Tulsa lost their best running back and Oklahoma State had to play a third-string freshman quarterback but the Cowboys hung on for a tough 16-7 win over the Golden Hurricane Saturday in Stillwater.

Tulsa’s defense put the clamps on All American running back Chuba Hubbard, who was held to under 100 yards (35 yards in the first half).

Tulsa led 7-3 late in the third quarter and had a touchdown called back due to a penalty before OSU came back to win.

“They’ve just got so many weapons offensively,” said TU coach Philip Montgomery. “I thought for the most part, as a defense, we did a great job of running to the football, tackling, eliminating some of those explosive plays.

“ I’m very, very proud of their effort. Offensively, we’ve got some work to do. We hurt ourselves with too many penalties; we just had too many penalties as a team today. Some of that is first game stuff that we’ve got to get corrected. We’re going to learn a lot from this tape. At times, I thought we had some big plays and had some explosive runs in there. We just didn’t put things away when we had opportunities; we’ve got to convert when you’re down in the red zone. You’ve got to make those opportunities count. I was proud of our football team, and I thought we played extremely hard.”

OSU starting quarterback Spencer Sanders got hurt early and was replaced by Ethan Bullock, a junior college transfer from the City College of San Francisco. Bullock hit was 8 of 13 passes for 41 yards but had trouble completing drives.

OSU coach Mike Gundy went with freshman Shane Illingworth late in the third quarter and he sparked the comeback. Illingworth hit his first three passes, including strikes to Tylan Wallace for 36 and 29 yards. Illingworth ended hitting four of five passes for 74 yards.

Montgomery said OSU’s strategy changed when Illingworth came in .

“They were trying to push the ball down the field a little bit,” Montgomery said. “They got a couple of fortunate calls in my opinion, but he did hit a couple throws. It was a back and forth second half, both offenses struggling a little bit while defenses were playing extremely well. I think at that point, they got a little bit of momentum with a couple of throws and a call or two. You know, you’re on the field on a hot day during the first game of the year, I thought that was the difference. They’re the No. 11 team in the nation. We had our opportunities to win this game for sure.”

OSU kicker Alex Hale hit three field goals – including two in the fourth quarter – to seal the win.

“We got put in a unique situation there for a while and had to regroup particularly on offense,” Gundy said.

“The defense was fabulous. Zero-for-12 on third down and one-for-four on fourth down is really the story of the game. We played well enough late to rally and get the guys the football that it needed to get to score points. I’m thrilled with the guys for fighting through all of the adversity and playing well enough to win the game at the end.”

Hubbard had his nation’s longest active streak of 11-straight games of recording at least 100 yards rushing snapped as he finished with 93 yards on 27 carries.

“I thought our defense did an outstanding job on him,” Montgomery said about holding Hubbard to under 100 yards. “I don’t know what he ended up with, something like 93 yards. I thought we did a really good job of running to the football, playing gap-sound and gang-tackling when we had opportunities. You’ve got to do a great job against Chuba, you just can’t let him get started.

“I’m very proud of the effort, especially against a Heisman (Trophy) candidate. I think our defense did great.”

Tulsa quarterback Zach Smith hit 18 of 28 passes for 164 yards and one touchdown, a 16-yard toss to Josh Johnson with 1:38 left in the first half that put the Golden Hurricane up 7-3.

The Golden Hurricane was without its top running back, Shamari Brooks, who suffered an ACL injury in his left knee in practice last week. Brooks, who gained 1,046 yards and 6 TDs rushing last year, currently sits fifth on Tulsa’s all-time leading rusher list.

Tulsa’s other returning running back, Corey Taylor II, who rushed for 461 yards and 6 TDs last year, also saw limited action due to having just emerged from coronavirus quarantine. He ran just three times for one yard, each in short-yardage situations. Deneric Prince, a transfer from Texas A&M, took over the primary running duties and gained 82 yards on 14 carries, while T.K. Wilkerson had 21 yards on eight rushes.

“I told them in the locker room after the game that I was proud of them for continuing to make stop after stop,” Gundy said of his defense. “Sometimes when the offense doesn’t play as well or sputters out as much as we did today, then defensively it’s hard to continue to play, but they made plays. We gave up a wheel route for a big pass play, but other than that I thought they were really good, particularly good against the run and then terrific on third-and-long and on fourth downs.”

It’s frustrating, but we’re going to learn from it,” Montgomery said. “From an effort standpoint, you can’t question the effort we gave throughout the game in all three phases. Now, we just have to learn and get better.”

No. 15 OSU will host West Virginia at 2:30 p.m. Saturday on ABC or ESPN. Last year, OSU beat UWV 20-13 in Morgantown. The Cowboys outscored the Mountaineers 10-0 in the fourth quarter in a come-from-behind victory.

West Virginia opened the season with a 56-10 win over Eastern Kentucky and they were off last week.

Tulsa will travel to play Arkansas State at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday on ESPN2. Arkansas State lost to Memphis 24-37 on September 5 and then upset Kansas State 35-31 in Manhattan on September 12.

However, Arkansas State postponed its game against Central Arkansas. That was supposed to be played Saturday but has been pushed back to October 10 because of a shortage of players in one position group – possibly due to the coronavirus or quarantine issues. Arkansas State officials expect to be ready to play Tulsa this Saturday. Nine Arkansas State players were unavailable for the Kansas State game.

Despite the tight victory, OSU

The Oklahoma State football team remained ranked inside the top-20 in both major polls released Sunday. The Cowboys landed at No. 15 in the Associated Press Top 25 and No. 18 in the USA TODAY Coaches Poll. The Cowboys are one of three teams from the Big 12 ranked in this week’s AP poll, which also includes No. 3 Oklahoma and No. 8 Texas. Baylor, West Virginia, TCU and Texas Tech are receiving votes.

OSU begins conference play at home Saturday against West Virginia at 2:30 p.m. on ABC or ESPN.