The Houston Cougars and Oklahoma State Cowboys each head into their Saturday Big 12 matchup with questions surrounding who will line up under center in Stillwater, Okla.
For Houston (4-1, 1-1), the Cougars already matched their win total from last season’s 4-8 campaign but stumbled in a 35-11 defeat to the Texas Tech Red Raiders on Oct. 4. In the defeat, starting quarterback Conner Weigman left in the second quarter due to a concussion that was first announced as an upper-body injury.
“He’s in concussion protocol but doing pretty darn well. So, today he was going to do some stuff, but he wasn’t feeling very well. Had a cold and he’ll work back into tomorrow, the next day, and should be full speed,” said head coach Willie Fritz. “So, we’re looking forward to having him playing for us on Saturday.”
Before leaving the game, Weigman threw for 71 yards with his second interception of the season. Zeon Chriss replaced the junior quarterback and threw for 93 yards and the lone Houston touchdown at the end of the second quarter. The Cougars did not score again for the remainder of the game.
The outlook for Oklahoma State’s (1-4, 0-2) quarterback room is less promising after Zane Flores suffered a shoulder injury in the third quarter during the 41-13 loss to the Arizona Wildcats.
“Zane’s (Flores) probably not going to participate this week,” said interim head coach Doug Meacham. “We’re still kind of looking at it. We have Sam Jackson, who recently has gotten some reps and has played quarterback before. (Banks) Bowen would be another option for us there, who’s got a ton of reps, but we need to have our first practice to try to make that determination.”
Jackson entered for Flores and threw for 27 yards on 3-of-6 passing. The wide receiver played at quarterback with TCU and Cal before transitioning to a wide receiver last year at Auburn, while Bowen is a freshman at Oklahoma State and completed 1 of 3 attempted passes all season.
Since firing former head coach Mike Gundy on Sept. 23, the Cowboys are 0-2 with 18- and 28-point losses in Big 12 play.
The last time these two teams played, in 2023, the Cowboys won 43-30. Overall, the series is tied at 10-10-1 between the two teams.