3 reasons to be optimistic about Oregon State football in 2023

Oregon State’s football program begins fall camp Thursday, and the optimism surrounding this team is higher than it has been in years.

The Beavers enter their sixth season under head coach Jonathan Smith coming off a 10-3 season, their first 10-win season since 2006.

Oregon State also finished No. 17 in the Associated Press poll, its best finish since 2000, when the Beavers were No. 4.

Oregon State has less than five weeks to get ready for its season opener at 12:30 p.m. Sept. 3 at San Jose State, a rare Sunday game.

The Beavers’ home opener is at 6 p.m. Sept. 9 against UC Davis.

Here are the three biggest reasons for Oregon State fans to be optimistic about this season.

1: Quarterback position is much stronger

The one thing that held Oregon State back last season was the quarterback position.

Chance Nolan completed 59% of his passes for 939 yards, and Ben Gulbranson completed 62% of his passes for 1,455 yards. The two of them combined for 16 touchdowns and 13 interceptions.

Even with the poor quarterback play, the Beavers lost just three games, and two of them were by three points each — 17-14 to USC and 24-21 to Washington.

Oregon State fans can only imagine what the Beavers would have done with a better quarterback.

This season, Oregon State has a much better quarterback room, and although the competition isn’t over yet, incoming transfer DJ Uiagalelei is the front runner to become the starter.

Uiagalelei was at Clemson last season, where he threw for 2,521 yards, 22 touchdowns and seven interceptions.

Uiagalelei’s likely backup is freshman Aidan Chiles, a four-star talent who should push Uiagalelei in the competition and likely is the future of the Beavers at quarterback.

Gulbranson, who was the Las Vegas Bowl MVP last season, likely will be the third-string quarterback. If he is, how many programs in the nation will have a third-string quarterback with a bowl game victory on his resume?

2: Damien Martinez and offensive linemen are beasts

Damien Martinez rushed for 982 yards and seven touchdowns last season as a freshman, and he returns this season for the Beavers.

But what makes his numbers even more impressive is what he did as the season progressed.

In the first five games, Martinez had 145 yards and one touchdown.

Then over the next seven weeks, he had 825 yards and six touchdowns for Oregon State.

He got injured in the bowl game against Florida, totaling just 12 yards on three carries, but he did great with his opportunities as the season went on, and he has high expectations this season.

Even with better quarterback play this season, the Beavers’ offense still likely will be focused more on the run, making Martinez incredibly valuable.

The thought of Martinez, who is a preseason first-team all-Pac-12 selection, going off in the ground game, coupled with a better playmaker at quarterback, certainly should have Beavers fans excited.

Especially considering Oregon State has a strong offensive line — Joshua Gray and Taliese Fuaga are both preseason first-team all-Pac-12 selections, Jake Levengood is second-team and Heneli Bloomfield is honorable mention.

3: Defensive front newcomers

There are three key newcomers on defense that could help Oregon State put pressure on opposing quarterbacks.

The Beavers had the top rated defense in the Pac-12 last season, but were just seventh in sacks with 20.

That clearly was a need this offseason, and Oregon State added three players who could help in that department — defensive lineman Kelze Howard, edge rusher Oluwaseyi Omotosho and outside linebacker Nikko Taylor.

Howard is a four-star talent who was ranked No. 22 at his position in the 2023 recruiting class.

From Las Vegas, Howard had 14 sacks during his senior season in high school.

Omotosho transferred from Wyoming, where he had 6.5 sacks last season for the Cowboys.

Taylor transferred to Oregon State from Hutchinson Community College in Kansas. He had seven sacks last season and was rated the nation’s top junior college outside linebacker.

Statesman Journal reporter Pete Martini covers college and high school sports. He can be reached at pmartini@StatesmanJournal.com.

This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: 3 reasons to be optimistic about Oregon State football in 2023