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Looking Back at the Best Catches of Brennan Presley’s Career (So Far)

Looking at some of the most fun plays from Presley’s career thus far.

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1 year ago

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[Devin Wilber/PFB]

No one has caught more passes in a Cowboy uniform than a 5-foot-8 kid from Bixby.

Brennan Presley broke Rashaun Woods’ longstanding career catches record in the Cowboys’ game against TCU this past weekend. Presley is up to 297 catches in his career with two games to add a little cushion to his tally.

“Hearing it right now, it doesn’t really, I guess, register what it means,” said Presley after the TCU game. “We still have like two games left, so I’m kind of really still focused on what can we do these next two games to go out there and get wins. I’m still in that mindset of not really trying to think about the past and stuff like that because you gotta think about every single day of what you have to do. Everything I’ve done to get me into this position, I can’t stop right now just because of what I did or what I’ve done. Gotta keep going.

“It’s definitely an honor. I don’t want to downplay that at all, but it’s something that I’ll probably think more about after the season when I kind of have time to relax and think about it.”

That’s probably the type of mindset that led Presley to such a record. But with it being a bye week, we thought it would be fun to look at some of the best catches of Presley’s career to this point after such a monumental record.

First Catch: Bedlam 2020

Presley’s first catch came in the seventh game of his true freshman season. Funnily enough, Presley scored a touchdown the week before his first catch — taking a handoff nine yards for a rushing touchdown against Kansas State.

The 2020 Bedlam tilt isn’t one OSU fans will remember fondly — especially among the four Bedlam games Presley played in. But in the fourth quarter, Spencer Sanders rolled to his left before tossing a ball to Presley on that side of the field. It might’ve been easier for Sanders to run at that point considering the two weren’t all that far from each other when the pass was thrown. But alas, it was catch No. 1 in what turned out to be the all-time leading receiver’s career. It went for seven yards.

First Receiving Touchdown and Big Game: Miami 2020

That catch in Bedlam was the only one Presley had in the regular season of his true freshman campaign. But in the Cheez-It Bowl against Miami, Presley showed how bright his future would be.

Presley had six catches for 118 yards and three touchdowns against the Hurricanes.

His first career touchdown came on a 4th-and-6 play on OSU’s opening drive. Again, Sanders rolled to his left, but this time instead of Presley being a few feet in front of him, he was about 25 yards down field. Sanders launched the ball in Presley’s direction. Presley had to come back to it, and made a grab that took a ton of focus. Presley took to the sky and had a Miami defender wrapped around him at full extension. But Presley held on and as the two swung around, he stuck the ball out to cross the goal line.

His first touchdown might’ve showed how good Presley, despite his height, is at going up in the air and making a play. His second touchdown showed just how much of a menace he is when in the open field.

Sanders threw Presley a ball that should’ve gone for about an eight-yard gain, but after making the grab, Presley darted between a pair of Hurricane defenders toward the middle of the field. He then took a hard jab step back up the field that sent a Miami defensive back turning around grasping at air. The Miami contingent of defenders finally made contact with Presley about the 2-yard line, but he had too much momentum by that point and pinballed off a few into the end zone. What started as a nice eight-yard play turned into a 32-yard touchdown.

TD No. 3 came in the fourth quarter. It was his simplest of the day, catching a 16-yard pass over the middle. Here are the full highlights of Presley’s coming out party.

Tough Catch: Kansas State 2021

After putting the nation on notice against the Hurricanes, Presley was a much bigger part of the Cowboys’ offense as a sophomore in 2021 with veteran receivers like Tylan Wallace and Dillon Stoner gone to the NFL.

Presley entered the Cowboys’ Big 12 opener against Kansas State with nine catches for 125 yards, but Presley didn’t find paydirt in the nonconference. It didn’t take him long to score in conference play, though.

With OSU on K-State’s 20-yard line, Presley caught a ball from Spencer Sanders over the middle. A K-State defensive back made contact with Presley about the 2-yard line. Presley spun away from it only to get popped in the back about the 1-yard line. But Presley just kept spinning. He stayed on his feet and staggered back momentarily before pushing past a defender and rolling over another to get into the end zone.

Throughout his career, Presley has made tough catches, been hit hard and popped right back up. This was one of the first examples of that toughness with how he was able to stay on his feet and find a way into the end zone.

Best Catch: Iowa State 2021

The 2021 Cowboys suffered just one loss in the regular season, and it was in this game. But given the loss wasn’t enough to keep the Cowboys out of the Big 12 title game, this game might be more remembered at this point for this catch.

Presley already had a five-yard touchdown catch in the first quarter of this game, but his touchdown going into halftime was ridiculous.

Sanders heaved a ball about 50 yards in total. There were a pair of Iowa State defenders in front of Presley as the ball was nearing the group, but Presley — all 5-foot-8 of him — went over both to come down with the ball.

Not a Catch … But

It’s hard to make an all-encompassing Presley post without including the lightning strike just for fun.

Underrated Game: Fiesta Bowl vs. Notre Dame

With how big a win besting Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl was for OSU’s program, it sort of gets lost in the lore that Presley had an excellent day.

He had 10 catches for 137 yards in the game. It was the first time in his career he’d have double-digit catches in a game, and it came in arguably the Cowboys’ biggest game to date.

Notre Dame went up 28-7 with time dwindling in the first half before Presley ripped off consecutive catches of 13 yards and 41 yards before the drive was paid off with a Tay Martin touchdown that pulled the Cowboys within two scores going into the half. On OSU’s game-tying drive in the third quarter, Sanders and Presley connected three times for 29 yards before Martin again scored.

He was a big part of that big comeback, but without finding the end zone that day, it doesn’t get talked about as much.

100-Yard Bedlam

The 2022 season wasn’t the most enjoyable year in OSU football’s history, and neither was the 2022 edition of Bedlam.

But, Presley had his best statistical game of the season that day. He brought in nine catches for 118 yards against the Sooners.

He finished his junior season with 67 catches, which was a career-high for him at the time (it has since been passed twice), but his two touchdown catches that year will end up being the fewest he’s had in a season.

Country Roads Spin Cycle

The Cowboys scored 28 points in the fourth quarter against West Virginia in 2023 — a scoring spree that Ollie Gordon deservedly gets a lot of credit for because he scored three of those touchdowns. But the other came from Presley, and it was pretty.

Presley motioned to the backfield on the opposite side of Alan Bowman from Gordon. After a fake to Gordon, Bowman flipped a ball over to Presley. It couldn’t have been a foot away from being ruled a lateral and thus a rushing attempt. Regardless, Presley avoided a defender in the backfield before spinning the daylights out of a second and bursting to the end zone to give the Cowboys a lead.

He Needs a Key to the City of Houston

The 2023 season (senior season No. 1 for Presley) was his best to date, finishing the year with 101 catches (the fourth-most in a season in program history) and 991 yards and six touchdowns. About 31% of his catches that season came in the two games the Cowboys played in Houston.

The first of those games was a 43-30 win against Houston. The Cowboys were flirting with disaster in that game, being down at halftime. But Presley caught 15 passes for 189 yards as the Cowboys pulled away late.

The Pokes returned to H Town a little more than a month later to play Texas A&M in the Texas Bowl. Presley caught 16 passes against the Aggies for another 152 yards. So for those keeping track, that’s 31 catches for 341 yards in two games played in Houston.

His numbers throughout that 2023 season were healthy throughout the year, but he really became perhaps as much of a focal point of the offense as Gordon late in the year. In eight games from September through October, Presley caught 39 passes for 318 yards and five touchdowns. In six games from November onward, Presley caught 62 passes for 673 yards and one touchdown.

That six-game stretch included five of Presley’s top-10 games in terms of receiving yards and four of his top-10 games in terms of receptions.

A Forgotten Highlight from a Down Season

Now into the current 2024 season, Presley had a big day in the Cowboys’ win against Arkansas, catching nine passes for 91 yards and a touchdown. In fact, Presley had a touchdown reception in the Pokes’ first four games of the season.

His touchdown against Utah came somewhat in garbage time when the Cowboys scored a pair of TDs late after trailing 22-3 with six minutes to play. If it wasn’t for how disappointing that game was, Presley putting this Ute defender in a blender would be talked about more.

Taking Over Late in Provo

The most fun Big 12 game OSU has played this season was the Cowboys’ heartbreaking loss in Provo, but Presley was a main reason as to why it was fun.

Presley didn’t record a catch until being the guy in the Cowboys’ go-ahead drive the melted 8:22 off the clock in the fourth quarter. The drive totaled 76 yards. Presley had 43 of those, including the go-ahead touchdown.

Putting the Team on His Back in Waco

Just because the Cowboys have had a down season doesn’t mean Presley has stopped making plays.

His 33-yard touchdown reception against Baylor a few weeks back rivaled that catch in 2021 in Ames on levels of “How the heck did he do that?”

Presley caught a quick screen pass but already had a Bear on him. Presley somehow spun out of that tackle before getting past another two diving Baylor defenders near the line of scrimmage. He then hit the jets and absorbed some contact while diving into the end zone for the score. It was part of a 15-catch, 183-yard day for Presley.

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