Notebook: Speed on Returns, Team Talent Show and Kolby Three Names

STILLWATER — Another day, another notebook.

Oklahoma State players met with the media after their practice Thursday. It was the last time the players will meet with reporters before their season-opening game against Oregon State next week. OSU coach Mike Gundy has his first media luncheon Friday. Here are some of the topics from Thursday.

Returning Speed

If the Cowboys get the ball first in Corvallis next week, odds are Chuba Hubbard or LD Brown will get the first touch of the pigskin this season.

After the Cowboys’ practice Thursday night, Brown said he and his position mate will handle the team’s kickoff return duties. Brown also said Dillon Stoner and Landon Wolf will return punts.

“We begged Coach Gundy for that,” Brown said. “We’ll both be back there this year. Y’all look out for that, too. First game, we’re going back there.”

Brown and Hubbard combined for 25 kick returns and 547 yards last season with most of that going to Hubbard. The Canadian speedster had 23 returns for 510 yards.

Brown said the team has a rule that if a kick goes more than a yard deep in the end zone, the returners leave it for a touchback.

“Our next little bribe is to get them to let us return anything,” Brown said.

Stillwater’s Got Talent

Dru Brown, LD Brown, Dillon Stoner, Samuela Tuihalamaka and Sione Asi combined for a choreographed rendition of The Temptations “My Girl,” but the group came up just short in the team talent show last week.

The judges: Rob Glass, Greg Richmond and Kasey Dunn. The winner: defensive lineman Israel Antwine for his Barack Obama impersonation. Antwine received a perfect 30. The Temptations reboot got a 29.

“(Richmond is) the one who scammed us,” LD Brown said. “He gave us a nine.”

A.J. Green and Amen Ogbongbemiga did a “horrible” magic show, Brown said. The pair got booed off the stage when they pulled out the wrong card on a trick. Brown said they got a 6 of 30. Tom Hutton played the guitar, but apparently there was no real snafu as to who the winner was.

“We had no idea Israel could do the Barack Obama,” Brown said. “He had the whole crowd just laughing. It was just a fun experience. We were like, ‘What? He’s quiet.’ You be around him, he’s quiet. He’s talking, he’s controlling the crowd. When he won, we weren’t sad or salty about it. We were like, ‘Man, he deserved that.'”

Brown said a member of OSU’s media team recorded the event, so maybe it will see the light of day some day.

Kolby Three Names

As a freshman, he was Kolby Peel. As a sophomore, he is Kolby Harvell-Peel.

Harvell is his mother’s last name, and he said he added it for her side of the family. Peel said he tried to add it last year, but it was too late to change the name on his jersey when he asked about it.

“I figured if I’m going to be on TV or if I make plays and the back of my jersey is shown, I want my family who raised me to be able to look at that on TV and see their name,” Harvell-Peel said. “I just did it to honor them.”