Oklahoma State’s Three Biggest Questions Entering Week 3 Game Against Murray State
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The Oklahoma State Cowboys must turn their attention to the Murray State Racers while everyone still wants to talk about the Oregon Ducks.
When the season concludes, Oklahoma State’s 39-31 win over Oregon may be one of the most impressive wins of the entire season across FBS. Few gave the Cowboys a chance to upend the Ducks and they did so with a brilliantly played game.
But coaches and players must move on fast in college football. The Cowboys are more than halfway through their week of preparation for their third game of the season against the Racers and Morris still has plenty of questions he needs to get answered before the Cowboys move into Big 12 play on Sept. 26 against West Virginia.
Here are the three biggest questions the Cowboys have — and have to answer — going into Saturday’s game.
What is Our Identity?
Even as Morris consistently praised his players for how they played against Oregon, he made the point on Tuesday that he his team has put two dramatically different performances on tape in each of their first two games.
As inconsistent as they were against Tulsa, the Cowboys seemed to correct most of their issues against Oregon. But therein lies the question — which team is the real Oklahoma State Cowboys?
Morris and his staff want to learn more about that against Murray State and get closer to cementing that identity before going into the Big 12 opener against West Virginia. By coming closer to doing so, it allows Morris and his staff to game plan more confidently going into the Mountaineers game. It also gives the players some assurance that they're moving in the right direction.
Who’s the Backup QB?
While coaches don't like to look ahead, it's fair to say that the Murray State Racers will be the least talented team the Cowboys play this season. The program has had a hard time in FCS the past few years and has won two games in the past two seasons.
Oklahoma State enters the game as a heavy favorite and if things work the way they appear on paper, the Cowboys could get many of their backups some extra playing time this weekend.
A huge lead by the end of the third quarter would give Morris an opportunity to give his two backup quarterbacks some reps. So far, Grant Jordan and Broderick Vehrs have sat idle on game day with neither taking a snap. Most Cowboys fans want to know who gets snaps in that situation? Or, if they both play, who gets them first?
Morris hasn’t had a chance to get either of them reps and this may be his only chance in the foreseeable future. It may be his only chance to see both in a live game situation and assess when one should take the ball if, heaven forbid, Drew Mestemaker is hurt.
Avoiding the Rat Poison
After beating Oregon, Morris mentioned another part of his job this week would be getting his players to ignore everyone telling them how great they were. For what it's worth, both Morris and Mestemaker did the rounds with the national media this week — and for good reason. The team earned some national publicity.
But Morris knows as well as anyone how quickly things can turn. After all this is the same team that received plenty of criticism after it lost to Tulsa in Week 1.
Morris wants to see if his players come out of the gate against Murray State the way they came out of the gate against Oregon. In other words — fast, loose, confident and effective. That will tell him whether the players have paid attention to him all week or spent their free time ingesting the rat poison that Nick Saban used to wax so eloquently about.
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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.
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