Skip to main content
All pokes

Grading Every Oklahoma State Position Group After Demoralizing Loss to Texas Tech

Here we grade out every position group for the Oklahoma State Cowboys after their Week 11 game against the Texas Tech Red Raiders.
Matt Postins|
Oklahoma State Cowboys wide receiver Justin Bowick.
Oklahoma State Cowboys wide receiver Justin Bowick. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

In this story:

Oklahoma State Cowboys

STILLWATER, Okla. — The Oklahoma State Cowboys will have to recalibrate their goals for the rest of the 2026 season.

Oklahoma State (6-4, 4-3 in Big 12) lost to Texas Tech (9-1, 6-1), 52-27, on Saturday at Boone Pickens Stadium. The result essentially eliminated the Cowboys from the Big 12 Championship game. Oklahoma State needed to win and get help from several other teams to get there so it's not as if they controlled their own destiny. But the team that did control its own destiny, Texas Tech, played a much better, and much more effective game, than Oklahoma State.

Here is how each position group grades out after Saturday’s game.

Quarterback: C

Drew Mestemaker banged up his shoulder on the first possession of the game. He called it a “stinger” afterward. That hampered his throwing the next two possessions, but he got the zip back on the football after that.

He dealt with pressure all night. Texas Tech sacked him three times and hurried him five times. He was under constant duress and worked on the move — both planned and unplanned — more than he ever has. He threw for 277 yards and saw his eight-game streak of 300-yard passing games end. More importantly, he threw two interceptions both of which, frankly, could have been avoided. One thing he has struggled with is detecting defenders underneath intermediate routes.

He gutted his way through it. But the mistakes made were his and he owned them after the game.

Running Back: C

Oklahoma State Cowboys running back Caleb Hawkins is tackled by defenders during a game.
Oklahoma State Cowboys running back Caleb Hawkins. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

The Cowboys finished the game with 168 yards rushing. But to be fair, 80 yards of that came from William Mason and backup quarterback Broderick Vehrs at the end of the game. Starting running back Caleb Hawkins had one huge run in this contest, as he gained 42 yards on a play in the first half. But he finished the game with 18 carries for 91 yards and Texas Tech made him earn every bit of that.

Hawkins was involved in the passing game, as he caught 8 passes for 52 yards and because Texas Tech’s cornerbacks did a great job of blanketing receivers, Hawkins ended up leading the Cowboys in receptions.

It was a good game, but certainly not a great one.

Wide Receiver: C

After the game, wide receiver Terrence Lewis said the Red Raiders were playing a lot of cloud or wall coverage, meaning they we're not allowing the Cowboys to get anything outside. That's a good description. Oklahoma State had a hard time getting the football down the field for multiple reasons, and Cowboys wide receivers did a good, but not great job of getting open. Several times the Cowboys lost one-on-one matchups that they usually win.

The Red Raiders paid additional attention to Justin Bowick, who had five catches, and Lewis was the only one who matched the production. The group also had two dropped passes. Considering everything that happened it might have been their worst overall performance of the season. To be fair to the unit some of that had to do with Texas Tech’s corners and the pass rush.

Tight End: C-

There wasn't much for the group to do in this game. Morgan McPhaul was the only tight end that exited the game with a catch and his catch led to the only passing touchdown of the game for Drew Mestemaker. Otherwise, the tight ends were kept close to the line of scrimmage to help provide additional blocking against the Texas Tech pass rush that put Mestemaker under duress all night.

Oscar Hammond started again, but McPhaul has emerged as a nice short-yardage weapon that can do multiple things. But the Cowboys needed more from the position group than they got on Saturday.

Offensive Line: D+

This is one of those games where you don't need advanced analytics to figure out what happened. The Cowboys offensive line, led by center Tyler Mercer, was pushed around and that hasn’t happened for an entire game this season.

The Cowboys knew coming into the game that the Red Raiders possessed a great front four coming up a sub-par gaming as West Virginia. The Red Raiders figured out their issues and harassed quarterback Drew Mestemaker all night. Texas Tech did as good a job as any team of defending Oklahoma State outside zone run.

College Football Bracket Challenge

GET READY TO COMPETE

Pick your champion (you can change it later). We’ll email you when brackets open.

No purchase necessary. 50 U.S./D.C. 18+. Entry opens 3PM ET Dec 6, 2026 and closes 8PM ET Dec 18, 2026. Void where prohibited.See for complete details. The College Football Playoff (CFP) is not a sponsor or administrator of this contest.

The offensive line had a hard time getting push upfield on running plays and in pass blocking they were on their heels. The unit allowed three sacks and five quarterback hurries. It had a cascading effect on the rest of the offense.

Defensive Line: C

Head coach Eric Morris praised the front four’s overall consistency against the run game and the Cowboys focused on stopping the Texas Tech run. Quarterback Thomas Castellanos had rushed for more than 100 yards in each of his first two starts and he only rushed for 38 yards. J’Koby Williams rushed for 124 yards, but like Caleb Hawkins the yards were hard-earned except for two huge gash plays in zone run plays.

When it came to pressure Oklahoma State had two sacks and five pressures. Both sacks came from the front four. The unit was, at times, consistently around Castellanos but missed three key chances to get him on the ground and stop drives.

Defensive coordinator Skylar Cassidy mixed up fronts, sometimes using three down linemen and it was effective at times. The push was consistent up front, but it didn’t yield as much production as hoped.

Linebacker: C-

Isaiah Chisom started for Tate Romney for the second straight week and wasn't quite as effective as he was in the Kansas State game, though he did force a fumble that led to the only Texas Tech turnover of the game. Ethan Wesloski blended into the action and was banged up toward the end of the game. Taurean Davis was the primary backup, but you rarely heard his named called.

This group impacted winning against Kansas State. It didn’t against Texas Tech. But no unit on the defense did. I don’t think having Romney would have made that much of a difference.

Secondary: C-

Thomas Castellanos made Oklahoma State pay for paying extra attention to him in the running game. Even though Castellanos is not recognized for having a highly accurate arm downfield, he did enough to make Oklahoma State pay for trying to contain the run.

He threw four touchdown passes, with three of them for 30 yards or more. The 80-yard Micah Hudson touchdown reception started with a coverage bust and ended with a missed block in the back.

This wasn’t the Iowa State game. There were fewer pre-snap mistakes. But when a corner or a safety really needed to make a play, they couldn't get it done.

It says something that safety Evan Jackson had 10 tackles. The Cowboys played safeties in the box and left their corners playing one-on-one, matchups they didn’t win often enough.

LaDainian Fields had another shot at an interception early in the game but his streak of games with at least one interception ended at four.

Special Teams: D

Sam Keltner made both of his field goals and punter Lachie Pozzobon punted six times, the most he's punted in a game this season.

But there's one thing special teams units cannot do and that is give up points. The kickoff return that the Cowboys allowed to start the game was a tone-setter and a backbreaker. Morris talked about it after the game and said the Cowboys have struggled with outside contain on kickoff returns all season. The Red Raiders exploited it before they even took possession on offense.

Those are the things that drive special teams coordinators nuts and something that requires red in in a gradebook.

Coaching: C-

Offensively head coach Eric Morris did a lot of different things to open up the offense. He ran some Wildcat with Caleb Hawkins, a direct snap read option play with wide receiver Wyatt Young — who's a former high school quarterback — and a play-action shovel pass. But his play calling when it really mattered, on third and short and fourth and short, seemed lacking. He went back to the same types of plays that didn't work against Tulsa and that wasn't going to work against extremely good Texas Tech front forward.

Defensive coordinator Skylar Cassidy mixed up fronts and it was somewhat effective. But the reality is Saturday night was as much an execution problem as it was a scheme problem. The defensive talent just isn’t there yet and that what has stood out the most the past few weeks. The defense must execute at a higher level than the offense to succeed and it didn’t against Texas Tech.

Add us as a preferred source on Google
Published
Matthew Postins
MATT POSTINS

Matthew Postins is the publisher of Oklahoma State on SI. He is an award-winning sports journalist who was formerly the editor of the College Football America Yearbook and covers the Big 12 Conference for Heartland College Sports.

Share on XFollow PostinsPostcard
Home/Football