Cal-Oregon State Football Opener Ranked Among Top 25 Week 1 Games

Athlon Sports took on the task of ranking all 91 college football games to be played in Week 1, and Cal’s opener at Oregon State on Saturday is ranked fairly high, coming in at No. 22.

Steve Lassan did the ranking for Athlon, and he based it on a number of factors, including star players, intriguing teams or matchups and the closeness of the game.

Here is what Lassan said about the Cal-Oregon State game:

22: California at Oregon State (Saturday at 10:30 p.m. ET)

Why You Should Watch: Old Pac-12 rivals meet once again in Corvallis in what’s expected to be one of the biggest toss-up games of Week 1. The spotlight is on true freshman quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele for the Golden Bears in this matchup. The intrigue under center also extends to the Beavers. Former Texas/Duke signal-caller Maalik Murphy transferred to Oregon State this offseason and should team with running back Anthony Hankerson to form a much-improved offense in ‘25.

Indeed the focus of the contest will be the quarterbacks. Sagapolutele won a close preseason competition with Ohio State transfer Devin Broiwn to land the starting job for Cal, but he has never played in a college game. How will he react to playing his first game, at night, on the road?

Oregon State reportedly paid Murphy $1.5 million in an NIL deal, according to John Canzano, to come across the country to play for the Beavers after playing for Duke last season. The Beavers are counting heavily on Murphy after he helped the Blue Devils finish with a 9-3 record.

It is difficult to predict how either team will do this season, and this game will provide the first indication whether Cal might be headed for its first winning season since 2019. Cal’s roster has been overhauled with transfers coming and going, and a few positions are still unsettled.

The most interesting competition is at running back where three transfers (Brandon High Jr., Kendrick Raphael and LJ Johnson Jr.) are vying for playing time. New offensive coordinator Bryan Harsin has said that he plans to rotate two running backs in a typical game.

Harsin is the other person of interest. Cal has never finished in the top half of the conference in scoring offense in Justin Wilcox’s eight years as the Golden Bears’ coach, and Cal fans are hoping Harsin, who has been a head coach at Boise State and Auburn, can put some life into the Cal attack.

The Beavers are currently 3-point favorites for Saturday's game, and that slight edge presumably is because Oregon State will be playing in front of its home crowd.

Cal beat Oregon State 44-7 last season, but that game was in Berkeley. Oregon State has a 20-5 record in home games since the start of the 2021 season.

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