Mike Gundy Discusses What’s Important for Zane Flores as the QB Heads into His First Start

STILLWATER — The last football game Zane Flores started was back on Nov. 21, 2022 and happened in a Big Ten stadium.

That was the final game of Flores’ high school career, where he led the Gretna Dragons into a state title game against Omaha Westside at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Nebraska. Flores’ squad lost that contest 43-41, but he threw for 414 yards and three touchdowns while running for another 52 yards and a score.

After 1,029 days, Flores will lead a different team into a different Big Ten stadium when his Oklahoma State squad travels to Eugene for a battle with the Ducks.

“He needs a good practice this week, and our coaches need to put him in a good position,” OSU coach Mike Gundy said Monday. “Need to give him things that — I guess what he does best. And he needs to go play and be aggressive, not look over his shoulder. He needs to go out and do what he’s done all of his life, play quarterback. Go out and play hard and have fun and compete, and our coaches need to put him in a good position.”

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After two seasons biding his time (and nursing an injury) on OSU’s roster, Flores entered this season in a battle with TCU transfer Hauss Hejny for the Cowboys’ starting spot. The two shared an “OR” on the Cowboys’ initial depth chart before news broke that Hejny would start the season opener against UT-Martin.

Then we all know what happened. Hejny broke his foot in the first quarter, and Flores played the final three, finishing his first action at the college level 13-for-20 with 136 passing yards to go with eight yards on the ground.

That’s all the experience that Flores, a redshirt freshman after receiving a medical hardship waiver for last season, will carry with him to Autzen Stadium on Saturday when the Cowboys play a top 10 Oregon team that beat Montana State 59-13.

That’s a lot for a young quarterback, but Gundy noted Flores’ calm demeanor Monday, something that has also stood out to one of the OSU receivers.

“That’s one thing about Zane, he’s so level-headed,” Terrill Davis said. “He’s a great leader and you can just tell in practice. Like, he goes out there and does the job. He leads the team well. So, we’re excited to have Zane.”

A subplot to the Hejny injury and Flores’ emergence is what would happen if Flores went down.

OSU’s depth at quarterback thinned out this offseason when Garret Rangel and Maealiuaki Smith transferred out from the Cowboys’ position battle. That led to OSU taking two true freshmen in Banks Bowen and Mason Schubert.

Gundy said Bowen would work with the twos this week. A 6-foot-3, 210-pound quarterback from Lawrence, Kansas, Bowen is the son of OSU assistant coach Clint Bowen. Banks threw for 4,144 yards and 36 touchdowns as a high schooler while running for another 2,109 yards and 27 scores. He signed with Tulsa and even took part in the Golden Hurricane’s spring practice schedule before hopping in the portal and coming to OSU this summer.

OSU was already inexperienced at quarterback, but if Flores went down, the Cowboys would be down to two guys fresh out of high school. With that being said, Gundy said Monday that they can’t play hesitantly in hopes of avoiding another injury at quarterback.

“We’re not gonna go up there scared,” Gundy said. “And I appreciate and understand the question because it’s come up probably 6,000 times in the last 48 hours, so I understand that, but we’ve gotta go play football. I don’t believe in protecting and trying to limit certain things based on what could happen. Injuries happen. The way injuries happen now are sometimes crazy. Like, how did he get hurt? We didn’t even see this. And then you watch guys get hit, and hit, and hit, and hit, and they just keep getting up. We need to go play football.”