By now, Weeden knows to expect some gag gift from his teammates, and they could easily remind him of his age and his unconventional career path with a birth certificate showing that he was born 49 days before Aaron Rodgers, the quarterback of the Green Bay Packers. Or maybe a plaque showing that Weeden is older than 16 of the 32 starting N.F.L. quarterbacks.
“Somebody bought him some old-man diapers for his birthday last year,” wide receiver Justin Blackmon said. “That was pretty funny.”
The No. 6-ranked Cowboys could simply mark the occasion with a second consecutive victory over No. 22 Texas in Austin and pass a crucial signpost en route to the Bedlam Game on Dec. 5 against No. 3 Oklahoma. Oklahoma State (5-0) sits on the fringe of the national title discussion, and can enhance its standing for the first Bowl Championship Series rankings this weekend.
Weeden lurks behind Andrew Luck and others as an afterthought in a Heisman Trophy race that is gathering steam among the nation’s top quarterbacks.
“I embrace it, because it’s going to be there,” Weeden said of the Heisman talk. “That’s one thing where my age helps in dealing with it, but that stuff will take care of itself.
“Such a big deal has been made of my age. I use it to my advantage. I think it’s a positive this year. I think it’s a positive for my future. It’s one of those deals, the way I look at it is, name one person who wouldn’t want to be in the position I am, and have the kind of path I’ve had?”
Weeden idolized the Yankees while growing up in Edmond, Okla., and his favorite players were Derek Jeter and Don Mattingly. So when the team picked him as a pitcher in the second round of the 2002 amateur draft, Weeden said it was an easy call. He was traded in 2003 to the Los Angeles Dodgers as part of the deal for pitcher Kevin Brown, and also spent time with the Kansas City Royals, before shoulder problems wore down his pitching motion and ended his career after five seasons in the minors.
“The opportunity was too good, and baseball was always my thing,” Weeden said. “The day I signed the contract, I remember thinking, if this doesn’t work out, then I’ve always got college football. My goal was to make it to the big leagues the entire time, but unfortunately it didn’t work out.”
Weeden, who walked on at Oklahoma State in 2007 and redshirted, has completed 166 of 219 passes for 1,880 yards and 15 touchdowns this season. Of the Heisman-hopeful quarterbacks whose teams are ranked in the top 7, Weeden has the best completion percentage (75.8), more accurate than Russell Wilson (74.8 percent) of No. 4 Wisconsin; Kellen Moore (74.0) of No. 5 Boise State; Luck of No. 7 Stanford (73.1); and Landry Jones of No. 3 Oklahoma (69.3).
Weeden also leads in passing yardage, throwing for 497 yards more than Luck, 489 more than Moore and 66 more than Jones.
“Every time we step on the field, we get a little bit better, our timing gets better, our chemistry gets stronger,” said Blackmon, the reigning Biletnikoff Award winner as the nation’s best receiver and Weeden’s top target, with 46 catches for 534 yards and 6 touchdowns. “He’s the best. I wouldn’t trade him for anything.”
Texas might be 4-1, but it finds itself reeling after a 55-17 throttling by Oklahoma. The Sooners carved the Longhorns’ secondary into brisket, and Oklahoma’s defense forced five turnovers and scored three touchdowns.
Texas Coach Mack Brown said he was already worried about the Cowboys after the thrashing.
“We don’t have any time to sit back and feel sorry for ourselves,” Brown said.
Blackmon said: “We know they’re going to come out swinging. They’re not going to take things lightly. We’re not going to go in looking at what O.U. did and expecting the same thing.”
No matter the outcome of the Red River Rivalry in Brown’s 13 seasons, the Longhorns have always won their next game. That could be a difficult streak to continue against an Oklahoma State offense that is averaging 51.4 points, tops in the country. In the Cowboys’ 33-16 victory last year, Weeden passed for 409 yards.
“We should be able to get better because we had three hours of defending some of the best receivers and the best quarterback in the country, and now we’re going to have three hours of defending one of the best quarterbacks and some of the best receivers in the country,” Brown said. “So I think it’s on us to get better.”
Video: Oregon State's Katz and Foster - College Football Nation Blog - ESPNespn.memberservices.welcome();EDITIONS:USADEPORTESMoreAsiaAustraliaBrazilUnited KingdomCITIES:BOSTONCHICAGODALLASLOS ANGELESNEW YORKESPNCollege Football.ie6 #searchBox, .ie6 #searchBox div { display: inline; } 815297College Football Nation BlogBlogs HomeCollege FB NationACCBig 12Big EastBig TenPac-10SECespn.core.init.flashHeader(jQuery('#sub-section-title'));window.fbAsyncInit = function() {FB.init({appId: "116656161708917",cookie: true, // these two are not required for partners thatstatus: true, // only rely on stk plugins and don't use connectxfbml: true,channelUrl: document.location.protocol + '//' + document.domain + '/facebook/channel.html'});jQuery(document).ready(function () {FB.XFBML.parse();FB.Event.subscribe('edge.create', function(href, widget) {if(typeof anTrackLink === 'function') {anTrackLink(jQuery('.fb_iframe_widget')[0],'espn','facebook','like');}});});};(function() {var e = document.createElement('script'); e.async = true;e.src = document.location.protocol + '//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js';document.getElementById('fb-root').appendChild(e);}());.post-wrapper .mod-content img, .post-wrapper .mod-content table { vertical-align: none; }.mod-blog-post .mod-inline .mod-content p.stats-title {margin: 0 !important;}.mod-blog-post .mod-content ul.stats li {margin: 0 !important;} Video: Oregon State's Katz and FosterNovember, 17, 2010Nov 176:01PM ETEmailPrintCommentsBy ESPN.com staff
Oregon State QB Ryan Katz and Washington LB Mason Foster are on the spot in Week 12.Share Tags:
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