning Big Sky Honorable Mention honors.
Because of that depth, Odoemenem looks like a rotational piece to open the year, though fall camp could shift the pecking order fast. He has the tools to make a push for a starting job.
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For Oregon State, the bigger picture is about more than just new travel partners. The Pac-12s return is sending ripples through the Mountain West, the WCC, the ASUN and the newly named United Athletic Conference, with more movement still expected in 2027-28. It is the kind of reshuffling that can change schedules, rivalries and postseason pathing in a hurry, and the Beavers will be watching closely as the next dominoes begin to fall. [Read more 🡒]
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The setup also matters because every team will be involved, which gives the week a true conference-wide feel from the opening day through the final rounds. With the womens games leading into the mens each day from March 9-13 and the bracket structure built around byes for the higher seeds, the path to a title will reward the teams that finish strong in the regular season. For the Beavers, it means the road back into the heart of the Pac-12 postseason runs through a city that has already become part of the leagues tournament memory. [Read more 🡒]