Oregon State beat Montana 52-17 in Week 3.
JaMarcus Shephard kept his offense on the field for fourth-and-2 on the opening series against Montana, in his own territory, and Braden Atkinson threw 40 yards down the sideline to AJ Newberry. Shephard's explanation afterward was about what he saw in the huddle. "I could just see the look in our players' eyes... Let's go ahead, put our foot on the gas and go for it." The Portland Tribune called it the play that set the tone, and the scoreboard agreed, Oregon State led 14-0 after a quarter and 35-3 at halftime, with Atkinson producing five first-half touchdowns, four throwing and one on a 1-yard run that capped an 11-play, 84-yard drive with seven seconds left. The 52-17 final was decided before the bands played.
The number that actually changed the season, though, was 144. Oregon State ran for 144 yards against Montana, and went 8-of-14 on third and fourth down combined. Against Texas Tech the Beavers threw for 417 yards while the run game produced a ledger of Aaron Butler 20, Cornell Hatcher Jr. 17 and Jake Reichle 14, a passing game carrying an offense that could not stay on the field. Montana was the first week the backs and the line held up their end.
Why UTEP is the right place to find out
Oregon State plays at UTEP on Saturday night, 6 p.m. Pacific on MW+, and the model gives the Beavers a 56% chance. The two schools have never played each other in football; this is the opener of a two-game series that brings UTEP to Reser in 2030.
The statistical picture is lopsided in a specific way. Oregon State enters first nationally in passing offense at 386.3 yards per game and 136th in rushing at 75.0, while UTEP ranks 131st in scoring defense at 37.7 points allowed and 129th on third down, allowing conversions at 51.2%. If the run game and the short-yardage work from Montana were real, this is the week they should show up again. If Oregon State wins 41-24 throwing it 50 times, fans learn nothing new.
Which makes the snapping situation the thing to watch first. Starting center Van Wells has a preliminary-injunction hearing against the NCAA that resumes Tuesday, and Michael Langi and Jack Wagner are the only other players who have worked at center to fill in for him. A new center means new line calls and new exchanges on exactly the runs Oregon State just started making work.
The backfield is thin behind that. Kourdey Glass will miss at least one more game, Skyler Jackson is doubtful, and lineman Carter Guillaume is doubtful with the left foot injury from Houston. Outside linebacker Will Haverland, who had four tackles and one sack combined over the first two games, is probable, Shephard said, "We anticipate him being back this week, but we're not 100% sure yet." There is a small twist to all of it. UTEP's running backs coach is Ray Pickering, who spent 2025 in that same job at Oregon State and coached Anthony Hankerson to 1,086 yards.
The rest of the watch list
Jesse Legree caught four passes for 100 yards and a 23-yard touchdown against Montana, his third straight 100-yard game and the first such streak by a Beaver since Brandin Cooks in 2013. The interesting part is the shape of it, just four catches, with Aeryn Hampton right behind at 94 yards and a 21-yard score, and five different receivers catching touchdown passes. That is a smaller share of the passing game than Legree's 240-yard Week 2 total, and it is more durable when a defense finally decides to bracket him.
The quarterback question is over. Brady Jones and Maalik Murphy played only after Oregon State led 42-3, Jones leading a field-goal drive and Murphy the one that ended in Hatcher's 14-yard touchdown run. Nobody is pushing Atkinson. What remains unsettled in front of him is the line and the run game, which is why the center hearing matters more this week than anything at quarterback.
On defense, holding Montana All-American Eli Gillman to 81 yards on 18 carries was a third straight decent aggregate result for a unit rebuilt with roughly 50 portal players under a new system. None of those games isolated whether the communication and assignment work is genuinely clean. UTEP ranks 131st in total offense and 129th in passing, so a defense playing well should look dominant here, and anything less than that is worth noting.
This is Shephard's first season as a head coach, taken on after a year as Alabama's assistant head coach, co-offensive coordinator and receivers coach, and the passing game already looks like that résumé. The rest of it is still being built, and the honest version of Week 4 is modest, 1-2, no FBS win yet, and a fanbase that would like to see the Beavers grind out a 15-play drive in the fourth quarter more than it needs another 400-yard passing line. The interactive guide has the week's numbers, and the methodology explains where they come from.