The Oregon Ducks were able to knock the rust off in Week 1 of the 2025 college football season with a relatively easy matchup against the Montana State Bobcats. This FCS team is considered among the best in the country at their level of play, but still an FCS team, with all due respect.
Now, Oregon turns to a non-conference game against a Power 4 team in Week 2, with the Oklahoma State Cowboys coming to town. According to sports books across the nation, they’re projected to beat them by more than they beat the Bobcats in Week 1.
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The Ducks enter Week 2 as 28.5-point favorites over Oklahoma State, which says a lot about where the Cowboys currently are as a program. Coming off a year in which they won just three games and missed the bowl season, Oklahoma State has reloaded with transfers and is looking to reset going into 2025.
The first week of the year provided a needed win, but there were a couple of losses sprinkled in there as well. Mainly, on the defensive side of the ball, there are now questions about whether or not defender Wendell Gregory will be able to play after he was arrested over the weekend for alleged larceny.
So, will the Pokes be able to hold up against Oregon and slow down the Ducks? Let’s dive in and take a look.
There’s a good mix of incoming transfers and returning players on the defensive line for Oklahoma State, but talent is certainly there. Up front, UTEP transfer Kyran Duhon is a name to know after putting together an All-Conference USA season as a freshman in 2024. At linebacker, it’s a new-look unit led by Akron transfer Bryan McCoy Jr., and the secondary seeing many new faces in 2025.
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A year ago, Oklahoma State had one of the worst defenses in the nation, giving up 35.6 points per game and 215 rushing yards per game. It may seem harsh to say that the Cowboys don’t do much well on defense, but until we see otherwise, it’s difficult to say that they’re going to pose a major threat in any area.
Who are the top players to know about?
EDGE Kyran Duhon
In his freshman season at UTEP, Duhon had seven sacks and was an All-Conference player, rated by PFF as the third-best true freshman EDGE rusher in the nation. Duhon didn’t play in the Week 1 game despite being dressed down and going through warmups, but if he does play against Oregon, it’s a name to know.
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LB Byron McCoy Jr.
McCoy Jr. led all Oklahoma State tacklers in Week 1 against UT Martin with 14, and he has high expectations after being named to the Butkus Award Watch List earlier this summer.
Are the Oregon Ducks built to score on Oklahoma State?
There aren’t many defenses in the nation that will be able to hold Oregon’s offense down this season, and Oklahoma State certainly isn’t one of them. While it was a different team and a different roster, the Cowboys’ inability to stop anyone a year ago, especially on the ground, portends to what could be an ugly affair on Saturday in Eugene. It’s not so much how many points Oregon will score, but more how many they want to score.
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What should we expect on Saturday?
The Ducks are favored to win by 28.5 points on Saturday, and if they want to cover the spread, they can. If they want to win by 40, I think they can do it. The only thing keeping this thing respectable, in my opinion, is Oregon’s decision on when to pull the starters from the game, and after the bulletin board material that Mike Gundy gave Dan Lanning earlier this week, I think it may be later in the contest than previously planned.
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This article originally appeared on Ducks Wire: What the Oregon Ducks should expect from Oklahoma State’s defense
