Shorthanded Pokes win

No. 22 Oklahoma State (3-0) will open Big 12 play Saturday at home against No. 25 Kansas State (3-0) after a successful but difficult nonconference slate.

The OSU game with K-State kicks off at 6 p.m. on ESPN+ in Stillwater.

The Cowboys were shorthanded Saturday night – especially in terms of receivers – yet pulled out a 21-20 hard-fought win at Boise State. The Cowboys started the years with tough wins over Missouri State and Tulsa.

Boise State opened the first half in dominating fashion and led 20-7 in the first quarter. OSU rallied and managed a 21-20 halftime lead.

“When we went in at halftime, I had to look at the scoreboard — I thought we were behind by 20,” OSU coach Mike Gundy said. “I just felt like we were behind by 20. I really didn’t think we did anything other than one long run. I didn’t think we slowed them down, and we didn’t function very well on offense. I looked on the scoreboard and we were ahead by 1, but it just didn’t feel that way.”

OSU won due to their rushing game and tough defense. OSU completed only six passes – the fewest since 2008 – and quarterback Spencer Sanders finished with 87 passing yards.

OSU was shorthanded because Jaden Bray, Braydon Johnson and Tay Martin didn’t make the trip and they were missing Langston Anderson and Blaine Green. Green took part in warmups but didn’t play. And then Bryson Green hurt his hand during the game which brought Cale Cabbiness –  a walkon from Norman – into action.

“What a great story for a young man that’s walked on,” Gundy said. “Local kid from Norman North that busts his tail every day, all the time. Those guys don’t ever know if they’re going to get a chance to get in the game, and he makes a big-time catch. You can’t write a better script for that kid.”

Cabbiness helped the Cowboys keep possessions alive, especially late in the game.

“We decided to throw it,” Gundy said. “As good as we were rushing the ball, they were going to play the run and everybody in the stands knew it. There’s 1:52 and they had two timeouts, and they only needed a field goal and it was irrelevant to just run it and move the clock. It just happened that Spencer Sanders made a great throw and [Cabbiness] made a great catch and game was over.”

Oklahoma State rushed for 246 yards, which is more than it rushed for in its first two games of the season combined.

OSU running back Jaylen Warren scored on a six-yard run late in the first half and then Sanders ran one yard for a touchdown with six seconds left following a Boise State turnover.

“He’s aggressive, he’s strong,” Gundy said of Warren. “Got in the open field, he can make a play, takeoff. When he breaks the big run for 75 or whatever it was, we needed a lift. We were struggling. We couldn’t get a first down. And defensively we were struggling. He makes the big run and puts us right back in the game. Then he had to run through tackles when they knew we were going to rush the ball. Everybody in the stadium knew we were running the ball. And he still broke some tackles. Unfortunate there at the end when he turned it loose, he’s got to hang on to the ball.”

The Cowboys are growing through the tough games.

“I told the team after the game that because of the way that we have to play football right now, we’re learning how to play as a team,” Gundy said. “I thought our coaches made really good adjustments at halftime, particularly defensively on a couple of things. For them to pitch a shutout in the second half and shut down some of the things that were hurting us in the first half and then our offensive obviously struggled to run the football, but we were able to run the football when they knew we were going to run the football, which allowed us to run the clock and shorten the game, something you don’t hear much about today.”

Gundy sees room for growth for his young but he sees progress.

“It’s a really good win for our guys,” Gundy said. “We just need to stay the course. Obviously we’ve got a long ways to go offensively. Personnel wise we have got to try to come up with some answers to allow ourselves to throw the ball a little better so we can be somewhat balanced, which we’re not right now as we move forward. But, I don’t want to take anything away from what these guys accomplished and coming up here and finding a way to win the football game.”

Would Gundy like to see Boise State get an invitation to join the Big 12 Conference?

“All that’s way over my head,” Gundy said. “There are more things involved, geographical location, and TV viewers … but I will say this and I said it last week in the press conference and I’ll say it after being out here. They’ve got a good thing going out here. They have a unique stadium with their turf, I don’t know what this place seats, like 40,000 or sometime, but it gets loud based on the way it is.

“The people in this community take a lot of pride in it. And the players play better than they’re supposed to because they’ve had so much tradition here. That’s why they’re able to beat a lot of Power Five schools. They play above their heads and I think they’re very well coached.”

Kansas State is 3-0 with wins over Stanford of the Pac-12, Southern Illinois and last Saturday they beat Nevada 38-17 in Manhattan. This will be their first away game.

They are led by running back Deuce Vaughn, who has rushed for 371 yards this season on 62 carries with five touchdowns. Vaughn had 127 yards against Nevada.

Will Howard is the starting quarterback for the Wildcats following a potentially season-ending knee injury for starter Skylar Thompson. Against Nevada, Howard rushed for 56 yards and hit seven of 10 passes for 123 yards. He threw a 68-yard touchdown pass to Daniel Imatobhebbe on the second play of the game.

The leading receiver is Phillip Brooks with nine receptions for 130 yards.