WR Sam Jackson Again Expected to Start at Quarterback, Meacham Expects Flores Back Soon
By MARSHALL SCOTT | Pistols Firing Blog
STILLWATER — The biggest story from the Cowboys’ loss to Houston this past weekend turned into shirtless fans waving their tarps above their heads in the midst of a blowout. But not far behind that storyline was the fact that Oklahoma State had a listed wide receiver starting at quarterback.
Those two threads show what a weird year it’s been in Boone Pickens Stadium for the Cowboys, and at least one of those storylines is continuing into this weekend’s matchup against Cincinnati.
Oklahoma State hosts the Bearcats at 7 p.m. Saturday for America’s Greatest Homecoming, where Jackson will again line up behind center with the keys to the Cowboy offense.
“I just appreciate that he would do that for his teammates,” OSU interim coach Doug Meacham said Monday. “I know he loves playing quarterback, but I think he feels like moving forward if he has a chance at the next level, it’d probably be as a return guy or a slot receiver. So, he’s kinda making a sacrifice, as well.
“He’s put a few games on tape, which demonstrates the ability to be a slot and a return guy. I know that, just like all these kids, there’s a lot of opinions coming at him. And I just appreciate him doing what we need as a team, and that’s what he’s doing. He’s a good teammate, good kid and just kinda glad we have him right now.”
A receiver playing quarterback sounds out there, and is, but in this case it’s not as out there as it seems. Jackson was recruited to TCU (by Meacham) to play quarterback back in 2021. He threw six passes in two seasons with the Horned Frogs before transferring to Cal, where he threw 97 times in 51 games, throwing for 556 yards and five touchdowns to two interceptions.
But, like Meacham mentioned, it became evident that Jackson’s NFL dream wasn’t going to come at that position, so when he transferred to Auburn ahead of the 2024 season, he switched over to catching passes instead of throwing them. He transferred to Stillwater with the same mindset.
After some spot QB duty in the first couple of weeks, Jackson went 7-for-16 with 84 passing yards and an interception in his first start at QB for the Cowboys.
It wasn’t an outstanding stat line by any means, but it’s hard to ask too much of a guy who just became a full-time quarterback again going into that game. It’s also not like the Cowboys’ passing attack was lighting the world on fire before Saturday, as it was the third time this season OSU failed to throw for at least 200 yards. OSU hasn’t eclipsed 300 yards in any game this season.
A bright spot, though, is that Jackson now has a full game film to review in hopes of a better performance against the Bearcats.
“You can talk about it and draw all that stuff, but once you watch yourself do it, it expediates all that stuff,” Meacham said. “You sit there from all the film angles that we have, it may slow the game down a little bit and see some of the rotations and the coverage stuff and maybe some of the things he should’ve done with the football or where his eyes should’ve been a couple times. Couple times when things broke down, maybe there’s some other alternatives to what he did.
“But any time you watch yourself do it, a lot of the kids, me included, you can talk about it all day long. Once I see myself doing it, I definitely pay attention a little bit more. I think that just resonates more once you see yourself doing it. So, for him to watch himself in a full game, that’s just gonna make him better and hopefully play a little but more to what he’s capable of doing.”
It doesn’t sound as if this move is a long term thing for the Cowboys, though. After Hauss Hejny went down with an injury, Zane Flores stepped into the starting role for the next four games. He suffered an upper-body injury against Arizona a few weeks back, leading to Jackson stepping in.
But on Monday Meacham sounded optimistic that Flores will be available again soon.
“I would say there’s probably something to be said about him in the next, probably about this time next week,” Meacham said. “So we’ll see how it goes.”
There’s also a world where Hejny comes back. In two of his three drives this season, Hejny led the Cowboys into the end zone. But he suffered a Jones fracture in that season opener leading to surgery.
“Hauss is good,” Meacham said. “I saw him today. He’s walking. He’s walking in a boot. He kind of was jumping up and down. I said, whoa, what are you doing? But you know, with the hardware he has in there, I don’t believe he can hurt it anymore. It already hurts. They’re just waiting on it to fully calcify, and I think it’s done that. Now it’s just getting the leg strong enough to be able to move around. So he’s come a long way. We’ll see what happens with that.”