Cowboys offense still humming

After the 2011 season, Oklahoma State lost two first-round draft picks — and arguably the best two players at their respective positions in school history — in quarterback Brandon Weeden and wide receiver Justin Blackmon.

Then in the first offensive series of the Cowboys’ third game, they lost their starting quarterback in Wes Lunt.

Still, the Cowboys’ uptempo spread offense has continued to roll so far in 2012. OSU ranks in the top six in the nation in scoring offense (first-62.33 yards per game), total offense (first-686.67 yards per game), passing offense (fourth-378.33 yards per game) and rushing offense (sixth-308.33 yards per game).

“We’ve got pretty good players,” OSU coach Mike Gundy said. “I think we have a good scheme and we have flexibility in our offense and we can do different things…we’ve always tried to have some sort of a system that gave us flexibility to do both (run and pass).

“I don’t know that anybody has a perfect system, but we have to be able to make adjustments.”

Of course, a school named Savannah State skews these numbers. And Gundy cautioned not to read too much into the offensive stats right now, since the meat of the Cowboys’ schedule is still ahead, starting with their Big 12 opener against Texas on Sept. 29.

KICKOFF TIME, TV SET FOR OSU-TEXAS

OSU officially announced Monday morning that its Sept. 29 game against No. 12 Texas at Boone Pickens Stadium will kick off at 6:50 p.m. and will be televised nationally by Fox.

FOX released a tentative schedule last month that said the game would kick off at 6:30 p.m. That schedule also included the OSUKansas State game, which is slated for a 2 p.m. kickoff in Manhattan.

OSU has won two consecutive games against Texas, with both victories coming in Austin. It will be the Big 12 opener for both teams, as the Cowboys and Longhorns have a bye this week.

Next Saturday’s game will be OSU’s second-ever appearance on Fox, the first being the 2010 Cotton Bowl against Mississippi.

WALK-ON JASE CHILCOAT COULD RETURN AS NO. 3 QB

With Lunt out with a knee injury for at least the immediate future, OSU is now only two deep at quarterback.

J.W. Walsh and Clint Chelf are the new 1-2, of course. But the other two quarterbacks on the roster — Daxx Garman and Cody Peterson — are both ineligible this season, offensive coordinator Todd Monken said following Saturday’s win against LouisianaLafayette. Garman is sitting out and redshirting after transferring from Arizona, while Peterson is a walk-on who transferred from Arizona Western Junior College. So, who’s No. 3? Jase Chilcoat, perhaps? Chilcoat is no longer playing football, but at one time was a walk-on quar- terback from Midwest City.

“He’s still around campus somewhere,” Monken said. “We’ll have to re-call him, because we don’t have anybody else. I was on the headset going, ‘Might have to get him,’ because at least he knows some of what we’re doing.

“Otherwise, you’d have to go Joe Randle in the Wildcat (formation).”

Was Monken joking? Half-joking? Maybe, maybe not. OSU coach Mike Gundy said Chilcoat could be an option.

And Chilcoat is definitely “around campus somewhere.” In fact, he was amongst the press Saturday, practicing doing radio play-by-play of the game as part of a broadcasting class that Voice of the Cowboys Dave Hunziker teaches in OSU’s sports media program.

Is it time for Chilcoat to get out of the broadcast booth and onto the practice field this week?

“I don’t know what my life will be like in 24 hours…” Chilcoat said in a tweet Monday afternoon.