Taylor Cornelius Preps to Play His Childhood Team

STILLWATER — Taylor Cornelius will play against the team he grew up rooting for Saturday.

Cornelius is from Bushland, Texas, which is about a two hour drive down I-27 from Lubbock. Cornelius said Tech offered him a spot as a walk-on, but by that time he had already built a relationship with Oklahoma State offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich and people in Stillwater.

Cornelius attended camps in Lubbock. He said he went to a few when Tommy Tuberville was the coach and one after Kliff Kingsbury took over.

At his weekly news conference Tuesday, Kingsbury said he remembered the kid from Bushland.

“Yeah, I remember looking at him,” Kingsbury said. “Very good athlete. Thought he could play multiple positions, and he’s done a nice job at quarterback for them. Big, tough, hangs in the pocket, sheds tackles, keeps things alive with his feet, very impressed by him. I have a ton of respect for him to be there five years and wait for his time. That doesn’t happen very often this day and age in college football.”

Despite not being heavily recruited out of high school, Cornelius said he didn’t put much thought into playing another position other than quarterback.

“I’d played quarterback since flag football, so I felt like that’s probably a good idea to stick with that,” Cornelius said.

In his first three collegiate starts, Cornelius has accounted for nine touchdowns, and already has 1,042 total yards.

Cornelius’ means of getting those yards aren’t what OSU fans are used to with 2014-17 quarterback Mason Rudolph chunking balls down the field. Cornelius has used his legs a lot more and has thrown more short passes. The term Kingsbury used to describe Cornelius’ play is “off-schedule.”

“The quarterback is a little more off-schedule than Mason (Rudolph) was last year,” Kingsbhury said. “(Rudolph) was a great pocket passer, everything is in rhythm, on time. (Cornelius), makes a lot of plays off-schedule. He can really hurt you with his feet. They’ve adapted their offense to that, but they’re still rolling. They execute at a high level, play at a fast tempo, and it’s as effective as they’ve ever been.”

Cornelius grew up watching Graham Harrell throw to Michael Crabtree. At 6 p.m. Saturday when the ball is kicked through the Stillwater night, Cornelius will be on the sideline looking across at players wearing stacked Ts while he dons orange and black.

“I grew up always going to Tech games,” Cornelius said. “I was a Raider fan growing up, that’s for sure. … I do love it here (in Stillwater). I wouldn’t change a thing.”