Chuba Hubbard and L.D. Brown each gained more than 100 yards rushing as Oklahoma State (2-0, 1-0 in the Big 12) won their Big 12 opener 17-13 over West Virginia in Stillwater.

“It’s a very unusual season,” said OSU coach Mike Gundy. “The conditioning of the teams is unusual. The makeup and focus is different than it ever has been. I have not been involved in anything like this in just watching what happens during the week and on the field. You just have to find a way to win somehow, and it’s not pretty. I’ve been here 16 years as a coach, and that’s not how you draw it up.”

Brown had a career high 11 carries for 103 yards while All American Hubbard had 101 yards on 22 carries. The last time two OSU running backs  both went over 100 yards in a game was in 2018 when Justice Hill (122 yards) and Brown (110 yards) did it against Missouri State.

Brown had a 66-yard touchdown run in the second quarter. It was the fourth 60-plus yard carry of his career and his longest since a 68-yard touchdown run vs. Baylor last season.

Hubbard has rushed for at least 100 yards and a touchdown in 16 of his past 19 games. He also has a rushing touchdown in 15 of those 18 games.

Shane Illingworth became the first OSU true freshman to start a game at quarterback since Mason Rudolph started the final three games of 2014. He is the first true freshman signal caller to start this early in the season since Wes Lunt started the season opener in 2012.

“When I say average, we’re going to grade him based on a college quarterback not being a freshman, that’s why he fell into the average category,” said Gundy. “For a true freshman he played okay. There’s times he made some mistakes, but there’s times he did make big plays. All of that is going to take time. This guy is young. We found a way to win, and that’s what is important.”

Illingworth finished 15-for-21 passing for 139 yards.

“They did a good job,” said West Virginia coach Neal Brown. “I thought Shane Illingworth managed the game. I thought they did a good job coaching. They didn’t ask Illingworth, as a true freshman, to do a whole lot. If you look at it, I think he threw the ball 22 times and a lot of those were screens. They ran 41 times for 200 yards. You run for 200 yards, you’re going to win most of them.”

The Cowboy defense posted five quarterback sacks, nine quarterback hurries and 11 tackles for loss.

“Our defense was really good again,” said Gundy. “They continued to go out there and, as we struggled offensively, they kept their head up and made plays. We’re obviously putting the ball on the ground too much offensively, and we’re going to have to clean that up. We were able to put a drive together to end the game, but we’re going long periods of time not being in sync offensively so we’ve got a lot of work in that area. I thought our special teams was excellent again.

“I feel at a certain time we were a little bit undisciplined with penalties even though some of them like Harvell-Peel’s were a little unusual, but we have to back off a little bit with the offsides and being undisciplined. We found a way to win again. The defense continued to get stops and gave us an opportunity to win the football game.”

Tyren Irby’s 56-yard fumble return touchdown in the second quarter marked the eighth longest fumble return in OSU history. It was also the first one since Kenneth Edison-McGruder’s 82-yard fumble return touchdown against Tulsa in 2017. The play marked OSU’s first non-offensive touchdown since Malcolm Rodriquez’s interception return at Iowa State last season. Trace Ford was credited with the strip-sack on that play, marking Ford’s first sack of the season and fourth of his career.

OSU has now forced a turnover in 47 of its past 55 games and in 56 of its past 65 games, dating to 2015.

In the first half, the Oklahoma State defense had six tackles for loss, six QB hurries, three pass break ups, a sack and a fumble return touchdown while allowing just seven points to a WVU offense that scored 42 points in the first half of its season opener.

“There were a number of times we influenced the quarterback though I don’t know if it will show up statistically because he got rid of the ball right before we hit him,” said Gundy. “You guys might know better than me, but I bet we got 10 hits on him today. Sometimes those count, but he sat in the pocket and took a lot of hits today. Our pressure was really good.”

Linebacker Amen Ogbongbemiga had a career-high 13 tackles, surpassing his previous best of 12 against Texas A&M last season. Cornerback Rodarius Williams finished with a career-best four pass break ups in the game. His previous high was three against Kansas last season.

“I didn’t think we maintained blocks very well early in the game,” Brown said. “I thought we started doing some good things in the second and third quarters. We gave up a bunch of hits on the quarterback. It’s hard to tell until you watch it on video. Some of those might not have been their fault so I don’t want to be too hard on them.

“They did a nice job. They pressured us a bunch. They’re good in the secondary. I thought their nose guard, Cameron Murrary, is a really good player. They did a nice job of getting on the edge, which we didn’t really anticipate going into the game. I’ve got to wait to see if it’s a technique issue for us; that’s my first inclination. That’s the frustrating thing for me. We got into this game, into this environment that had pressure, against a good opponent and we had some adversity. I don’t think we reacted very well.”

Calvin Bundage recorded a pair of sacks to bring his career total to 6.5. His sack in the third quarter was his first since assisting on a sack vs. Boise State in 2018.

 He finished with five tackles, three of those for loss, and two quarterback hurries. Safety Tre Sterling tied a career high with nine tackles. He’s posted nine stops twice previously, most recently against Iowa State last season.

Oklahoma State heads to Lawrence, Kansas for its first road game of the season Saturday. The Cowboys are scheduled to kick off against Kansas at 2:30 p.m. on ESPN.

The Oklahoma State football team was ranked No. 17 in the Associated Press Top 25 and No. 19 in the USA Today Coaches Poll.

This week’s polls included teams from the Big 10 and Pac 12 conferences after their announcements to resume football this fall. The Big 10 has three teams ranked inside the top-20 in both polls and Oregon is ranked No. 14 in the AP Poll.

The Cowboys remain one of three Big 12 teams ranked in this week’s polls. Texas dropped one spot to No. 9 and Oklahoma fell to No. 18 in the AP Poll and No. 16 in the Coaches Poll after a 38-35 loss to Kansas State.

After defeating the Oklahoma Sooners, Kansas State joins Baylor as Big 12 teams receiving votes.