Jesse Legree — the nation’s most exciting freshman and a midseason CBS Sports All-America selection — announced to the world Friday from his gym in Baltimore, Md., that he will return to Oregon State for his sophomore season. Legree made this announcement and re-signing with the Beavers live on CBS Sports HQ.
Legree’s intention during the bye week was to dispel doubts about his future and the quiet whispers from the gate that had already begun as scouting departments across the country, beginning to formulate their roster-building plans for 2027, took full note of the 5-foot-9 Legree’s exploits in Corvallis: 46 receptions and 1,040 yards and a national-leading 14 touchdowns.
“I’m going to sign here with the Oregon State Beavers for the 2027 to 2028 season,” Legree said. “It’s always a childhood dream to experience signing day, and unfortunately I didn’t get to get mine last year. And to be able to get one this year for this contract is awesome.”
The signing day Legree never really had
Last December, he watched his teammates at St. Frances Academy in Baltimore sign with the likes of Alabama and Auburn. Legree was an unheralded three-star prospect with few high-profile offers and no signing day at home, at least during the school’s morning celebrations. Legree grew up as a basketball player and played defensive back his first three years of high school football.
He joked with CBS Sports in early October that he “barely knew Oregon was a state.” But new Beavers general manager Eron Hodges had seen Legree while he and new OSU coach JaMarcus Shephard were at Alabama during the 2025 season, the result of scouting and recruiting Bama signee Jireh Edwards, a teammate of Legree’s at St. Frances Academy.
“The day I got the job, Eron called me and said, ‘Hey, watch this kid now.’ And I watched him right away, knowing that Eron was going to come here and be the general manager with me,” Shephard said. “And I was like, ‘Yeah, we have to go get him. Let’s go get him.’ And we started that process the day I got the job, and so he was the first kid that I saw as a head football coach here at Oregon State, and he was the first person that I knew for sure that we wanted on our team.
“Now, if I’m just being transparent, I didn’t know for sure how good a receiver he was. You know, his highlight tape has him making a lot of comebacks. But I also watched some of his basketball stuff. You can see his quickness, his change of direction, his explosiveness, his ability to track the ball, all that. And you really hope all that translates to a receiver.”
Oregon State called late in the day on the opening day of the early signing period, long after his teammates had signed and had their moment. His high school coach, Messay Hailemariam, received a text from Hodges that said, “He has a house with us if he wants it. We want to take him.”
Hailemariam remembers interrupting her team during a movie session to break the news.
This decision is a question of loyalty
Legree has won seven consecutive Pac-12 Freshman of the Week awards. The only reason he won’t win an eighth is because the Beavers are off in Week 8. Legree leads the nation in yards (1,040) and touchdowns (14) and has been the catalyst for a prolific OSU offense that is sixth nationally in yards/play (7.32) and fifth in yards per game (527) and fourth in offense (42.7 points per game). The Beavers are 5-2 and rolling as they enter the toughest part of their Pac-12 schedule (transfer QB Braden Atkinson, who will also have a decision to make regarding his future in 2027, has been terrific).
In today’s college football, as soon as a Group of Six player starts to shine, it is assumed that he will move on to what people consider greener pastures. Conventional wisdom doubts that Oregon State can do what is necessary to keep him, but Legree is not a conventional player, and his relationship with Oregon State is not the conventional business transaction that is the order of the day in college football. They took a chance on him and he rewarded him with a commitment ceremony he never had.
For Oregon State, this is also a statement of intent. College football has forgotten Corvallis. Their own in-state rival left them for the Big Ten, and the Beavers had to pick up the pieces in the Pac-12 with Washington State. They’re rising from the ashes to build something exciting, and retaining Jesee Legree is a big boost for the project.
Gn sports
