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In the months leading up to the start of fall camp, BeaversEdge.com will be counting down the Top 25 Oregon State football players on the 2024 roster.
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No. 16 Gevani McCoy
Bio
No. 7
6-foot, 181-pounds
Rs-Junior
Baldwin Hills, Calif.
Lawndale HS -> Idaho -> OSU
2023 Stats: Passed for 2,910 yards and 15 touchdowns (eight INT) and completed 65 percent of his passes - he also added 188 rushing yards and two scores.
2023 Recap / 2022 Look Back
Beginning his collegiate career at Idaho, McCoy took a redshirt season as a true freshman in 2021 before winning the job for the next two seasons.
The 6-foot, 181-pounder is coming off a pair of combined seasons ('23 & '24) with Idaho where he tallied 433-of-651 passing attempts (66%) for 5,654 yards, 43 touchdowns, and 15 interceptions. He also showcased his athleticism and versatility as a dual threat, adding 286 rushing yards and five additional touchdowns on the ground.
After leading the Vandals to a 9-4 record in 2023, McCoy was a finalist for the Walter Payton Award, which is given annually to the top offensive player in FCS. He also was named team captain and was a Big Sky All-Conference First Team selection.
During his first year as a starting quarterback in 2022, McCoy won the Jerry Rice Award, which is given to the top FCS freshman. Recent award winners include Cam Ward, Trey Lance, Shedeur Sanders, and Cooper Kupp, so McCoy is with some lofty company in that regard. He was also the 2022 Big Sky Conference Freshman of the Year...
Per PFF, McCoy was excellent in several areas with the Vandals, and we highlighted that here before his spring arrival...
2024 Outlook
After a pair of standout seasons with the Idaho Vandals, McCoy opted to seek a higher competition level and transferred to Oregon State ahead of spring practices.
In terms of experience, McCoy is the Beavers' most battle-tested option as he's coming off two consecutive seasons of being a starting QB, leading the Vandals to a 7-5 campaign in his first season and a 9-4 season a year ago.
He joined lone returnee Ben Gulbranson, and Missouri transfer Gabarri Johnson as the contenders to be the Beavers' starting quarterback during spring practices, and that competition will certainly continue into fall camp.
For McCoy, it'll be interesting to see his response in fall camp because the learning curve coming over from FCS proved to be a bit bigger than we expected.
He struggled with interceptions in the spring, and a large part of that is the timing with the receivers, which could be attributed to the FCS to FBS change. However, that's something that figures to improve with more time as he'll likely be more comfortable with everything come fall camp.
His arm strength is also something to watch as we saw him short-arm some throws, but in OSU's new quick-pass offense, it's less of a worry than in seasons past.
He had moments of flashing the potential and ability he showed at Idaho during spring practices with the Beavers, but they were just flashes as he'll need to be more consistent to be the QB for OSU that he was for the Vandals.
That's not to say that he can't still win the job, but he needs to prove a lot more in fall camp for that to be the case. Better consistency and knowledge of the offense should go a long way in the Beavers getting McCoy to play at the FBS level as he did at Idaho.
On paper, he's Oregon State's most experienced option, and arguably the best immediate fit to run offensive coordinator Ryan Gunderson's new spread-style offense with his dual-threat abilities.
Gulbranson was the most comfortable and available QB in spring, but I wouldn't be surprised to see McCoy look significantly better in fall compared to spring, thus tightening the three-man race.
However, we have him ranked just behind Gulbranson and Johnson in the BeaversEdge Top 25 as he has to prove that he can consistently run the Beavers' offense in practice with fewer mistakes. The potential is certainly there, but we need to see more of McCoy to see where he fits with this 2024 squad.
Previously
Honorable Mentions + Just Missed
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