Corvallis, OR – In the night cap of our Oregon, FBS Double-Header, we traveled to Corvallis to watch the Cal-Berkeley Bears open against the Oregon State Beavers at Reser Stadium. Of special interest to us, we wanted to observe OSU’s QB Maalik Murphy. Last season, we saw him quarterback Duke to three wins. Originally transferring from Texas to Duke, Murphy possessed at reputation for being a ‘big arm” QB. Despite the yards and success, we never noted the big arm that many tout him for. He primarily threw short out passes to receivers. He rarely launched accurate, long balls. We looked forward to seeing if his skills under a new staff and new program would allow him to do so. Based on last season’s seven TD passes and 11 INTs achieved by OSU QBs, the Beavers sought improvement in this area.
Cal-Berkeley Frosh QB impressed us more
The Golden Bears featured eight new transfers starting on offense. In particular, Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele surprised us at starting QB moving in ahead of Ohio State transfer Devin Brown. The lefty looked polished and calm for a first-time starter. Cal-Berkeley’s first possession got extended after a fourth down punt by a penalty. At 11:23 into the game, he connected with TE Mason Mini for a nine-yard TD pass. Murphy and company lost five yards on their first series to punt from the 20. Sagapolutele started his team from his 13. He finished his second drive with another TD pass. This time he connected with WR Trond Grizzell for a 32-yard score. Oregon State’s next series turned the ball over on downs at Cal-Berkeley’s 38.
Murphy hits the bench in second period
The Beavers finally put up three points with 9:32 in the second with Caleb Ojeda’s 52-yard FG. Later, a pass break-up forced Cal-Berkeley to punt from the 50. It put OSU back on their 10-yard line. Murphy remained on the bench while Gabarri Johnson stepped in. Beaver HC Trent Bray may have been getting Murphy to settle in, or maybe he wanted to see what his other transfer QB could do. Wasn’t much. Murphy returned to play in the next series. However, a fumble by TE Bryce Caufield turned the ball over to Cal-Berkeley at their 41. Following a time-out with 0:01 remaining in the half, Abram Murray booted a 49-yard FG. The Bears took the lead into halftime, 17-3.
Waiting for the Big Arm to be displayed
Oregon State lost eight yards on their opening possession in the third and punted from the 18. Cal-Berkeley took over at the Beaver’s 40. Sagapolutele connected with wide open TE Landon Morris on the left side for a three-yard TD pass. Trailing 24-3, we waited to see OSU let Murphy open up and throw the long ball to get back into this game. From the 16, he finally did – too far and offline for an incomplete pass. Not even close to his intended receiver, Trent Walker. The Beavers settled into a short passing game – six yards, seven, eleven, five and four to get to the 49. Next, two catch-and-runs of 19 and 29 yards put them at the Cal-Berkeley three. Anthony Hankerson ran it in for a two-yard TD. A conversion for two points failed. The Golden Bears led, 24-9, heading into the final period. With 0:08 left in the quarter, they punted the ball back to the Beavers.
Beavers go out with a whimper, not a bang
Cal’s punt started the Beavers from their one-yard line. Two runs and three short passes got them out to the 20. It was time to put that Big Arm to work with just over 12 minutes to play. Murphy looked for a receiver down field. However, CB Hezekiah Masses jumped his pass and returned the ball 41 yards to the OSU 2. One play later, Brandon High, Jr took it in for the Cal-Berkeley score. The game was basically over. On his ensuing possession, Murphy led the Beavers on a 78-yard scoring drive with him carrying the ball over from three. Only a 28-yard pass and a roughing penalty on the play to get to the eight can be considered as anything close to a “big arm.” Another two-point conversion failed. Cal-Berkeley closed the evening’s score with Chase Meyer’s 23-yard field goal to win, 34-15.
Big Arm overhyped
Maalik Murphy does not possess the big arm others have hyped. Oregon State brought him in to erase the paltry seven TD/11 INT team QB stat from a year ago. In his Beaver debut, he started this season with 0 TDs and one INT. Maybe Johnson or Devin Brown will get more reps in upcoming games. We envision Murphy leaving OSU after this season for his fourth program. He will probably extend his collegiate career as long as he can because he does not have the arm strength nor accuracy to perform at the professional level. If he can win more games collegiately, it will be based on managing a short passing game strategy with a balanced running attack and a defense that can hold the opponents to low scores. This doesn’t look achievable at OSU this year based on what we witnessed Saturday night.
Next for WEEK 2
Oregon State hosts Fresno State who will be joining them in the new PAC-12(?) or whatever they will call the realigned conference in 2026. The Bulldogs (1-1) defeated Georgia Southern last Saturday, 42-14. Cal-Berkeley will host FCS Texas Southern of the SWAC who lost to Prairie View, 22-21. Golden Bear QB Sagapolutele impressed completing 20 of 30 passes for 234 yards and three TDS. No interceptions. Trond Grizzell caught five passes for 83 yards and a score. Sagapolutele could be the key to Golden Bear success this season.
We at collegefootballfan.com step back down to the top of the FCS and a game close to home. We anticipate it being one-sided. No. 1 North Dakota State (1-0) visits Tennessee State (1-0) in Nashville’s Nissan Stadium. NDSU defeated The Citadel in their opener, 38-0. The Bison have dominated FCS football for years. We expect to see them in Nashville again later this season when the championship battle will take place at First Bank Stadium, refurbished home of Vanderbilt Commodore football. Tennessee State defeated Norh Carolina A&T in their opener, 24-21. Last season, NDSU defeated TSU in Fargo, ND, 56-3. We look forward to seeing the TSU Tigers Marching Band!
Collegefootballfan.com milestones
At the conclusion of this past weekend, we have now attended games at 100 of 136 FBS stadiums. The state of Oregon hosted both games to become our 42nd that we have seen a game played in. Reser Stadium turned out to be a good, clean comfortable venue to watch a game in. Good concessions and we found parking available at a local Marriage Counseling facility. That’s a first for us. We will continue to build on these numbers during the course of our 2025 season.
Check out our tales as we move forward into 46th season!
Click on the title of my book about this life-long adventure: Fifty Years of Tailgate Tales: The Good, the Fun, and the Ugly on Amazon.com. Read the reviews on the book page and get your copy today! If you’re trying to follow NILs and transfer portals, read what we predicted in 2023 and more. You’ll see we know what we’re talking about. In addition, we offered solutions to issues occurring that we anticipated when we wrote this book. Based on our game story above, this fun, unique life-long Journey continues. Catch up on the last 45 years, and then please submit a review. We hope you will get a kick out of our great adventure having seen every (well 134) FBS team play over the years! Two newest to be added later this season.
Edited by and photos taken by Steve Koreivo – Member of Football Writers Association of America and Author of Fifty Years of Tailgate Tales: The Good, the Fun and the Ugly.
