Fresno State football has a scary problem looming this Halloween.

Oregon State visits Valley Children’s Stadium on Saturday night, armed with the fourth-highest scoring offense in the country and with the type of potent playmakers Fresno State hasn’t seen since its season-opening loss at USC.

There is Beavers quarterback Braden Atkinson, the NCAA’s passing leader.

And Oregon State receiver Jesse Legree, the nation’s leading receiver.

And don’t forget about Beavers defensive end Takari Hickle. He’s the Pac-12 sack leader.

Oregon State’s combination of a high-powered offense and an unrelenting defense might explain why Fresno State is a nearly a touchdown underdog in its own stadium.

“(We’re) playing a really good Oregon State,” said Fresno State coach Matt Entz, whose team is 4-3 overall and 1-2 in the Pac-12. “Explosive, pass-first kind of mentality. Transfer quarterback that is tearing it up, the wide receiver corps that is second to none, and playing really well defensively. …

“Analytically, when there’s explosive plays, there’s a greater opportunity to score touchdowns or come away with points in a series. We need to do a really good job of trying to keep them behind the chains, find some negative plays, and not let them get behind our secondary.”

Different Oregon State Team

This is not the same Oregon State from a year ago when Fresno State escaped with a 36-27 victory in Corvallis.

Those Bulldogs, in some ways, were lucky to win that game after getting outgained and receiving subpar quarterback play. However, they locked up the victory thanks to a go-ahead field goal with 29 seconds remaining, which was then followed by an interception returned for a touchdown in the closing moment.

This year’s Oregon State team has thrived under first-year coach JaMarcus Shephard, a former Alabama assistant head coach who has a tie to Fresno State.

Shepherd coached under former Bulldogs coach Kalen DeBoer, who is Alabama’s coach these days. The two also coached together at Washington, the program DeBoer left Fresno State for following the 2021 season.

Oregon State team (5-2, 3-0), which finished 2-10 last season, is tied for first in the Pac-12 with No. 20 Boise State (6-1, 3-0). The Beavers also have received a few votes in the Associated Press Top 25 and the AFCA Coaches Poll.

“Obviously, I know I’m a first-year head coach, but I also recognize that there was a lot of difficulty last year, both for this university and for our conference,” Shepherd told reporters this week. “So it’s fun to see our conference being highlighted in a real way so far this year, and now we’re in the process of building something new.

“I’ll tell you what: When you build something new, it takes a level of commitment. It takes a level of courage, but I also think you have to be willing to learn, grow and sometimes make some mistakes. … I think everyone in this building truly believes in what we’re doing here.”

NIL, Transfer Impacts

It also helps that Oregon State has spent an estimated $11.5 million to $14.5 million on its football roster through name-image-likeness funding, according to The NIL Standard.

By comparison, Fresno State’s NIL funding for its football team is about $6.55 million, according to The Sideline.

Oregon State not only has spent more for its players, the Beavers also have been smart in how they’ve allocated their NIL monies.

Atkinson, who a year ago was quarterbacking at Mercer University, received $1.17 million to play at Oregon State, according to The NIL standard.

He’s given the program more than its money’s worth, passing for a nation-best 2,604 yards and 24 touchdowns and an average of 372 passing yards per game.

“They have a pretty elite quarterback right now who doesn’t take a lot of sacks, who has been really cerebral in getting rid of the football, making decisions and bailing out of the pocket so he doesn’t take a sack,” Entz said. “So he can throw it away and live to play another down.

“We’ve got to be really good in scramble rules. We’ve got to do really well in keeping the quarterback in the pocket. When we do get opportunities to impact him, we need to make sure it matters.”

Developing Talent

It’s not just NIL money that’s helped turn around Oregon State.

Legree represents the amazing job the Beavers have done in recruiting and developing talent.

A 5-foot-9, 170-pound freshman, Legree leads the nation in receiving with 1,040 yards and 14 touchdowns to go along with an average of 148.6 yards per game. Last spring, he reportedly ran a 40-yard dash in 4.27 seconds.

But coming out of high school at Baltimore’s Saint Frances Academy, Legree was hardly recruited and often deemed undersized.

Saint Frances coach Messay Hailemariam said he was perplexed that several of his players were recruited and signed elsewhere while Legree was flying under the radar.

“I’m sure they want it back now,” Hailemariam told The Baltimore Banner, the nonprofit news organization that covers Baltimore and the state of Maryland. “But literally, everybody said he was too small.”

Added Entz on Legree: “They’ve been creative with how they’re going to utilize him. And then they love double moves. They’re going to try to hit you with a hitch … or a speed out and then all of a sudden, that speed out’s going to turn into an out-and-go. Or that hitch is going to turn into a hitch-and-go.

“You have to be really disciplined with your eyes, technique and fundamentals during the course of the game.”

Using NIL to Retain Talent

Then there’s the aspect of using NIL monies to keep a roster intact.

Hickle has played his whole career at Oregon State and received $627,9000 this season, according to The NIL Standard.

Hickle, a 6-foot-3 senior, tops all Pac-12 players with six sacks. He also has 37 tackles and a forced fumble.

“Takari Hickle … big-time defensive end,” Entz said. He’s a disruptor. …

“Then they jump in and out of some different fronts. They’re in what we call a wide front. They get into some field-under and over fronts. You have to defend a good defense. Not that they do a ton coverage-wise from behind it, but they’re going to give you some different pictures along the front as well.”