OSU’s Big 3 More than Live up to Offseason Hype, Put Big 12 on Notice with Dominant Showing at West Virginia

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Somewhere in the final five minutes of the game, Eric Morris got mad at one of his staffers on the sidelines.

The Cowboys were up between 14 and 17 points on then-unbeaten West Virginia, and the game looked all but done. You know the time, most coaches are at least thinking about breaking out into a grin at the very least.

“I actually got mad at one of our coaches because he said Wyatt (Young) and Caleb (Hawkins) were close to 200, maybe,” Morris said. “… I told him I didn’t care.

“I don’t care if they have 200, we’re gonna call the plays that we think are gonna help us win the game. And those guys are a big part of it. I love those guys, and I don’t think they get mad at me for having those stats today.”

Young finished with eight receptions for 192 yards and a touchdown in Oklahoma State’s 41-24 victory over the Mountaineers.

Hawkins rumbled his way to a 180-yard performance that saw him average 5.8 yards per carry and included a touchdown of his own.

As a team, the Cowboys finished with 609 yards of total offense, the most against a Big 12 opponent since 2021 and the most in a conference road game since 2018. It also marked the first time OSU put up 500-plus yards of total offense in three consecutive games since the beginning of 2019.

The best part of it for OSU fans just might be that none of these numbers mean a thing to the mastermind behind all the fireworks.

“I’m so over numbers right now,” Morris said. “… I’m so happy to walk out of this thing with a victory and get on the plane and celebrate with these guys and hopefully take a nap. But yeah, we’ve had explosive offenses for a long time.”

Been there, done that, and that attitude is exactly why Morris got the job. Speaking of which, since his announcement, three names dominated the discussion surrounding Cowboy football.

Hawkins, Young and quarterback Drew Mestemaker.

“They came from nothing, really,” Morris said. “All those guys had one offer or no offers out of high school, and they’ve earned everything that they’ve gotten.

“In this world of portal and NIL and all the cool things that they’ve earned over the course of time, they still have the mentality like they have nothing and they’re going to earn something and prove something every day.”

According to 247Sports records, Young was the only member of the trio with a scholarship offer anywhere besides UNT, which Mestemaker didn’t even get, but even the receiver had only one to a power conference school (Arizona).

All three were heroes against Oregon two weeks ago, combining for 340 yards from scrimmage (rushing and receiving) and three touchdowns (not counting passing touchdowns) in the upset of the then-No. 6 Ducks.

On Saturday night in Morgantown, West Virginia, that trio might as well have burned their tapes against Oregon up along with every couch within five miles of the stadium. They were just that good.

Not to be outdone by the other two, Mestemaker finished 20-of-27 (74%) for 389 yards and three touchdowns and one pick in a game that saw him hit 7-of-9 throws traveling at least 15 yards through the air.

Four of those throws came in a five-pass sequence that immediately followed Mestemaker’s interception, and the only pass attempt that interrupted the chain of dominance over WVU’s secondary was a 4-yard touchdown pass.

“His response was phenomenal,” Morris said. “He was great in the huddle, and I talked to him on the sideline. Sometimes quarterbacks with what we do offensively get a little bit impatient when the defense comes out and they play an umbrella defense. Where I say this is what they’re giving us, we’re going to have to commit to the run and continue to do that and get these safeties up in the fits. So, (he) handled the whole game like a professional. Like, Drew is going to play football for a long time.”

Mestemaker said the last 2-plus years with Morris helped him sense when those big-time play calls would come. Until Morris gave them, Mestemaker was content to watch his running back run all over the Mountaineers.

“At the beginning of the game they were kind of scared of our speed and playing back and giving us those light boxes,” Mestemaker said. “And you know, whenever you got a guy like Caleb, we’ll take those light boxes all day, keep running it. And then you know once they get tired of Caleb, you know running all over them and come down and start to be greedy, that’s whenever we hit them over the top.”

Which is pretty much exactly what happened. Mestemaker only had 115 passing yards in the first half, and Young’s second-half bump was even more impressive as the nearly 200-yard receiver only had three receptions for 22 yards when OSU headed into the locker room down one point.

Mestemaker, Hawkins, Young, with Morris at the controls, it all clicks together like one big puzzle. Even on a night when OSU’s other weapons were relegated to extremely efficient supporting roles, West Virginia showed it was no match for the trio that headlined UNT’s blistering offense last season.

“Wyatt has great ball skills,” Morris said. “He’s able to adjust to balls in the air as good as anybody I’ve every coached. Some of those deep posts, he does an incredible job with his body control and placing himself in front of the DB, which is hard to do 55, 60 yards down the field and be able to catch that thing.

“That’s the way this offense works.”

Good luck to the Big 12 defensive coordinators tasked with stopping it. If Saturday night is any indication, they’ll need it.