ESPN’s FPI predicts every game for Oregon State in 2023 – Saturday Out West

ESPN’s Football Power Index (FPI) has the Oregon State Beavers pegged as favorites in 10 of their 12 regular-season games this fall.

Coach Jonathan Smith has the Beavers positioned for perhaps their best season in program history this fall. Oregon State is coming off a 10-3 campaign — the first since 2006 — that saw it beat the Ducks for just the third time in the last 15 years. The Beavs closed the year out with four straight wins, including a Vegas Bowl stomping of the Florida Gators.

Behind transfer quarterback DJ Uiagalelei and star tailback Damien Martinez, Oregon State will open the season ranked No. 18 in the AP poll — its highest preseason slot since 2001.

And the year certainly affords Oregon State the ability to get off to a hot start.

The Beavs are one of only a handful of Power Five programs that won’t face another P5 team in the nonconference portion of the schedule. They face San Jose State (0-1), UC Davis, and San Diego State before a road trip to Pullman to open league play.

FPI views a 4-0 record going into the Utah game as a very realistic possibility.

Here’s how the predictive model views the Beavers’ chance of winning in each game on the 2023 schedule:

• Sept. 3 vs. San Jose State — 82.3% chance of winning
• Sept. 9 vs. UC Davis — 96.1%
• Sept. 16 vs. San Diego State — 86.1%
• Sept. 23 at Washington State — 70.7%
• Sept. 29 vs. Utah — 40.8%
• Oct. 7 at Cal — 56.3%
• Oct. 14 vs. UCLA — 61.7%
• Oct. 28 at Arizona — 59.3%
• Nov. 4 at Colorado — 83.5%
• Nov. 11 vs. Stanford — 84.2%
• Nov. 18 vs. Washington — 54.8%
• Nov. 24 at Oregon — 31.7%