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10 Thoughts on Oklahoma State’s 59-0 Victory Against Murray State

10 takeaways from a dominant evening in BPS for the Pokes.

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STILLWATER — The Cowboys were expected to dominate, and that’s what they did.

Oklahoma State took it to lowly Murray State on Saturday in Boone Pickens Stadium, beating the Racers 59-0. Here are 10 thoughts on the game.

1. The Bow Show

Murray State learned why Justin Bowick was on The Athletic’s “Freak List” in the preseason.

He’s 6-foot-5 and apparently among the fastest players on what is a fast OSU team. Bowick will be an issue for Power Five defensive backs. Now imagine being an FCS defensive back standing across from him.

Tyler made note in The Final Draw this week that Bowick was due for a breakout, and that came against the Racers. He caught nine passes for 178 yards and two touchdowns — and all of that came in the first half.

He’s bigger than you, he’s faster than you and he has a potential first-round pick throwing him the ball.

2. Mestemaker Was Uber-Efficient

OSU’s star quarterback got to play only one second-half drive, but it was enough to put a bow on a beautiful stat line.

In just over two quarters, Drew Mestemaker was 20-for-22 for 324 yards, five touchdowns and no interceptions. His only blunder was a second-quarter fumble deep in Murray State territory, but aside from that, you can’t ask for much more.

Sure, it was Murray State. And sure, OSU’s O-line gave him a lot of time because of the level of competition, but you’d rather that than him completing 60% of his passes for 250 yards, three TDs and a pick.

He had a couple of nice touch passes, including a 34-yard gain to Miles Coleman in the first quarter, where Mestemaker layered the ball over a few defenders and dropped it in a bucket to Coleman.

Mestemaker’s best ball was probably his touchdown to Wyatt Young in the first quarter. Young ran a fade from the slot, and Mestemaker threw a perfect ball that Young brought in with one hand.

After what was an admittedly rough game in Tulsa, Mestemaker has gone 46-for-65 (71%) for 641 yards and seven touchdowns while running for another 103 yards and a score.

Through three games, Mestemaker has thrown for more touchdowns this season (8) than OSU did all of last season (7).

3. Broderick Vehrs, QB2

Freshman Broderick Vehrs and UMass/Yale transfer Grant Jordan have shared an “OR” on the OSU depth chart, but when given the opportunity to get one on the field, Morris went with his youngster.

It makes sense. Most notably, Vehrs has more years to play, so getting him experience is only a good thing. And then also, basically anyone who has seen Vehrs for an extended period of time in practice has talked him up.

In his first bit of college action, Vehrs went 6-for-6 for 37 yards and a touchdown to Carson Kolb.

Should Vehrs develop into a good college quarterback, it’d be another example of Morris finding value where few others are looking.

Vehrs was committed to Morris and this staff at North Texas over an offer from Northern Arizona. Out of Basha High School (AZ), Vehrs was the No. 1,758 player in the 247Sports Composite ranking for his class, which listed him as the No. 97 QB in the cycle.

4. What Did We Learn about RB2?

With the lopsided score, we got a longer look at OSU running backs not named Caleb Hawkins.

Here’s how everyone else looked:

Ayo Adeyi — 7 carries, 67 yards
Tre Page III — 7 carries, 58 yards, 1 TD
KD Jones — 7 carries, 54 yards, 1 TD
William Mason — 5 carries, 46 yards

In conclusion, everyone looked good.

Adeyi again got RB2 duties, being the first guy off the bench. Five of his carries came in the first half. Page had one first-half run, with the rest of the group all playing in the second half.

Although he got the fewest carries, Morris was super complimentary of Mason after the game, saying he might’ve earned some more playing time based on his performance.

Mason is a 5-foot-11, 226-pound senior transfer from UCO. In 10 games with the Bronchos last season, Mason had 124 carries, 735 rushing yards and five rushing touchdowns.

It sounds like Jones is still developing, but those other three could continue to battle behind the Cowboys’ bell cow.

5. Another Salty Day for Skyler Cassity’s Defense

After two years of poor offense, it’s hard to not get caught up in all the gaudy offensive numbers, but in his third games as the Cowboys’ defensive coordinator, Skyler Cassity pitched a shutout.

Sure, it was against a bad FCS team.

The Cowboys were again elite on the money downs, holding the Racers to 0-for-12 on third down and 1-for-2 on fourth.

Through three games — against a G6, Big Ten and FCS team — the Cowboys have held opponents to just 6-for-37 (16%) on third down. That’s frankly a little ridiculous.

A key to a good third-down defense is first down. Murray State averaged 5.2 yards on first down Saturday. The average distance for third downs was 6.5 yards, as the Racers were 0-for-3 on 3rd-and-9 or longer and 0-for-4 on 3rd-and-4 or shorter.

Murray worked the quick passing game in order to limit OSU’s pass rush, but the Cowboys still made a quartet of tackles behind the line of scrimmage, and 6-foot-3, 284-pound Malik Charles had an interception in the second half that led to just about the entire team celebrating with the OSU hockey team in an on-field suite and getting a penalty Morris wasn’t too fond of.

6. Terrence Lewis Is Going to Be Really Good

With all the newness of OSU’s roster, it’s easy to forget that Terrence Lewis is only a true sophomore. With the five-for-five eligibility model, he could still play college football for three seasons after this year.

The 5-foot-11, 170-pound North Texas transfer caught two passes Saturday night for 49 yards and his first TD as a Cowboy.

The Cowboys’ receiving room appears stacked with Bowick, Young, Chris Barnes (who didn’t play Saturday) and Miles Coleman, but Lewis holds his own when he’s out there with that group.

In his first three games at OSU, Lewis has caught 10 balls for 106 yards and that score.

7. Have A Day, Mo Horn

Texas Tech transfer corner Mo Horn had three tackles for loss in 32 career games entering Saturday. He matched that total against Murray State in two quarters.

And they were forceful tackles. The first saw Horn’s own helmet fly off. Then he had another in the second that resembled a Bill Goldberg spear (or Roman Reigns if you’re a bit younger/or Edge if you’re somewhere in the middle).

I’m not sure if it was a scout thing that Murray State kept throwing screens to Horn’s side, but, like most things the Racers tried Saturday, it didn’t work.

He also had a nice pass breakup on a third down in the second quarter.

8. The Tight End Position Has Returned

Carson Kolb caught his second touchdown pass in as many weeks on Saturday, and with those, he becomes the first OSU tight end to have multiple touchdown catches in a season since Jelani Woods in 2018.

It’s been oft wondered if the tight end position would look different under Morris after many felt the position was underutilized by Mike Gundy, and while OSU tight ends haven’t been putting up ridiculous numbers by any means, it does certainly look like they’re a more threatening part of the Cowboy offense.

9. Coleman in the Return Game

Miles Coleman is a borderline psychopath catching some punts, but he proved Saturday that if he has some room, he’ll make you pay for it.

Along with his three catches for 53 yards and a touchdown, Coleman returned five punts for 115 yards, with returns of 55 yards and 25 yards.

It feels like there will be a point sometime this season where he’ll house one of those, and a special teams touchdown drastically increases a team’s chance of victory.

10. The Cowboys Left No Doubt

Some of these FCS games have been a little underwhelming in recent seasons, but a 59-0 win — covering a 55.5-point spread — is a show of dominance.

The most points OSU scored in a game last season was 27. The Cowboys more than doubled that Saturday.

The most yards OSU had in a game last season was 448. The Cowboys had 662 Saturday.

The last time OSU scored at least 59 points in a game was when the Cowboys hung 63 on Arkansas-Pine Bluff in 2022. The last time they had at least 662 yards of total offense was when they had 682 against TCU in 2021.

Domination.

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