Brennan Presley PFF’s Highest-Rated Wide Receiver of Week 12

Kasey Dunn said he had a feeling through practice last week that Brennan Presley could have a big game in the Cowboys’ trip to Houston.

That feeling was correct, as Presley caught 15 passes — the second-most in a game in program history — for a career-high 189 receiving yards in Oklahoma State’s 43-30 win against the Cougars. Dunn, OSU’s offensive coordinator and receivers coach, said the gameplan wasn’t necessarily to feed Presley, but based on the Cougars’ defense, the ball kept going to Presley in practice.

“Just the fact that there were going to be a lot of opportunities in the RPO game for him to touch the football,” Dunn said. “It wasn’t just crazy by design to do this. It was just kind of a natural thing that you could see happening through practice by the looks they were giving our offense, their defensive structure. He just kept catching the ball and catching the ball, and I was like ‘Golly, man. He’s gonna have a big week. He should have a big week.’ And he did — bigger than I expected actually. Fifteen catches for 189, that’s a pretty damn good day.”

Presley’s performance earned him a 91.5 PFF grade on the week, the highest among any receiver in the country with at least five passing snaps played (Virginia’s Suderian Harrison had three catches on four passing snaps). Presley had the most catches of anyone in the country this past week, as well.

Thirteen of Presley’s catches Saturday went for an OSU first down — three of those came on third down. He had the most first down catches of any player in the country this past weekend. OSU had just 15 first downs in its entire 45-3 loss to UCF in Orlando the week before.

Presley’s yards after catch are up for a bit of debate. The live stats had Presley with 79, while PFF had him with 98. That 98 was good for the third-most in the country this past week, per PFF.

“When you look at the call sheet and the plays that we had in, it was a lot of just like motioning getting it into my hands,” Presley said. “We’re on the road and stuff, so I’m like if he trusts me enough to put me in those positions to make those catches and do these plays, then that’s the upmost respect to me.

“The plays not gonna make itself — he says that all the time. The players make the plays. So when they call my number, it’s just even more for me to be like, ‘Hey, they trust you to make this play, so you gotta go out there and do it.”

During OSU’s 2-2 start, Presley had 15 catches for 98 yards — meaning he was more involved in Saturday’s game alone than he was in the first four weeks. Presley’s “worst” game since that 2-2 start was the three catches for 39 yards he had against Cincinnati — a game OSU won by 32. And Presley had a season-high 53 return yards that day.

All that’s to say that it doesn’t seem coincidental that the Cowboys started playing better the more they got the ball in Presley’s hands.

Presley advanced into the top 10 in program history in receiving yards with Saturday’s performance. He is behind James Washington, Rashaun Woods, Justin Blackmon, Hart Lee Dykes, Tylan Wallace, D’Juan Woods, Marcell Ateman, Dez Bryant and Dillon Stoner. That’s quite good company.

“His route running has really been good — spatial awareness, understanding what we’re trying to get done on the play,” Dunn said. “We always talk about running the line in the book. When you draw up a play, you draw these straight lines and all this, and there’s a lot more fluidity than what you see on paper. He brings plays to life.”