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11/07 16:59 CST Mestemaker and Hawkins lead Oklahoma State's dominant effort over Kansas State 66-28 Mestemaker and Hawkins lead Oklahoma State's dominant effort over Kansas State 66-28 By DAVID SMALE Associated Press MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) --- Drew Mestemaker became the first Bowl Subdivision player with four touchdown passes, one rushing touchdown and one receiving touchdown since Virginia's Brennan Armstrong against BYU in 2021 as Oklahoma State trounced Kansas State 66-28 on Saturday. Mestemaker, who finished 22-of-28 passing for 313 yards, had three first-half touchdown passes, and Caleb Hawkins had three first-half rushing touchdowns for the Cowboys. But when asked what he was most proud of after the game, OSU head coach Eric Morris said emphatically "Defense, no doubt about it. "Hats off to our staff. They did a phenomenal job putting together a great game plan. Our guys responded. I thought the turnovers and us playing complementary football and really being able to capitalize on some of those and get it out of hand by halftime was huge. "Obviously, Caleb and Drew had a nice day today and were able to do some stuff offensively. But (I'm) super proud of the defense." Hawkins rushed for 175 yards with three rushing touchdowns and added a receiving touchdown for Oklahoma State (6-3, 4-2 Big 12). "He had a really big day rushing the football, especially the first half," Morris said. "I thought that second drive of the third quarter, we were able to get it in his hands in the passing game a little bit and get him out in the open." Hawkins was thankful for the opportunity. "My mom raised me from very young (that) I was gonna have to work for everything, and nothing was gonna be given to me," he said. "Going out there, I just feel like I have to take advantage of the opportunity that I'm given." Kansas State dropped its third straight game to fall to 4-5, 1-5. "A lot of things didn't go very well," K-State coach Collin Klein said. "That starts with myself and our coaches. We didn't put our guys in good situations to be successful today, on either side of the football." After forcing a three-and-out on K-State's first possession, Oklahoma State went 72 yards on three plays to take the early lead. Mestemaker hit Justin Bowick for a 32-yard touchdown. Kansas State answered with its own three-play drive, with 73 of the 77 yards coming on a TD pass from Blake Barnett to Derrick Salley behind busted coverage. Hawkins' 21-yard touchdown run gave the lead back to the Cowboys. Hawkins then raced 37 yards for another score, putting him at 96 rushing yards with 5 minutes left in the first quarter. Mestemaker hit Morgan McPhaul for a 3-yard touchdown to extend the lead to 28-7. His first mistake was a pick-6 made by Logan Bartley. "Playing a game like that gets everyone back on track," Mestemaker said. "I felt like we had a really great game plan going into it. (We) kind of knew we could we could run the ball up front. Whenever we're running the ball good, and then have pass plays off the run plays, that really takes our offense to the next level." So was it as smooth as it appeared? "Yeah, I'd say so," he said. "Obviously it wasn't perfect; there's things we needed to clean up. But I felt like it was a pretty good day overall in the offensive side and defense side." Mestemaker ran it in from the 1-yard line to stretch the lead to 35-14, and Hawkins' third touchdown of the half made it 42-14. Mestemaker then found Miles Coleman on a 19-yard touchdown with 11 seconds left in the half for a 49-14 lead. In the third quarter, Mestemaker added a 5-yard TD pass to Hawkins and then caught a 5-yard TD from Wyatt Young.

The takeaway Oklahoma State: The Cowboys' offense was humming from the start. They were driving for their 28-7 first-quarter lead when they faced their first third down. Kansas State: The Wildcats allowed touchdowns on OSU's first six red-zone possessions.

Up next Oklahoma State: returns home next Saturday to host Texas Tech. Kansas State: plays at TCU next Saturday. ___ Sign up for Top 25 poll alerts here, visit the Top 25 here and see AP's full college football coverage here

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