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Oregon Ducks' week 1 opponent ranked No. 2 in preseason FCS top 25

In just a few short weeks, the Oregon Ducks will soar into battle for their first action of the 2025 season. The upcoming season-long campaign could be their most challenging under head coach Dan Lanning as they attempt to navigate losing a variety of players to the NFL Draft and the transfer portal. 

Thankfully, the Ducks have also acquired a sizeable group of players to replace the departed talent. The reigning Big Ten champions have a favorable schedule this season, but they will get a nice test in their first game. 

Oregon will face off against the Montana State Bobcats, who are soaring up the rankings after a wildly impressive 15-1 record last year. They came in at No. 2 on the preseason list of the top 25 FCS teams. 

It’s been an impressive run to respectability for the Bobcats as they land just behind the team that beat them in the FCS Championship Game, the North Dakota State Bison. 

The Ducks are clearly the better team, but Montana State is no pushover. If Oregon shows up to the game overconfident and underprepared, they could find themselves in an unexpected battle to kick off the season.

Oregon football faces highly-ranked opponent in week 1

Dennis Erickson played QB for Montana State and won three conference championships.

OK I am being paranoid but I see this as a trap game to start off the season. Our DUCKS were not prepared for the last game of last season and it showed. The Bobcats are preseason ranked #2 in the FCS and they will have a chip on their shoulder with nothing to lose. We had a similar set up just a few years ago against North Dakota State but Covid managed to intervene and cancel the game. Oregon favored by 25 points. Seems high to me. Would sure like to see Dante Moore shine in game one. GO DUCKS!

Because we stumbled out of the gate against Idaho last year...I'd like to think we'll be mentally ready this time.

MSU has a run-heavy offense. Their FCS Walter Payton Award winning QB, Tommy Mellott, has graduated. He only averaged about 180 yard passing last season, but he helped them average 300 yards rushing/game with his legs. Their new QB is a transfer from Stanford and he has some experience, but he looks to be more of a threat with his legs than his arm. They do bring back a 1000 yard rusher, but their top RB from last season transferred to New Mexico. I didn’t see any real game-breaking WR’s either.

Their defense only gave up 300 yards/game, but gave up 400 to NDSU in the championship game.

They have a few other transfers who are described in this article.

https://msubobcats.com/news/2025/6/3/bobcats-add-five-new-players-to-football-program.aspx?path=bobcat_club

4 hours ago, Santa Rosa Duck said:

Oregon favored by 25 points. Seems high to me. Would sure like to see Dante Moore shine in game one. GO DUCKS!

For Oregon to win by 25+ would require a super dominant game for the Ducks.

I think 21 is reasonable as I think the Ducks win by three scores but I'm not sure the team would be insync enough to win by 25+.

This is probably the toughest game we have before Penn State.

They’ll also be missing Connor Moore, their 2024 all-conference offensive lineman who portaled to Michigan State.

I agree with Mr. Fishduck that they won't be asleep at the wheel after Idaho last year. Hard to believe that they will lose this game at home. My only concern is whether our cast of newcomers will have jelled enough by game 1 to keep this one out of the white knuckle category.

Edited Thursday at 05:15 AM4 days by Nevada Dawg

On 8/5/2025 at 9:39 PM, David Marsh said:

For Oregon to win by 25+ would require a super dominant game for the Ducks.

I think 21 is reasonable as I think the Ducks win by three scores but I'm not sure the team would be insync enough to win by 25+.

This is probably the toughest game we have before Penn State.

I hope you are right, DM. Whenever Mike Gundy has had a down season, and 2024 was an unexpected down season for a team many favored to win the B12 (with Gundy $1 million lighter in the wallet for the no conference wins flame out), OK State has bounced back.

The Cowboys will have a roster superior to that of Montana State, Northwestern, and Beavis. 36 players transferred out of Stillwater, and 36 players transferred in. Both coordinators are new hires. OK St will be fired up to take down a highly ranked Big Ten team. However, most 'experts' predict the Cowboys to go under 5.5.

How much of a difference will $1.5 million QB Malik Murphy, Texas, to Duke, to Beavis, and QB Preston Stone, SMU to Northwestern, make? Again, both rosters will be superior to FCS Montana State.

Oregon did not gel out of the gate in 2024, and this team returns fewer starters. And it won't be easy to keep a White Out out of the minds of young players.

Bob Them Cats!

I think the OL dictates whether they cover the spread.

There may be some issues, but they should be on the field long enough to get them figured out. I think the Ducks could run 75% of the time and win this game, but our QB needs the passing reps.

3 hours ago, Jon Joseph said:

I hope you are right, DM. Whenever Mike Gundy has had a down season, and 2024 was an unexpected down season for a team many favored to win the B12 (with Gundy $1 million lighter in the wallet for the no conference wins flame out), OK State has bounced back.

That’s a point worth remembering. In 20 years with the Cowboys, Mike Grundy has had 2 losing seasons, and bounced back the next year from single digits in the W column to double digits 5 times. For that reason, I’m not listening to the odds makers.

Ducks open as a 25.5 favorite

Oregon Ducks open as massive favorites in Week 1 vs. Montana State