Six Thoughts on Oklahoma State at Kansas

Oklahoma State got back to winning on Saturday, knocking off Kansas 48-28 and ruining the Homecoming celebration in Lawrence. It was a solid performance, though with Kansas, everything must be taken with a grain of salt.

(I would have had these thoughts to you earlier, but my Mom was in town visiting. Sorry, Moms come first.)

So, without further adieu...

Cornelius is what he is

At this point you either like Taylor Cornelius or you don’t. You either see every positive as a step forward, or every mistake as evidence that he’s no good.

There were examples of both.

On Cornelius’ second touchdown pass to Landon Wolf, it was a great play, but the pass took too long and was underthrown by TC. Yes it worked out, but we’ve seen what happens when Cornelius’ mistakes DON’T work out.

Or you could look at the fact that, Per Nathan Ruiz of The Oklahoman. “That 42-yard pass was #okstate QB Taylor Cornelius’ longest completion through the air this year.”

If you want to go negative, Cornelius over threw a wide-open Braydon Johnson in the second quarter.

If you want a sign of progress, TC rebounded with a 64-yard TD pass to Tyron on the next play that was pretty good.

Cornelius also threw, what I thought were his two best passes of the season, including the TD to Tyron in the fourth that dropped the ball right into Johnson’s hands.

TC is what he is, and honestly, at this point, I’m okay with it. Is he going to lead Oklahoma State to a Big 12 title game? Not likely. But considering we never thought this team was vying for it before the start of the year, I’m not going to suddenly start expecting it from them now.

Justice Hill FINALLY gets the ball

It only took four games (and an unfortunate loss) for Mike Gundy to FINALLY realize he needed to get the ball into the hands of Oklahoma State’s best player.

Coming into the Kansas game, Justice Hill had 46 carries on the season. Against the Jayhawks, Hill carried the rock 31 times for 189 yards and a touchdown. And he showed time and time again WHY he needs to carry the ball. Not every run wasn’t mind blowing, but there were enough to leave you amazed, including this spin move.

I understand the desire to not overwork him and keep him healthy for the entire season. But this team will succeed with Justice Hill and the running game leading the offense. Let’s hope we can expect to see more Hill moving forward.

Special teams still an issue

Let’s recap the special teams “special” moments.

• A punt kicked out of bounds in first quarter gave Kansas great starting field position for their second drive.
• A roughing the kicker penalty by Jarrick Bernard late in the first quarter renewed a Kansas drive after a great defensive performance, and eventually led to a touchdown.
• An Illegal blocking penalty on the return of OSU’s first drive in the second quarter had the Cowboys starting at their own 8 yard line.
• An Illegal block in the back during a return right before half.

Which leads me to my next point...

You get a penalty, you get a penalty

This Oklahoma State teams is incredibly undisciplined.

OSU finished the game with eight penalties for 92 yards, which isn’t great. I guess if there is a positive, it’s that only one of those came in the second half.

The real problem is, this is the norm for the season. Oklahoma State is averaging 7.2 penalties a game through five games. It’s unusual to see such an undisciplined team from Gundy.

Similar to special teams, so far, it hasn’t cost them a game. But don’t be surprised if it does at some point this season.

Tylan Wallace is SOOO good

I made the point during the game on the Twitters, that it’s almost unfair that Oklahoma State can lose a guy as talented as James Washington and just replace him with a guy like Tylan Wallace. But here we are.

You can understand why Taylor Cornelius loves to target him. If I was a quarterback, I’d be throwing it to the best guy on the field too!

At this point, and I know it’s only five games in, I would be shocked... SHOCKED... if he finishes his Oklahoma State career without bringing another Biletnikoff Trophy to Stillwater.

Landon Wolf continues OSU’s history of impressive walk-ons

Nothing speaks to Oklahoma State’s ability to not only spot talent, but to develop it, better than the walk-ons who have come through the program. The latest perfect example made his first career start on Saturday.

Landon Wolfenstein went beastmode against Kanasas with six catches on seven targets for 116 yards and one touchdown. Not to sound salty, but OSU might not be as bad off at the inside receiver position as we thought... barring Dillon Stoner returns quickly of course.

Yes it was just one game, but so far, Wolf has done what he needed to do to lock down a starting spot for the remainder of the season.

Bonus: Hubbard got hops

No thoughts necessary. Just this image.

T.C. Brewster ‏  @tbrew28