Oklahoma State scored early and often enroute to an easy 45-10 win over the Tulsa Golden Hurricane in the Gateway Turnpike Classic Saturday afternoon, in front of a sellout crowd of 30,915 fans at H.A. Chapman Stadium.
The No. 13 Cowboys gained a total of 560 yards of offense and held Tulsa to 352 total yards. While OSU’s ground game struggled at times, gaining only 129 yards rushing, the Cowboys offense was led by quarterback Alex Bowman, who completed 24-of-31 passes for 396 yards and five touchdowns.
“The score was for sure lopsided,” said Tulsa head coach Kevin Wilson. Gave up some plays. I appreciate the effort, the fight. Our guys played really, really hard and gave us some easy plays in pass defense. They have a really good team, and especially their receivers who are big, they’re stout, they’re strong. Bowman is a heck of a good player and quarterback, played a long time and played well. We gave up too many pass plays.”
Tulsa’s quarterback Kirk Francis threw for 153 yards, completing 14-of-31 passes with one interception. Three other players saw action at the quarterback position including Stephen Kittleman who scored Tulsa’s lone touchdown on a nine-yard run with 1:55 remaining in the game.
The only other score in the game for Tulsa was a 43-yard field goal by Seth Morgan with 6:15 left in the fourth quarter. Morgan missed a 44-yard attempt in the first quarter.
Kamdyn Benjamin led Tulsa receivers with 94 yards and Anthony Watkins had a team-high 40 rushing yards.
The Tulsa defense held last year’s NCAA leading rusher Ollie Gordon to just 41 yards on 17 carries. OSU head coach Mike Gundy said since Tulsa shut down their star running back, the Cowboys decided to exploit where the opening were through the air.
“There’s an extra guy in the box pretty much every snap,” Gundy said. “Our coaching staff did a better job this week of exploiting those areas instead of just beating our head against a wall running it.”
Bowman agreed.
“I think it was just taking what the defense gives you,” Bowman said. “Obviously, we have the best running back in the country and everybody knows that. So they’re gonna do everything they can to stop him, and so that gives us favorable matchups on the outside. I think I’m one of the luckiest guys in college football with the O-linemen in front of me and the receivers around me. So, I just gotta throw the ball where they’re open.”
Bowman’s key target was De’Zhaun Stribling who caught seven passes for 174 and two touchdowns. Talyn Shettron had three receptions for 110 yards and one touchdown. His longest gain was a 78-yard touchdown pass play in the second quarter.
“Alan Bowman played a heck of a game,” Wilson said. “They put him in some good positions, so it’s nice we played against Ollie. It’s nice we did the best we could to stop the run. That’s always a key, but we cannot give up the simple, big plays that we did moving forward, especially against a tremendous team like Oklahoma State.”
OSU scored only one touchdown in the first quarter but exploded for 21 points in the second quarter and led 28-0 at halftime.
Tulsa will close out its non-conference schedule Saturday, 6:00 p.m. at Louisiana Tech before returning home for its American Athletic Conference opener on Oct. 5 against first-year league member Army.
OSU improved to 3-0 while Tulsa dropped to 1-2.
OSU will host Utah on Saturday at 3:00 p.m. at Boone Pickens Stadium.