With Taylor Cornelius debuting as starting quarterback, Oklahoma State’s offense dominated in last Thursday’s 58-17 win over Missouri State in Stillwater.

Next up, the Cowboys host South Alabama at 7 p.m. on a game to be telecast on Fox Sports Net. South Alabama opened with a loss to Louisiana Tech, 26-30. OSU beat South Alabama 44-7 last season in Mobile, Alabama.

Cornelius led the OSU attack but there were some opening game glitches.

“I just thought he missed too many throws,” said OSU coach Mike Gundy. “In my head I thought he missed six throws that normally he hits. His mentality I thought was good, he just missed some throws. Twice he threw the ball down the middle and it should’ve been picked off and he threw the ball down here and got it picked off. And then he just missed some throws.”

Cornelius threw five touchdown passes on 70.6 percent passing with a 186.1 passer rating. He had 295 passing yards – which was more than former quarterbacks Mason Rudolph (281) had and Brandon Weeden (218) in their first starts.

“It looked like he played well, looked like he ran well,” Gundy said. “He made a couple throws and he was in there with a lot of young guys so it’s not easy to operate, but I thought he did a nice job of taking care of the football, pulling it down and running when he needed to.”

Cornelius downplayed the adjustment.

“It was a little different not coming in at the end of the game, but I’ve prepared for so long,” he said. “It was alright.”

OSU running back Justice Hill got 122 rushing yards, including a 93-yard sprint in the first quarter – the longest run of his career. It was the 15th time in his career that he has gained more than 100 yards.

“It just feels good to be out there,” Hill said. “It’s going to be a long season, but it was fun to be out there with a new team and in a new atmosphere. We have good chemistry and I feel like it’s going to be a good season.”

He didn’t score on the 93-yard run.

“It would’ve been nicer if I had gotten into the end zone, but I just wanted to go out there and make some plays and that’s what I did,” Hill said.

Four Cowboy running backs had more than 75 yards of total offense (rushing yards plus receiving yards). Hill finished with 144, Chuba Hubbard with 107, J.D. King with 77 and L.D. Brown with 115. The totals for Brown and Hubbard were both career highs.

Oklahoma State’s running backs had 357 rushing yards and 112 receiving yards against Missouri State – 64 percent of the total offense.

“We’re a talented group and I’ve been saying that to everyone,” Hubbard said. “Everyone has their own unique trait and we just got a blessed group that pushes each other. We’ve also got all the young guys that haven’t played yet. They’re special too and we’re blessed to have such a great running back core.”

The Cowboys’ up-tempo offense posed problems for Missouri State.

“We’re used to playing hurry-up offenses, but we’re not used to playing great up-tempo offenses like that,” said MSU coach Dave Steckel. “You’ve got to credit Oklahoma State. They’ve got a great offense it’s why they’re respected as much as they are.”

“We played Mizzou, but besides that I would say they are probably a little faster,” said MSU linebacker McNeece Egbim. “It was very challenging.”

The OSU defense kept Missouri State to just 89 yards in the first half. The Cowboys held opponents to under 100 yards in a half twice last season, including holding South Alabama to 68 first half yards and Kansas to 95 second half yards.

It was the first game for OSU’s new defensive coordinator Jim Knowles.

“I had some nerves, I had some butterflies,” Knowles said. “I thought getting out and seeing the crowd, I thought that was really helpful to me because it was great to be in a place with all that support. It just makes you feel so much better and energized.”

The game progressed as Knowles imagined.

“Definitely at the beginning, I thought it was going to plan,” Knowles said. “We were dominating the game…I thought it was going well. It was all going according to plan. I think they made some plays and I think our guys let up a little and I think their quarterback, he was gritty. He was the guy that made some plays against us, so give him some credit too.”

“Defensively we played pretty well.,” Gundy said. “We got out of our gap twice and gave up two really long runs. Other than that we were pretty good overall defensively.”

Despite the lopsided score, Knowles saw room for improvement.

“There’s always things to learn,” Knowles said. “That’s our biggest takeaway from tonight. I came in here tonight with a lot of pride. I came in here thinking that we were probably the best team in the NCAA, which I still feel like we are, but I know now that we still have room to improve.”

Will the Cowboys look past underdog South Alabama and be more focused on Boise State, who comes to Stillwater for a 2:30 p.m. game on September 15?

“We just have to prepare the same way we always do,” Knowles said. “We have to stay focused each and every day and continue to go out there and give 100 percent.”

“We just need to learn from our mistakes and what we didn’t do well on tonight, work on that, rep whatever we need to work on more and get it all cleaned up for the next game,” said OSU linebacker Justin Phillips.