How OSU is preparing for No. 23 Houston\u2019s 5-star QBs<\/p>\n
Published 1:37 pm Wednesday, September 2, 2026<\/p>\n
Oregon State keyed in on eliminating Cougars\u2019 quarterback-run game \u2014 no matter who\u2019s under center \u2014 ahead of week one road matchup <\/p>\n
The Oregon State Beavers<\/a> are putting a particular focus on containing the quarterback this week, according to head coach JaMarcus Shephard and defensive coordinator Mike MacIntyre. <\/p>\n Set to face No. 23 Houston in their season opener, the Beavers have made eliminating the threat of the Cougars\u2019 quarterback-run game a key point of this week\u2019s preparation \u2014 no matter who is under center. Houston, led by head coach Willie Fritz, returns former five-star recruit Conner Weigman<\/a> as the Cougars\u2019 incumbent starter at football\u2019s most talked-about position. Fritz also has freshman five-star Keisean Henderson<\/a>, the class of 2026\u2019s No. 1-overall recruit, waiting in the wings.<\/p>\n The pair of Cougars signal-callers are both dual threats, though their abilities as rushers show up differently in games. The 6-foot-3, 210-pound Weigman logged 700 yards (4.1 ypc) and 11 scores last season in his first year as Houston\u2019s starter. Although he hasn\u2019t taken a collegiate snap yet, Henderson (6-foot-5, 195 pounds) tallied 522 yards (7.1 ypc) and 10 scores as a high school senior last fall. <\/p>\n Weigman is firmly entrenched as Houston\u2019s starter this year. However, Fritz lauded Henderson as a \u201cfootball junky\u201d who\u2019s engrained himself in the Cougars\u2019 offense since he arrived at Houston in January. On Monday, Fritz said the Cougars are \u201cnot going to limit\u201d the freshman this season and he\u2019s expected to play this weekend. <\/p>\n Beavers open up scout-team quarterbacks to live tackling to prepare for Houston\u2019s rushing attack<\/p>\n Shephard said Monday that he and his staff are prepping the Beavers to handle the pair of quarterbacks in a unique way \u2014 by hitting their own. The first-year head coach said he\u2019s made Oregon State\u2019s scout-team quarterbacks \u201cpretty much live\u201d for contact this week in practice. <\/p>\n \u201cSo many plays (in fall camp) you\u2019re saying, \u2018Hey, don\u2019t touch the quarterback,\u2019\u201d Shephard said. \u201cWell, (Weigman\u2019s) not going to just be the one you have to tackle. He\u2019s going to try and run you over at times. So we\u2019ve tried to get that mindset out of our players\u2026 by having the quarterback be, pretty much, live this week.\u201d <\/p>\n Shephard added that mobile quarterbacks of either archetype \u2014 be it Weigman\u2019s downhill, bruising style or Henderson\u2019s escapability and straight-line speed \u2014 have a way of galvanizing football teams. <\/p>\n \u201cWhen (a quarterback) runs, drops their shoulder into somebody, stands up and they\u2019re excited about (that), guess what? The team usually gets excited,\u201d Shephard said. <\/p>\n It\u2019ll be up to MacIntyre and his defense<\/a> to neutralize that excitement for the Cougars. Oregon State\u2019s defensive coordinator is embarking on his first year in Corvallis, but has been calling defenses for the better part of 40 years. MacIntyre said Monday that, because there isn\u2019t fresh game-tape to evaluate, the Beavers will adapt to the schemes Houston throws at them offensively, rather than adjust to personnel. <\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ll be ready for both of them,\u201d MacIntyre said of Weigman and Henderson. \u201cI don\u2019t know how much it\u2019ll change when they do that, (or) if they\u2019ll go more open sets with (Henderson) or whatever. But we\u2019ll just have to adapt as they get out there and go, and be able to play (against them both).\u201d <\/p>\n In 2025, Oregon State was one of just a handful of teams to neutralize Weigman\u2019s legs. He scored a touchdown on the ground, but tallied -1 yard on six carries. MacIntyre said the Beavers\u2019 new staff consulted key contributors from that matchup, such as senior defensive end Takari Hickle<\/a> and senior linebacker Aiden Sullivan<\/a>, in preparation for week one. <\/p>\n \u2018Just (tackle), baby\u2019 <\/p>\n Ultimately, the Beavers\u2019 \u201cold dog\u201d defensive coordinator says he won\u2019t need new tricks to neutralize the Cougars\u2019 quarterback-run threat. It\u2019ll come down to the sport\u2019s most-basic principle \u2014 tackling in one-on-one scenarios. <\/p>\n \u201cTo be a good football team on defense, you\u2019ve got to tackle,\u201d MacIntyre said. \u201cI mean if you don\u2019t tackle, it\u2019s like being a basketball team that can\u2019t make a shot. It doesn\u2019t matter what play you run. We\u2019ve been practicing tackling relentlessly\u2026 the first guy can\u2019t just whiff. Because, if he does, the other guys can\u2019t get there in time. <\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019ve got to hit (the Cougars\u2019 ballcarriers) somehow. And our tackling is something we\u2019ve worked tremendously on. I feel like the guys are bought in to that. Now we need to go do it when the real bullets are flying.\u201d <\/p>\n Oregon State\u2019s week one matchup with No. 23 Houston kicks off at 9 a.m. (PST) at Houston\u2019s TDECU Stadium, with ESPN broadcasting the game. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"How OSU is preparing for No. 23 Houston\u2019s 5-star QBs Published 1:37 pm Wednesday, September 2, 2026 Oregon…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":424746,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57],"class_list":["post-424745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=424745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424745\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/424746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}