Oregon State, Washington State dominant in season openers as Pac-12 eyes opportunities ahead

The new era of West Coast college football opened in earnest Saturday, and the two remaining members of the Pac-12 looked like a couple of teams with something to prove. Granted, Oregon State and Washington State were heavy favorites against overmatched FCS opponents, but both squads took care of business in their openers and made the Pac-12 the only FBS conference to start the season with a perfect record (we know, we know, there’s only two of them). 

The Beavers cruised past Idaho State, 38-15, while the Cougars demolished Portland State in a 70-30 rout.

Oregon State and Washington State are on a mission to stay relevant in a college football landscape that left them in the dust during the latest wave of conference realignment. The Pac-12 even branded their 2024 season as “The Fight.” This weekend’s victories were a solid first step for the Pacific Northwest programs, but their real opportunities to put the nation on notice lie in the coming weeks.

The Beavers looked like their usual grind-it-out selves in the win over the Bengals, relying on the ground game in traditional Oregon State fashion. Colorado transfer Anthony Hankerson and fellow newcomer Jam Griffin, who is in his second stint with the program after a brief stop at Ole Miss, became the first Beaver running back tandem to tally 150 rushing yards apiece in 30 years. Griffin paced the team with 160 yards and two touchdowns while Hankerson added 155 yards and a pair of scores of his own.

“It was just normal,” said first-year Beavers coach Trent Bray, via BeaverBlitz. “We’re out to play a game. We don’t care who we play against, and we’re ready to go win.”

The Cougars, meanwhile, leaned into their aerial identity en route to a drubbing of the Vikings. Quarterback John Mateer was efficient and explosive in his starting debut and completed 11 of 17 17 passes for a whopping 352 yards and five touchdowns. The redshirt sophomore served as a backup to Cam Ward each of the last two years, and with Ward off to Miami as one of the many Cougars to hit the transfer portal, he capitalized on his opportunity.

“I made them raise their hand if it was their first time ever playing for the Cougs,” Washington State coach Jake Dickert said, via CougFan.com. “It’s amazing, it’s over half of that locker room. So next week, guess what, no one can raise their hand like that because everyone’s already played for the Cougs. It’s part of our team.”

Pushed out of the college football limelight by the 10 departing schools from the Pac-12, Oregon State and Washington State have two years to find a permanent conference home before the league’s NCAA-mandated grace period ends. Their audition continues in the weeks to come with higher-profile matchups against Power Four opponents.

The greatest chance of them all for Bray and Dickert to make a splash comes in Week 3, when the programs battle their long-standing, in-state rivals. They square off in non-conference action against Big Ten newcomers Oregon and Washington with national audiences peering into what promise to be tense, heated affairs.