The Oklahoma State Cowboys are back in the same spot they were a week ago: trying to turn a Saturday into a bowl-clinching moment.
This time, the opponent is Kansas State, and the setup looks different in a few important ways. Oklahoma State enters at 5-3 overall and 3-2 in Big 12 play after a 51-49 loss to Iowa State that knocked the Cowboys out of the realistic Big 12 Championship Game picture. Kansas State is 4-4 and 1-4, and it will be without quarterback Avery Johnson as it tries to reach bowl eligibility under first-year coach and program legend Collin Klein.
Head coach Eric Morris spent Tuesday breaking down the five biggest issues his team has to clean up before Saturday, and the first one is hard to ignore: the defense has to be better after the Iowa State collapse.
Oklahoma State gave up nearly 600 yards and 51 points in that game, a night filled with missed tackles, busted assignments and mental mistakes. Morris didn’t sugarcoat it.
“We did a poor job tackling,” Morris said. “You know, took some poor angles. They beat us at the point of attack a couple different times.”
Morris said defensive Skyler Cassity is the man tasked with helping straighten things out, though he made clear this isn’t about ripping up the whole plan. The fixes are more about alignment, personnel and diagnosis than scheme. And, of course, the tackling has to improve.
There’s some evidence the Cowboys can respond. They allowed 505 yards and 35 points to Houston, then cut that to 399 yards and 24 points against Colorado the next week.
But the road numbers are still a problem. Oklahoma State has given up 500 or more yards in each of its last two Big 12 road games, and West Virginia piled up 467 in the Big 12 road opener.
Special teams is another area that has to settle down fast. Against Iowa State, the Cowboys failed to recover a surprise onside kick, Bobby Deal Jr. muffed a punt and Sam Keltner missed a field goal. Those three plays cost Oklahoma State 13 points, and Morris said it was the first bad special teams game of the season.
“I thought they [Iowa State] did a great job executing the surprise onside kick,” Morris said. “We’ve got to get that fixed on our side of things, and it’s something we practice. But at the end of the day, we didn't go out there and execute it.”
He also said the kickoff team wasn’t lined up the way the staff wanted on the play. The goal now is a quiet, mistake-free day in that phase - the kind Morris called “boring.”
Offensively, the Cowboys showed more punch in the red zone than they had in a while. They went 4-for-4 and scored touchdowns on every trip, with 28 of their 49 points coming that way. Oklahoma State is No. 25 nationally in red-zone scoring, but Morris said this game stood out because the Cowboys finished every chance they got.
“We were kind of in that 10-yard-line in, and I thought Drew [Mestemaker] was able to throw some really good accurate passes to get us in [the end zone] down there, and then Caleb [Hawkins] was able to punch us in on a good, tough run when we got to the 1-yard line. I mean, I thought we were efficient and did a nice job of getting the ball in the end zone.”
Mestemaker had one of his best outings of the season against Iowa State, throwing five touchdown passes for the first time this year. He also gave the ball away late on a bad read, according to Morris, before bouncing back to lead a go-ahead touchdown drive. This week, his ability to handle Kansas State’s coverage changes - from man to zone and back again - will matter.
“We're going to have to do a good job at taking the back on some things and some checkdowns and things of that nature,” Morris said.
The final issue is one Morris made sure not to gloss over: Wyatt Young’s late taunting penalty. Young scored the go-ahead touchdown late against Iowa State, then drew a selfish penalty on the kickoff that cost Oklahoma State 15 yards. Morris said the field-position swing ended up costing the Cowboys 12 yards, and the Cyclones later used that position to help set up the game-winning field goal.
Young apologized to fans publicly, texted Morris, and came into his coach’s office early to address the team. Morris said the receiver has responded the right way in practice.
“(I got) the longest text from him afterwards. He showed up early in my office & wanted to address the team... He's a great kid who made a mistake and he'll learn and grow from it.”
Morris added, “He's a great kid that made a mistake, and he'll learn from it and he'll grow from it,” and said, “Wyatt practices like he plays, so I mean, he's practiced extremely hard these last two days.”
If Young turns that frustration into production, Saturday could give Oklahoma State exactly the kind of response it needs.
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Oklahoma State May Have To Reshape Its Defense At Worst Time
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Kansas State will be in a different quarterback situation again, with Avery Johnson still unavailable and Blake Barnett lined up to start. For Oklahoma State, that adds another layer to a road test that already carries some weight, because this is the sort of game that can shape how the rest of the season is viewed if the Cowboys handle it well. [Read more 🡒]
Oklahoma State Fans Got Another Reminder To Watch Former Pokes Sundays
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And Warren was hardly alone. Chuba Hubbard turned in another productive outing, while Ollie Gordon II, Malcolm Rodriguez, Justice Hill and Tylan Wallace all found ways to contribute for their teams across the league. For Oklahoma State fans, it was the kind of weekend that reinforces how much NFL interest still runs through Stillwater, even if the biggest individual numbers belonged to one familiar name. [Read more 🡒]