Oklahoma State may be down a key piece in the secondary when it heads to Houston on Saturday.
Mose Phillips showed up as doubtful on Wednesday night’s initial player availability report for the 6:30 p.m. matchup, putting the Cowboys in line to potentially play without one of their starting safeties. Defensive tackle Landon Dean is also listed as out, while freshman receiver Dayvon Standard is probable to make his college debut.
Phillips left this past weekend’s win over UCF with an apparent shoulder injury, and the numbers underline how important he’s been. He has started the last four games for Oklahoma State and has logged 199 defensive snaps, the second-most on the team this season. Against the Knights, though, he was limited to just 20 snaps - his fewest in an FBS game this year.
On Tuesday, head coach Mike Gundy was still cautious about where things stood.
“Mose, we’ll see this week how he develops, you know with the shoulder,” Morris said on Tuesday. “And so I don’t know on Mose yet.”
Standard’s expected debut gives Oklahoma State a new name to watch on offense. The freshman has been on the radar for a while, even before the season started, after the Cowboys added him late to their 2026 recruiting class out of Arizona. Listed at 6-foot-4, he battled through an injury earlier in camp, but Morris sounded eager to finally get him on the field.
“Standard is a guy that we were really high on early on in camp, had a little bit of an injury, so has worked his way back,” Morris said. “So, you’ll see him in the game this week.
He has a bigger, longer, 6-2.5 frame that has really good ball skills. Add a little depth there behind (Justin) Bowick, somebody that can spell him from time to time because he’s playing almost every play for us.”
Houston entered the report with more names of its own. Linebacker Jaden Yates and defensive tackle De’Marion Thomas, a former Cowboy, are both listed as out. Yates has played 226 snaps this season, the second-most among Houston linebackers, while Thomas has logged 173 snaps, also second-most on the Cougars’ interior defensive line.
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