WACO, Texas — No. 10 Oklahoma’s most significant offensive weapon sat on the bench wearing a beanie the entire game.
CeeDee Lamb, who has 983 receiving yards and 13 touchdowns on the season, watched as the Sooners tallied a 21-point deficit going into halftime against No. 13 Baylor.
The junior wide receiver sat out Saturday night on what head coach Lincoln Riley described as a “medical decision,” and the result was senior quarterback Jalen Hurts failing to utilize the offense around him in a disastrous first half. Hurts threw for 80 yards with a touchdown and an interception before halftime, and the Sooners found themselves down 28-3 early in the second quarter. Lamb’s absence was felt.
Enter Austin Stogner, Theo Wease Jr. and Jadon Haselwood — three freshmen.
Stogner caught the first touchdown of the game in the second quarter and another in the third, Wease Jr. showed flashes of brilliance with crafty runs after the catch and a 19-yard touchdown, and Haselwood caught a 16-yard pass to set up sophomore fullback Brayden Willis' touchdown in the fourth quarter to tie the game at 31-31. These three newcomers were thrown into the fire Saturday night, and their contributions were critical in OU’s comeback 34-31 win over the Bears.
“We expect anybody on the trip or on the field for us to make plays,” redshirt senior wide receiver Nick Basquine said. “Obviously they’re young guys — freshmen. But they have bright futures, and they came up big in the game.
“A lot of confidence. Once you get to this level, everybody’s good. Everybody can make plays. It’s about having the confidence and that belief in yourself. Them stepping up on this type of stage is going to give them that confidence, and they’re just going to grow from that.”
Stogner was thrown to twice. Both passes resulted in touchdown catches, and although the four-star recruit had only 8 yards, each of his scores set the tone of each half: His first touchdown was the only Oklahoma touchdown of the first half, and his second score was the first of three unanswered Oklahoma touchdowns in the second.
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Wease Jr. — one of OU's three five-star wide receivers along with Trejan Bridges and Jadon Haselwood — made his touchdown after the turning point of Oklahoma’s momentum: after senior cornerback Parnell Motley forced a fumble on Baylor’s first drive of the second half. Wease Jr. ran around a defender and outran four more to run 19 yards for the touchdown. He finished with 31 yards on the night on two targets.
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Haselwood was thrown to just once, but his 16-yard catch put the Sooners on Baylor's 19-yard line as time was winding down in the fourth quarter.
True freshman Jadon Haselwood with a huge first down catch.#OUDNA | #BoomerSooner pic.twitter.com/FLAyy3bLhS
— Sooner Gridiron (@soonergridiron) November 17, 2019
“You work so hard to bring in the right guys, and in recruiting you talk to them about the chance to play in big games like this,” Riley said. “And a chance to make those big winning plays. Tonight was exciting for the team first and foremost, but certainly exciting for the future with a lot of young guys making big plays.”
Wease Jr., Stogner and Haselwood’s breakout game was more than just a momentum-builder for the team's Big 12 Championship and College Football Playoff hopes — it was a glimpse of what’s to come in the next few years from the young talent Riley hasn’t fully set loose yet.
Saturday night, the three were exposed to a hostile environment, and they were put up against an undefeated team. In that game, with Lamb as a spectator, the three freshmen made big plays for a team with its back against the wall.
Hurts used them to lead the Sooners to their most critical performance of the year. The trio helped save Oklahoma’s season, and it likely won’t be their last time to do so.
“Just having CeeDee out, you just see we got weapons,” said redshirt sophomore wide receiver Charleston Rambo, who finished the game with 50 receiving yards. “Their years here are going to be great. They got a bright future.
“Just seeing them do that, it just lets us know we can do a lot more.”
