New-look Cowboys open against Washington State

STILLWATER, Okla. -- After spending five years building his program at Oklahoma State, Mike Gundy is all but starting over.

He has a new quarterback, a new offense and four new starters on the front line. On the defensive side, eight of the 11 players from last year's starting lineup have been replaced heading into the season opener Saturday night at home against Washington State.

What hasn't changed is the level of expectations.

"We won nine last year. We want to win nine or more this year. That's just kind of where this program's at right now," said Brandon Weeden, who will replace Zac Robinson as the starting quarterback. "It's our job to kind of keep up what those guys started before us."

It all starts against a Cougars team trying to leap forward after winning a total of three games in Paul Wulff's first two seasons as head coach. Oklahoma State won 39-13 when the teams met two years ago in Seattle in Wulff's first game in charge of the Cougars.

Last season, Washington State ranked last among the nation's 120 Division I teams in total defense and next-to-last in total offense.

"We feel like we're a much, much improved football team. There's no question in our minds," Wulff said. "But we've got to go out now and do that on game day."

The Cougars will start sophomore quarterback Jeff Tuel, who last year became only the second true freshman in Washington State history to start, getting the nod in five games before his season was cut short by an injury.

Oklahoma State will go with the 26-year-old Weeden, who will be making his first start and replacing the school's career leader in passing and total offense.

Weeden's most valuable experience came while he led Oklahoma State to a second-half comeback in a win against Colorado last season. He also played late in games when OSU was up big and after Oklahoma had sewn up a victory over the Cowboys in the annual Bedlam rivalry game.

It'll be the first start for Weeden since 2001. Since then, his senior year of high school, he spent five years in minor league baseball after being a second-round pick by the New York Yankees and then sat behind Robinson on the depth chart.

Weeden is only the most talked-about newcomer to the Cowboys' lineup. Just three starters are back from last season's defense that was the best in Gundy's five years as coach, and the offense isn't much more experienced.

"We want to surprise some people. We're going to be better than we're getting a lot of credit for," Weeden said. "This team, it's going to be fun. We've got a lot of weapons on offense and the defense looks great."

The game will also mark the debut of OSU's offense under new coordinator Dana Holgorsen, the architect of the nation's most productive attack last season at Houston. He'll have at his disposal Kendall Hunter, the nation's sixth-leading rusher two seasons ago before he was slowed last season by an injury.

"It's going to be similar, but you've got to take your personnel and you've got to adjust what you feel like you do well to be able to have success," Holgorsen said. "If you look at all the games that I did last year, each game was a little different.

"I know we'll be comfortable with what we decide to do."

It doesn't hurt that he'll be calling plays against a unit that gave up 512 yards and 38 1/2 points per game last season.

"We've got to understand that they're going to get their yards, and they always do, and realize that we can't panic and we (must) be controlled in our approach," Wulff said.

Last season, Holgorsen's offense produced a Heisman Trophy candidate in Case Keenum, who threw for an NCAA-best 5,671 yards and 44 touchdowns. This time, he'll be starting out with a new quarterback and only one receiver who caught more than 20 passes last season.

"We're going to do what he's always done, and he's had success doing it," Weeden said. "We're going to play fast, try to catch them off guard and try to run them out of the stadium."