Brennan Presley Watched Josh Stewart, David Glidden Highlights Ahead of Season-Opener

STILLWATER — Because of limited stadium capacities last season, Brennan Presley had never played in front of a crowd bigger than the 50,807 in Boone Pickens Stadium last weekend.

Presley, Oklahoma State’s budding star slot receiving, grew up a Cowboy fan, so how did he prep himself for walking into a raucous BPS? Watching former greats at his position.

“Prior to the game, I was watching all sorts of highlights from a few years ago, when Josh Stewart was here, David Glidden,” Presley said. “Just watching and getting the full experience and then realizing like, ‘Hey, that’s going to be me on Saturday.’ It was just kinda surreal going out there. Once I got out there, all that stuff goes away and from that point on it’s just the game. It was a surreal experience and really cool.”

Presley has drawn a handful of hopeful Stewart comparisons entering the season. Both are looked at as undersized, do-it-all playmakers whether that be catching, returning or running jet sweeps. The pair had similar freshman seasons. Stewart made 19 receptions for 291 yards and a pair of scores in 2011. Presley had seven catches for 129 yards and four total scores last season.

Stewart’s biggest receiving season came as a sophomore, though. In 2012, Stewart caught 101 passes for 1,210 yards and seven scores. It’s the 10th-most receiving yards a Cowboy has had in a season, with everyone above Stewart on that list being a traditional outside receiver, not a shifty slot guy.

As a junior in 2013, Stewart housed a pair of punt returns, most notably his 95-yard sprint against TCU.

Glidden was no slouch either, bridging the gap between the Wes Lunt/JW Walsh/Clint Chelf era to Mason Rudolph’s sophomore season in 2015. Glidden had 115 receptions for 1,655 yards and six touchdowns in his career. He also has a unique relationship with Presley. Glidden is Memphis’ wide receivers coach and recruited Presley to the AAC school before he ever had his OSU offer.

“I love the way Josh Stewart played and just the way he did everything — and David Glidden,” Presley said. “I try to watch their stuff a lot. David did a lot right on offense. I still talk with him some in the offseason. He was really smart, and he helped recruit me coming out of high school so I try to talk to him a lot. And Josh Stewart actually came to practice a couple days ago and just talked to me about some of the things I could do better or just stuff that he’s seen or stuff that he did that he knows I can do. Just trying to help me with my game.

“It’s really impactful. It gives me the confidence that they see something in me that maybe I can’t see in myself. It gives me a sense of confidence to go out there and do what they did and try to do better than what they did. That way, if I have a great career here, I can pass it onto the next wave of players that come by.”