Freshmen Cowboys Shined During Debut in 59-0 Blowout of Murray State
STILLWATER – One of the main questions I had going into the game against Murray State wasn’t whether or not Oklahoma State would look good, it was how the young players were going to perform once thrown into the game.
That was answered very quickly into the third quarter as Eric Morris put freshman Broderick Vehrs into the game after pulling Drew Mestemaker, who went 20-of-22 for 324 yards and five touchdowns, setting the program record in completion percentage and quarterback efficiency, after the first drive of the third quarter.
Vehrs went 2-for-2 for 22 yards and a touchdown on his opening drive, connecting with tight end Carson Kolb for a 10-yard touchdown.
“He's been great in practice,” Morris said. “He's gotten so much better. He's getting a ton of reps, and so I had a ton of confidence in him going in there and just executing the offense right now. Obviously, we didn't open it up. We wanted to take some time off at that time and run the football. But he did a really nice job. He was cool, calm and collected on the sideline.
“He has such a great personality. He's really good in the huddle. He directed the huddle. He had a lot of confidence there. He's got a really, really strong arm and I think he was able to showcase that a couple times. But I’m happy he's out there able to do all the operations and hear their calls and operate.”
Vehrs finished the game going 6-for-6 for 37 yards and one touchdown and three carries for eight yards.
As for freshman running back KD “Batman” Jones, he got into the end zone on his first touch of the game. It was a six-yard rush up the middle into the west end zone. Oh, and he did so on Batman Day.
"Yeah, so it was pretty awesome,” Morris said. We scrimmaged those guys, all the young guys, on Thursdays, and they actually get to get out there and play some football, the guys that are kinda giving us some looks during the course of the week. Our challenge at the end of this week and Thursday football was they have four downs from the 10 to score -- no blitzing and you couldn't throw it. Just a little bit of a toughness drill. KD was the back in that, got all four carries and finally got in the end zone the very last play. It was just cool to see, like, that kinda came true for him today. I mean, he hit it. He was running behind his pads today, and obviously that's a moment he'll remember for the rest of his life, getting his first touchdown in Boone Pickens. And somebody that didn't get a ton of reps with the offense this week. But I think that was awesome that that was a spot that he was in. It was in the same exact spot, same end zone that we did in practice that happened in the game."
If everything stays the same, we probably won’t see either Vehrs or Jones this upcoming week on the road at West Virginia. But it was nice to see what the young guys could do and that they could certainly hold their own on the biggest stage of their careers thus far.
