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STILLWATER, Okla. • Freshman Wes Lunt completed all 11 of his passes in a brief first outing as the new starting quarterback for No. 19 Oklahoma State, which beat outmatched Savannah State 84-0 on Saturday night.
The defending Big 12 champions drove for touchdowns on their first five possessions to take a 35-0 lead late in the first quarter. They then used the rest of the game as a scrimmage to get playing time for their reserves.
Joseph Randle ran for 107 yards and two TDs on just six carries, Desmond Roland added 104 yards rushing and Jeremy Smith ran for three scores to help the Cowboys open with an all-too-easy victory after losing stars Justin Blackmon and Brandon Weeden in the first round of the NFL draft.
The lopsided result hardly was a surprise. Savannah State (0-1), one of the worst teams from a lower division, had won only four games against Football Championship Subdivision competition in 10 years and was playing a team from the FBS for the first time.
Oklahoma State finished ranked No. 3 after winning its first Big 12 title and then taking down Andrew Luck and Stanford in the Fiesta Bowl last season.
The Tigers, who got a $385,000 payday for their troubles, scheduled another colossal test at No. 7 Florida State next Saturday.
The Cowboys took it relatively easy by using a slew of reserves from far down the depth chart after the opening quarter. By the end of the third quarter, 94 different Oklahoma State players had taken the field, and the points still were piling up.
Oklahoma State broke the school record with nine rushing touchdowns — two more than in a 54-0 victory against UTEP in 1977 but three shy of the NCAA record. Corey Bennett provided the final score on a 10-yard TD run with 1 minute, 20 seconds remaining.
It was the most lopsided victory for OSU since a 117-0 rout of Southwestern Oklahoma in 1916. It was Savannah State's worst loss since a 98-0 defeat against Bethune Cookman in 1953, a season when the Tigers were outscored 444-6. —