Week 1 - Oregon State vs. California: Preview, Storylines

The Oregon State football season begins this week as the Beavers host a team they know extremely well from the days of the Pac-12's former configuration in the Cal Golden Bears. The two sides have met 25 times since 2000.

Trent Bray's second season as the Beavers' head coach begins, but his team looks slightly different from last year - namely at quarterback.

Here's everything you need to know about the first game at Reser Stadium in 2025.

Oregon State Beavers (0-0, Pac-12/Independent) vs. California Golden Bears (0-0, 0-0 Atlantic Coast Conference)

Time: 7:30 PM PT // 10:30 PM ET

Location: Reser Stadium - Corvallis, Oregon

TV: ESPN

Radio: Oregon State Radio Affiliates

Betting Line: Oregon State -1.5 (-112) on FanDuel

Storylines

Maalik Murphy's First Beavs Game

Adding quarterback Maalik Murphy, a quarterback with West Coast roots and significant starting experience from stops at Duke and Texas, was the biggest win of the offseason for an Oregon State program that dealt with quarterback play that wasn't up to snuff in 2024. Murphy will make his first start in a Beavs uniform on Saturday after completing 254 passes on 4211 attempts with 26 touchdowns (a Duke program record).

A Reunion With Keith Heyward

Following the 2024 season, Keith Heyward resigned from his position as Oregon State's defensive coordinator, citing a desire to take a step away from football spend more time with his family. A few months later, he was hired by Justin Wilcox's staff at Cal as their defensive backs coach. Bray has assumed the duties of the defensive coordinator since Heyward's departure from Corvallis.

Keep the Season-Opening Streak Alive

In recent years, Oregon State's football first games of the season haven ended in Beaver wins. OSU's last three season openers and their last four home openers have been victories.

"Our team's extremely excited to get playing the quality of opponent that we're playing to start the season," Bray noted this week. "Very excited about a lot of new faces on both sides for Cal and for us. Some people we're familiar with though that that we played against in the past, but we're excited to get rolling and excited to have a first game with with this much on the line."