Final Draw: Hawkins Can Do It All, Hammond Is Here to Save the TE Room and Competition at LT

STILLWATER — The Cowboys used their best half of football yet to demolish a scrappy Colorado team on Saturday. With the win, Oklahoma State retained control of its destiny in the Big 12. Other teams, including Baylor, which is now on a midseason coaching search (been there), can’t say the same.

Texas Tech still looms as the biggest hurdle, but Oklahoma State now hits the road with injuries starting to pile up.

Today’s Final Draw will cover:

— Oklahoma State appears to be holding an open competition at left tackle. Who won on Saturday?
— It sounds like starting tight end Carson Kolb could miss time after appearing on crutches in the fourth quarter. Oscar Hammond finally got going in the last two games. What does he bring to the offense?
— Things are getting thin quickly at safety, can OSU weather the storm on the back end?

But first, running back Caleb Hawkins has caught 12-of-15 targets for 197 yards and a touchdown in the last two games.

Through the first five games, Hawkins only saw 17 targets, so he’s seen a huge uptick in the passing game.

Has Oklahoma State’s New WR3 Been Here the Whole Time?

Hawkins’ usage as a receiver was a change, but not an unprecedented one. He saw seven targets in the loss to Tulsa, resulting in a six-catch, 29-yard showing.

He also caught 8-of-9 targets for 90 yards against UTSA last season. The very next week, Hawkins scored two receiving touchdowns against Charlotte after hauling in 4-of-5 targets for 39 yards.

Despite playing six more games in 2025, Hawkins never saw more than three targets at a time.

Caleb Hawkins with 5+ targets

As you can see based on the average depth of target numbers (ADOT), most of Hawkins’ big pass-catching performances have come running screens and similar concepts close to the line of scrimmage.

That’s how he got involved at Houston. Here’s a quick look at his usage in that one.

Incomplete: Last-second toss to Hawkins at the line of scrimmage as Drew Mestemaker was getting sacked.

14-yard gain: pitch forward to Hawkins behind line of scrimmage, effectively simulating a draw play, which resulted in at least one broken tackle.

10-yard gain: Hawkins ran a short route four yards and turned around for the easy catch, which resulted in at least one missed tackle forced.

1-yard gain: Flare route from backfield to line of scrimmage

12-yard gain: Mestemaker scrambled out of the pocket, hitting Hawkins six yards downfield

8-yard gain: This play was incorrectly logged. Either it happened at a different time or should have gone to Kolb on rewatch.

14-yard gain: Sprints to outside perimeter immediately, catching the ball at the line of scrimmage and hurdling the first defender

66-yard gain for TD: Appears to be running a wheel route or similar concept out of the backfield. Hawkins catches the ball at the line of scrimmage and breaks a tackle.

At least when Mestemaker went his way, Hawkins was almost always at or behind the line of scrimmage.

That wasn’t the case against the Buffs.

First quarter:

His first reception came on a play that saw him line up out wide. Hawkins just worked around the defender and went up and made a 1-on-1 catch 23 yards downfield.

“It was funny because in practice, we were talking about that (play),” Justin Bowick said after the game. “Caleb was like, ‘Hey, don’t just be having me run down the field for nothing.’ We were joking about that all week.”

Hawkins picked up 15 yards on a screen after forcing one missed tackle.

Second quarter:

Officially a target in the end zone, but Mestemaker appeared to just be throwing this one away.

Third quarter:

Hawkins ran a curl in the middle of the field. Added 13 yards after the catch after forcing a missed tackle for an overall gain of 17.

Incomplete flare screen broken up by a defender on 3rd-and-6 in the red zone.

Hard to tell if Hawkins was always running a route or started off as a blocker who made the quick transition, but he picks up two yards after catching the ball at the line of scrimmage.

Hawkins lines up out wide and goes into motion before catching a screen for a 15-yard gain.

It’s clear Morris and company trust Hawkins with more responsibility in the passing game this season. His success against Colorado, especially downfield, will probably help him remain a larger factor in the passing game for the rest of the season.

However, considering only two of his plays, including his first target, came past the line of scrimmage, it wouldn’t be shocking to see that uptick result in more screens and other passes made at the line of scrimmage while downfield targets remain something of a rarity.

TE Oscar Hammond Healed Up Just in Time

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