Game Preview: Is Buzz Around McNeese Enough to Make Saturday Competitive?

Oklahoma State hasn’t lost a home opener since 1995 when the Pokes fell 64-21 to Nebraska.

A lot of the players on OSU’s roster (excluding Tom Hutton) weren’t alive then. That 23-year streak doesn’t look in much danger with FCS foe McNeese coming to Stillwater on Saturday, as OSU is a 37.5-point favorite. Both of these sets of Cowboys enter Saturday 1-0, though.

Here are a few things to notice ahead of Saturday.

Offensive Stats

Defensive Stats

Excitement Around McNeese

First-year head coach, former Texas offensive coordinator Sterlin Gilbert, has brought a renewed energy to the McNeese program.

A record crowd of 20,437 at Cowboy Stadium watched McNeese beat Southern last weekend. In the five home games McNeese had last season, only 54,814 fans were in attendance total. McNeese hadn’t had a 20,000-person crowd at a home game since 2002 before this past weekend.

The crowd didn’t leave disappointed, either. The Cowboys beat a Southern team that went 7-4 in 2018 after holding off a late surge. It was a good start to the Gilbert Era of McNeese football, but knocking off an FBS school Saturday would make for one of the best moments in the program’s history.

“We know that overall our talent level should be better than McNeese,” OSU coach Mike Gundy said Monday. “We know that. There’s no reason for me to get up here and say anything other. McNeese, it’s a new coaching staff, they’re excited about their team, they won last week, they’re going to come in and play hard. They’re gonna be all amped up.”

Other Cowboys Spreading the Wealth

McNeese used a trio of running backs in its Week 1 win.

Justin Pratt, Elijah Mack and J’Cobi Skinner split carries against Southern and combined for 115 yards and a touchdown. Cowboys’ quarterback Cody Orgeron also ran for 33 yards on 13 carries.

Pratt started against Southern, but Elijah Mack, who followed Gilbert from South Florida, probably had the most impressive outing, running for the most yards, the highest yards per carry and a touchdown.

Along with sharing the sugar in the rushing game, the passing game was similar in McNeese’s first game.

No receiver had more than three catches, but two of junior Trevor Begue’s catches were for touchdowns.

It’s not quite the playmaking triplets of Spencer Sanders, Chuba Hubbard and Tylan Wallace, but for an FCS school playing an FBS school, it’s probably best to not have an offense that focuses on one guy.