Oklahoma State football: No one saw this coming out of backup quarterback J.W. Walsh

And to Cowboys coaches, too.

With quarterback Wes Lunt down and then out less than two minutes into a designated bounce-back game for the Cowboys, Walsh was called into service against Louisiana-Lafayette in a scoreless contest.

This wasn't mopup duty against Savannah State. Or the gimmick failed fourth-down run at Arizona.

This was real.

And frankly, outside of maybe receiver Josh Stewart, his old running pal at Denton's Guyer High, nobody knew what to expect from Walsh.

Practices and scrimmages hadn't revealed the best of the redshirt freshman.

Saturday's big stage did.

Walsh, entering amid seemingly dire circumstances, directed the Cowboys to a 44-0 halftime lead and on to a 65-24 win that eased all the uh-oh thoughts slicing through the silence when Lunt was sprawled holding his knee on the Boone Pickens Stadium turf.

Walsh completed 21-of-30 passes for 347 yards and four touchdowns and added 73 yards and another score rushing.

Who knew?

Not Mike Gundy.

“He had a couple practices in the spring where he was really good, early,” Gundy said. “But this is a complete different setting, because practice and scrimmages are one thing… this counts.”

Not offensive coordinator Todd Monken.

“Some of the plays he makes today,” Monken said, “you don't see in practice.”

Like Walsh's 13-yard scramble on a third-and-9 play, extending an eventual touchdown drive that boosted OSU's lead to 17-0. Like Walsh's 36-yard scamper away from pressure on a march to a 51-7 lead, capped by Walsh's 4-yard scoring run on a designed keeper.

Recruited at the end of the Zac Robinson era, Walsh suddenly found himself as a leg man in the armed attack OSU converted for Brandon Weeden and has now maintained with Lunt.