Mestemaker, Hawkins Power OSU Past Kansas State 66-28

It’s time for Oklahoma State to get its bowling shoes ready.

The Cowboys beat Kansas State 66-28 Saturday at Bill Snyder Family Stadium in Manhattan, Kansas. The sixth win of the season makes OSU bowl eligible for the first time since the 2023 season.

Head coach Eric Morris said he and his team had not talked about a bowl game, even while working toward one all season.

“I’ve never talked about it with this group until today,” Morris said. “After the game, and we didn’t celebrate it. It was something that I think that happens naturally.”

Morris said his players have been fighting every day to build a program and are now being rewarded for it.

Running back Caleb Hawkins powered OSU (6-3, 4-2 Big 12) with 175 rushing yards on 20 carries and a season-high three rushing touchdowns. He added six catches for 71 yards and a touchdown. The performance pushed Hawkins past 1,000 rushing yards for the season, making him the first Cowboy to reach that mark since Ollie Gordon II in 2023, according to OSU Athletics.

With Hawkins rolling, OSU scored touchdowns on its first four drives.

“Everything was working for us on all cylinders, and you can’t ask for more when that’s going on,” Hawkins said.

The offense didn’t face a third down on its first three drives, all touchdowns. When it finally did, quarterback Drew Mestemaker threw a 3-yard touchdown pass to Morgan McPhaul.

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Mestemaker completed 22 of 28 passes for 313 yards and four touchdowns. It was his eighth straight game with at least 300 passing yards and multiple touchdown passes, the longest such streak in Big 12 history, according to OSU Athletics. Eight straight 300-yard games is also an OSU program record, breaking Mason Rudolph’s mark of seven in 2016-17.

Mestemaker came out early in the fourth quarter, but not before he secured the record.

“Just something that obviously he’s worked extremely hard on and let him get out there and throw a couple more easy ones and get that record,” Morris said.

That wasn’t his only milestone. With four touchdown passes, a 1-yard touchdown run, and a 5-yard touchdown catch, Mestemaker became the fifth player in FBS history with at least four passing touchdowns, a rushing touchdown, and a receiving touchdown in one game, according to OSU Athletics. He is the first Big 12 player to do it in a conference game.

It wasn’t just the offense that had a complete game. The defense showed up from start to finish, holding K-State (4-5, 1-5 Big 12) to seven points in each quarter and intercepting three passes.

Cornerback LaDainian Fields continued to show that quarterbacks should avoid throwing in his direction. Fields intercepted two passes, giving him an FBS-leading seven this season. Seven interceptions through nine games is the most by an OSU player since Darrent Williams in 2003, according to OSU Athletics.

Fields has six interceptions in the past four games. His streak has given the offense energy and short fields, and both of his picks Saturday led to touchdowns.

“It’s huge,” Mestemaker said. “It felt like we were scoring so fast in the first half. When you start on the other team’s 30-yard line, it’s hard not to. He’s a playmaker. I’m glad he’s on our team, for sure.”

The offense didn’t need an energy boost early. It scored three touchdowns before the defense recorded its first interception. Kansas State won the coin toss and chose to receive, and OSU forced a three-and-out. Three plays later, Mestemaker found wide receiver Justin Bowick open in the end zone for a 32-yard touchdown.

K-State answered three plays later when quarterback Blake Barnett hit wide receiver Derrick Salley Jr. for a 73-yard touchdown. Salley led all receivers with 100 yards, and it was the first of his two touchdown catches.

The K-State offense didn’t reach the end zone again for eight more drives. Morris called the defense the star of the show, even with the offense putting up 49 points in the first half.

“Hats off to our staff,” Morris said. “I mean, I think they did a phenomenal job putting together a great game plan coming into it, just knowing you don’t have Jaleel Johnson, don’t have Tate [Romney] in here. Next man up.”

Safety Quinton Hammonds had OSU’s first interception, returning it 36 yards to the K-State 11 in the first quarter to set up McPhaul’s touchdown. Fields had the other two. The Cowboys also stopped K-State on downs three times.

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Coming into the game, Morris stressed the importance of a fast start.

“We hadn’t got off to fast starts,” Morris said. “It was stressed in a major way over the course of the last week, and we stressed it in different ways."

The fast start held up. Wide receiver Miles Coleman closed the first half with a 19-yard touchdown catch with 11 seconds left, sending OSU to the locker room up 49-14. Coleman finished with six catches for a team-high 95 yards.

OSU’s one rough stretch came early in the second quarter. On the third play of the quarter’s first drive, wide receiver Wyatt Young fumbled after a 15-yard catch, and K-State recovered.

K-State didn’t score off the turnover. After a Wildcats punt, though, safety Logan Bartley intercepted Mestemaker on the next snap and returned it 18 yards for a touchdown.

That didn’t slow OSU. The Cowboys answered with a five-play, 43-yard drive capped by Mestemaker’s 1-yard touchdown run.

Despite the earlier fumble, Young was called on in the third quarter for a Philly Special-inspired play and threw a 5-yard touchdown pass to Mestemaker.

With the game in hand, backup quarterback Broderick Vehrs took over in the fourth quarter.

“I thought Brodie did phenomenal job coming in and running the offense,” Morris said. “And obviously, it’s hard to do when you come in and you start slowing everything down, and you know don’t utilize our whole entire offense and tempo and those things. But thought Brodie operated great ... I thought they did a nice job of moving the football.”

OSU has three regular-season games left, starting with Texas Tech at 8:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 14, at Boone Pickens Stadium on ESPN.