Zane Flores Making Strides, Just Not Enough to Beat Tulsa

STILLWATER — It wasn’t long ago that the Cowboys were gunslingers on the football field.

In a nine-year stretch from 2010-18, Oklahoma State’s offense finished inside the top 10 in passing yards seven times. Heck, from 2004-17, Oklahoma State finished 18th or better in yards per attempt 10 times, and seven of those seasons saw OSU finish inside the top 10.

Against Tulsa on Friday night, the Cowboys were sorely lacking in ammunition as quarterback Zane Flores finished 25-of-40 for 214 passing yards in the 19-12 loss to Tulsa.

“We’re not gonna win games scoring 12 points,” Flores said. “So, you know, we gotta move the ball better. We gotta score. Field goals aren’t going to cut it.”

Flores didn’t shy from criticism following OSU’s first loss to TU since 1998, but this was only his second start. Oklahoma State’s struggles at quarterback predate him.

Another way to think about his 214-yard performance? It’s more than OSU’s passing leader had in eight of the Cowboys’ last 11 games dating back to the loss against Utah in 2024.

Gundy alluded to the Cowboys’ recent struggles at the position when asked what feels different about the program’s current predicament compared to the group that finished 3-9 last season.

Unlike that group, Flores is both young and should have plenty of runway to improve this fall without fear of losing his job.

“In my opinion, in four or five weeks (Flores) will be considerably different than he is now,” Gundy said Friday night. “Just through experience, there was times that Zane got better tonight in pressure situations where he made plays where he had improved from the last game.”

Flores said the game reps are helping him develop. On Friday, that was particularly evident at times when things broke down around him and Flores kept the ball in his own hands.

“I felt pretty comfortable tonight using my legs running when I had to,” Flores said. “So, I felt like I did that a lot better than I did the first two games.”

After totaling 2 rushing yards in the first two games, Flores finished Friday night with 56 yards and a touchdown on 10 attempts, which included a pair of sacks.

“Probably just trusting the process, staying the course,” said Flores when asked to name the toughest part of his stretch as a starter. “I mean, results obviously aren’t showing in the win column right now, so just trusting that, just trying to get better each week.”

The offense seemed at its best when Flores aired it out on first down, as he did on the game’s very first play. He finished 10-of-16 for 85 passing with an 8-yard sack on first down.

In obvious passing situations, such as third-and-3, fourth-and-3 or longer distances, the freshman predictably struggled. He completed 7-of-12 passes on third down (not counting the game’s final play when TU was focused on protecting the end zone) but only moved the chains twice.

His other five third-down completions put Oklahoma State’s offense 4 yards, 2 yards, 10 yards, 2 yards and 1 yard short of the line to gain. Even when it was close, the Cowboys found themselves either unable to capitalize (or at times unwilling to go for it at all) as the team finished 1-of-4 on fourth down.

Speaking of his struggles passing, Flores finished 1-of-7 on attempts at least 15 yards downfield and often seemed to overthrow his receivers when looking deep.

His head coach felt Flores improved throughout the evening, highlighted in part by an 11-yard completion to receiver Sam Jackson V with 20 seconds left. Granted, the play required an acrobatic one-handed catch along the sideline.

“Obviously, it’s not an ideal situation,” said Flores of the final drive taking place in the final 26 seconds. “But I think we did a good job of moving the ball down the field, trying to get out of bounds, trying to stop the clock. Sam had a great catch, you know, and we had a chance there at the end, but, you know, Tulsa played it well.”

The situation couldn’t have been worse, but Flores did his best to make lemonade out of the final 26 seconds, following up the impressive catch by Jackson with a 15-yard completion to running back Rodney Fields Jr., then spiked the ball to limit the loss of time between plays to one second, if that.

“I thought he was pretty good because they knew, right, it wasn’t any secret (we were passing),” Gundy said. “He hit a couple throws and then he checked down to the back in the end, right. That’s a move that sometimes young players don’t make. They see you’re down, and we’ve got to cover 50 yards, and he checks down to the back, the back got what, 15 yards, we run up there and clock it.

“Before that, he makes a heck of a throw, and 18 (Jackson) makes a heck of a catch. These are things where he’s improving, but there is not a fast-forward button for the development of quarterback. I don’t know where it’s at, I don’t know how to do it. There’s gonna be five or six throws, I’m gonna guess, that he wished he had back, but there were also some in the second half, he’s one half better than he was in the first half in experience.”