Cowboys revitalize rushing attack behind Keith Toston, Kendall Hunter
BY JOHN ROHDE, Staff Writer, jrohde@opubco.com
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Published: November 8, 2009
AMES, Iowa — On a day when senior quarterback Zac Robinson became Oklahoma State's career leader in passing yards, it was a revitalized rushing attack that keyed a 34-8 victory over Iowa State at Jack Trice Stadium.
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A sunbaked crowd of 40,540 watched the Cowboys rush for a season high 331 yards, with senior Keith Toston amassing a career high 206 yards.
The effort coincidentally came against a team that entered with the Big 12's top rushing attack.
"We knew coming in we could probably exploit them running the football," Robinson said. "We felt good about the matchup running and definitely took advantage of it."
Robinson was confident even though senior right tackle Brady Bond was unable to make his 40th career start because of an ankle injury and was replaced by senior Andrew Mitchell. OSU's revamped offensive line still averaged 6.1 yards-per-rush.
Back in the mix was junior tailback Kendall Hunter, who began the year as the starter, suffered a foot injury in the second quarter against Houston on Sept. 12, and had just one carry since.
Hunter had nine carries for 47 yards, an average of 5.2 yards-per-carry. "It was nice to go out there and back in the groove," Hunter said.
Though his right foot has been slow to heal, Hunter said he never had any desire to redshirt this season, though he would have been eligible.
"I knew it was an injury that I would come back from," Hunter said. "It's hard for me to just sit out and see everybody else playing. I really want to be out there and help my team."
Toston smiled when asked about Hunter's return and said, "That's big anytime you can have two backs like me and Beau pound on the defense a little bit, then get a guy in there like Kendall that's a 4.3 and can change speeds, it can give a defense a little trouble."
The normally shifty Hunter ran straight forward, had little lateral movement and is nowhere near a 4.3 clocking right now.
"I thought Kendall gave us a little," OSU coach Mike Gundy said. "He's not Kendall, yet. I know he was in the open field a couple of times and I would say early in the year last year if that had happened there's a good chance he'd have been gone. Is he back to normal? Again, it didn't look like it to me, but it's really nice to get him back in there. It takes some of the load off Keith."
Toston averaged 8.2 yards-per-carry and had a career-long rush of 69 yards, but he was tackled at the 2-yard line.
"I probably should have scored on it," Toston admitted. "I'm going to hear about it on Monday from my coach."
OSU utilized its top three running backs. Beau Johnson added 36 yards on eight carries.
"It was fun seeing Kendall back out there," Robinson said. "Obviously, he brings a whole different element to this offense. It was great to see those guys back out there kind of rotating in."
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