STILLWATER, Okla.—Brandon Weeden had a choice to make: Keep chasing the big leagues or start going after dream No. 2.
Good thing for Oklahoma State he decided to drop baseball and give college football a try.
Weeden, the third-string quarterback, threw for 168 yards and two touchdowns in the second half Thursday night to lead the No. 12 Cowboys back from an 11-point deficit for a 31-28 win against Colorado.
The victory kept No. 3 Texas from clinching the Big 12 South and kept OSU in line for a possible at-large berth to a Bowl Championship Series game.
Weeden ended up at Oklahoma State after a five-year swing through minor league baseball, starting when he was taken by the New York Yankees in the second round of the 2002 draft. He was still in Class A when his pitching shoulder started giving him trouble, and he was going to need surgery or some time away from baseball to get healthy again.
“I was getting to the point where it’s kind of crunch time. You’re either making it to the big leagues or you’re not,” Weeden said. “I always knew if I didn’t have a chance to play in the big leagues, I wanted to play college football.”
He chose to play for OSU, where he had originally signed as a baseball player out of Edmond Santa Fe High School, just north of Oklahoma City. He redshirted in 2007, got stuck behind entrenched starter Zac Robinson and beaten out for the backup job by junior Alex Cate.
But with Robinson’s shoulder dinged up and Cate 0 for 9 with an interception at halftime, Weeden finally got his big break against the Buffaloes. Quarterbacks coach Robert Matthews delivered the news, and Weeden went off to tell each lineman and receiver he needed them to make plays.
“We had a lot of football to play, a lot of game left, and I just tried to keep everybody calm,” Weeden said. “Everybody was kind of pressing a little bit at times, and I think it showed.”
His teammates also got a boost from Weeden’s reputation for being able to deliver passes other quarterbacks can’t. Cornerback Perrish Cox even suggested Weeden could throw the ball 80 yards.
“We all know Weeden can throw the ball. He’s a baseball guy,” said tailback Keith Toston, who rushed for 172 yards and caught a 47-yard touchdown pass from Weeden. “He stepped in and made some plays that Zac would make.”
Weeden, 26, made all the big plays on a crucial scoring drive after Oklahoma State had taken the lead and then immediately given it back on Brian Lockridge’s 98-yard score on a kickoff return with 11:11 to play.
He scrambled to his right and found tight end Justin Horton for an 18-yard pickup on third-and-11, then connected with Hubert Anyiam for 27 yards on third-and-9. The capper was a pumpfake play that was supposed to go to his left, but he freelanced to his right and gunned the ball 28 yards to Justin Blackmon to put OSU up 31-28.
“I’m not surprised by anything, as far as throwing, that he can do,” said Blackmon, who was in all-out scramble mode when he headed to the back, right corner of the end zone. “He’s got a very strong arm, and he can throw that thing pretty much anywhere on the field.”
Colorado (3-8, 2-5), which also had to play switcheroo at quarterback after starter Tyler Hansen injured his right thumb, had one final chance to go for the win after stuffing OSU on fourth-and-short for the third time in the game with 3:14. Hansen threw three straight incomplete passes before a punt, and the Cowboys ran out the final 2:45.
“You have to punt right there,” Buffaloes coach Dan Hawkins said. “You’ve got all your timeouts and your defense has played well to that point.”
Hawkins also decided to go for it on fourth-and-3 instead of having Aric Goodman attempt a 46-yard field goal earlier in the fourth quarter, one possession after Goodman’s 50-yard try caromed off the right upright.
Hansen threw for 169 yards and two touchdowns. Cody Hawkins, who played three drives in the second quarter while Hansen was getting X-rays, threw for 69 yards and a touchdown that put Colorado up 14-10 at halftime.
“It’s real frustrating,” Hansen said. “We were so confident in the first half and third quarter. We played real well tonight. It’s real disappointing that we were that close.”
