The college football season cannot start soon enough for Oklahoma State, and it gets going Thursday night when the Big 12 side welcomes UT Martin to Stillwater, Okla. for the first game of the nonconference slate.

Over 19 seasons leading Oklahoma State, head coach Mike Gundy had one losing season — his first. That changed in his 20th season when the Cowboys went a surprising 3-9, without a single conference victory to their name for the first time since 1994.

Now, with former running back Ollie Gordon gone to the NFL and a squad of four freshman quarterbacks without a single college football in-game throw between them, Gundy has his work cut out for him.

“We had more issues over the summer than we’ve ever had,” Gundy said. “You have 35 guys that showed up in June and two days later they’re out here training with us like they’ve been with us before, and they haven’t. But we had to work through that, and we did. We have 102 guys practicing right now and I feel like 99 of those guys are 100 percent committed to Oklahoma State football.”

Hauss Hejny is the only quarterback with college experience after the freshman was a reserve for one season with TCU, where he carried the ball 15 times for 65 yards but didn’t throw the ball once.

Oklahoma State welcomes the Skyhawks, an FCS side who enter this season after a vastly different ending to the Cowboys’ 2025. UT Martin won at least a share of the Ohio Valley Conference championship in each of the last four seasons.

However, this year UT Martin enters with a quarterback battle of its own between Jase Bauer and returning backup quarterback Julian Calvez.

“We’ve been real pleased with Jase Bauer,” head coach Jason Simpson said. “You know, we’re excited about … what both those guys bring to the table.”

Bauer enters this season after two seasons with Central Michigan and one with Sam Houston State. He played in 25 games at the FBS level and threw for 2,626 yards, 15 touchdowns and 14 interceptions.

–Field Level Media