The Next Great One Has Emerged And He Did It In Style
In the 2020 Cheez It Bowl, a game that was known to be the final of Tylan Wallace and Dillon Stoner’s careers, turned into not only a celebration of the past but also a very bright glimpse into the future.
The crazy thing is, the Oklahoma State staff almost didnt let it happen.
But this young star was not going to let that happen.
Of course we are talking about Brennan Presley.
Presley caught 6 passes in the bowl game against Miami, his first career game with mulitple receptions. In fact, he only had one catch in his current true freshman season.
He took those six passes for 118 yards and 3 touchdowns. A truly remarkable performance for the 18 year old.
When I say the Oklahoma State staff almost didn’t let this happen, I am referring to Mike Gundy’s comments postgame when speaking about Presley. Gundy told the media that “He actually had a pretty significant injury in the Baylor game; one that in the past has kept players on the sidelines for as few as three weeks and up to four weeks. We actually encouraged him to maybe not play in this game based on his injury. And a week later, he just basically said, I want to play in this game. He started practicing and played. That's what you get when you have a young man that loves to play the game. He's not scared to compete.”
The fact he was advised not to play in this game just adds to the magnificent storyline of Presley.
Not scared to compete is an understatement when referring to Presley. I have been promising fans since Presley was still competing on Friday’s that the 5’8 speedster was the next great one for the Cowboys. Mike Gundy also knew what Presley was capabale of. He was asked what he saw from Presley tonight and he responded with “the same thing that I've seen from him the last three years of high school.”
The media was able to speak with Brennan Presley after the game, a rare opportunity for the media to speak to a freshman. But his performance warranted one. “Coach Dunn told us some of the young guys will be in the second half as a way to bring in the new year and get the young guys some reps, but if you would have told me I'd have this type of game and all that, never would have believed it.”
Due to some in-game injuries to Landon Wolf, Presley’s time was fast forwarded a bit, which is why we were able to see him so much over the course of the game.
This game was a bit of a passing of the torch from Tylan Wallace and Dillon Stoner to Brennan Presley and Tay Martin, who also had his best game as a Cowboy after transferring from Washington State in the offseason. Brennan Presley spoke about what it was like to learn from Wallace and Stoner in his true freshman season.
“Learned a lot. I learned how to be a leader. I learned how to deal with teammates, how to do things the right way. Just being around all those guys, they really became like my best friends this year and they helped me with things on the field and off the field and teaching me stuff.”
“And it's genuine. It's not something like they feel that they have to do. They are all great guys so they all genuinely want to see not only me but the other young guys, they want to see us do good. Their character and things is why this is a great program and why it will continue to be a great program and I think I can do my due diligence to them by just carrying on what they did.”
Offensive coordinator Kasey Dunn spoke about the future of Brennan Presley and what role he will serve next season . “I see it as a huge role. We talked about it after the game; he need to be a great leader for us.”
The Cowboys quarterback, Spencer Sanders, who had one of his best performances of his career also spoke about the future of the offense with Brennan Presley being a big piece. “We have a bunch of weapons, and I feel like Presley next year will bring a great addition to add to them.”
“But I feel like we've still got great guys that you haven't even seen yet and great guys that got just a little bit of touches today. Just adding Presley into that group it just makes it that much better.”
