A team built to last Monday, October 5, 2020
Cowboys crush Kansas
Cowboys' future at quarterback, running back seem to be set
44-7
Chris Becker After two games without a passing touchdown, true freshman Shane Illingworth found a wide open Braydon Johnson on a post route for a 66-yard touchdown early in the second quarter against Kansas. Illingworth didn’t slow down after that. He finished the game with 265 yards and three touchdowns after a slow first start against West Virginia. Illingworth showed that he could be the future of the Oklahoma State quarterback tree after Spencer Sanders. “His maturity over the past couple of games, a couple of weeks, has just really got my attention,” wide receiver Tylan Wallace said. “He has the mentality of an older guy, you don’t see that a lot in freshmen. I’m just really excited for him in the future and just the way he holds himself.” With Sanders getting closer to coming back from a right ankle injury for the Cowboys and a bye week this week giving the Cowboys more time to get back healthy, Illingworth may have seen his last snaps for at least a few games. However, these snaps the last three weeks are valuable for his growth and gives him experience for whenever his time to take over comes, whenever that may be. Staying in the backfield, OSU’s running backs are set for this season with Chuba Hubbard and LD Brown getting the majority of the touches. But looking ahead to next season, Dezmon Jackson and Dominic Richardson got quality touches and playing time against Kansas. Hubbard finally had the breakout game he was looking for to get him rolling, which is not good for the rest of the Big 12. He ran for 145 yards and two touchdowns to get his season numbers kickstarted.
Shane Illingworth had an impressive game in his second ever start against Kansas. “Obviously, the last two games, I haven’t done what I wanted to,” Hubbard said. “I just show up to play football everyday, work hard everyday. I thought the first two games, we actually played pretty good, a lot of these mistakes fall back on me.” The Cowboys offense finally took some pressure off the Cowboys’ defense, which continued its dominant run through the season. With the starters in the game for roughly 2.5 quarters, the Cowboys held Kansas to less than 70 yards and no points. The defense still shows no sign of slowing down, despite both Amen Ogbongbemiga and Malcom Rodriguez going down at different points in the game with undisclosed injuries. “Basically the goal of the day was to go out there, fly around, make sure you tackle, and make sure they don’t score,” linebacker Devin Harper said. “Coach Knowles preaches that we control the game, and if they don’t score, we’ll win and we can be the best in the nation to be honest.” sports.ed@ocolly.com
Scott Winters
Scott Winters/Icon Sportswire Oklahoma State running back Dezmon Jackson had a great debut against KU.
Scott Winters/Icon Sportswire Oklahoma State running back Chuba Hubbard had two touchdowns against KU.