All the hype for Bedlam was whether Oklahoma State sophomore Justin Blackmon or OU junior Ryan Broyles would have a bigger game. Surprisingly, neither headlined the stat column at the games end Saturday.

Both senior receiver Cameron Kenney and junior tight end James Hanna lead the way for the Sooners this year against the Cowboys, not only with their late-game scores that put the game away but throughout the whole game as well.

While both Blackmon and Broyles topped the two other Sooners in receptions — eight and nine, respectively — they only accumulated 105 and 82 yards, compared to Kenney's 141 and Hanna’s 130. Blackmon, Broyles and Hanna all tied with one touchdown a piece, while Kenney led all receivers with two.

But it hasn’t always been glimmering success for Kenney and Hanna. Both Sooners have had their struggles. Kenney had a few too many drops last season and earlier this season, while Hanna dropped a perfectly thrown pass from senior holder John Nimmo on a fake field goal attempt against Texas A&M.

Despite the bumps in the road, both helped OU beat OSU in a big way Saturday, eventually sending the Sooners to the Big 12 Championship against Nebraska.

“I was really happy for both those kids,” receiver coach Jay Norvell said. “Those kids work hard, they really work hard for the program, and they just haven’t had the success that they had envisioned. We always tell them just keep working, keep fighting, keep studying and keep practicing hard and good things will happen.”

They are the perfect examples of what can happen if an athlete stays in the game and continues working to improve, Norvell said.

“Eventually, here you are going to get your opportunity, and you just need to be ready when it happens, and both of them really came through in a huge way,” he said. “I think they were a real example to our whole football team to just keep playing hard, believing in each other and good things will happen, so I’m just really happy for both of them.”

Amid all the playmakers on both sides of the ball, OU went to its depth chart instead of its starters for plays in the remaining minutes with senior running back DeMarco Murray on the sideline with an injury and Broyles fighting through double and triple teams. But it wasn’t an “all of the sudden” type thing — both Hanna and Kenney had plays all game.

Hanna provided three more catches, including a clutch first-down reception of 17 yards in the fourth quarter that led to a field go for OU, while Kenney had five additional receptions, including one touchdown early in the second quarter.

Norvell said both guys seemed like they had the hot hand, and he just went with what he saw on the field in his two non-typical offensive targets.

“It just makes a big difference whenever you’re on the field and you can look at the kid on the field, look a kid in the eye and get a feel of just what’s going on on the field. You can’t always do that in the box,” he said. “So I just tried to rotate those guys, and Cam had a great look in his eye and he was really ready to go, so it worked out well.”

With Broyles appearing in over 100 plays from the line of scrimmage last weekend, the rotation of players like Hanna and Kenney is very important, Norvell said. He explained that Broyles could not be expected to do that every week and that the new-found confidence is crucial for both players to perform up to the potential they showed in Bedlam for the rest of the season.

“Confidence is everything, and when these kids do something good, it helps them to feel that much more confident to go do it again, so I think both of those kids got a huge shot in the arm from those plays,” he said.

Their play, along with the increased role of true freshmen receivers Trey Franks and Kenny Stills, is why Norvell thinks this year’s offense will have much more success against Nebraska than last year’s did.

“I think we have more continuity and more confident playmakers, which is a big difference from last year,” he said. “And you know when we look back at the game, we moved the ball — we just didn’t get it in. And so we’ve got to take more of the positive things we did and just try to complete some more drives, and I think if we can do that then we will have success.”