Oklahoma State Freshman Maealiuaki Smith Shines Against Red Raiders
The 2024 Oklahoma State football season has been tough to watch since the opening game of the Big 12 Conference. The Cowboys have now lost eight straight Big 12 games following their 56-48 loss to the Texas Tech Red Raiders. The Cowboys are on pace to become one of the worst football teams in the history of the program.
Prior to their matchup against the Red Raiders, the Cowboys had looked like one of the worst teams in the conference, but they managed to resemble the Pokes of old in their narrow loss to Texas Tech. The Cowboys finally put the ball in the hands of freshman quarterback Maealiuaki Smith, and he put together a dazzling performance.
Maealiuaki Smith has injected LIFE into Oklahoma State
— Unnecessary Roughness (@UnnecRoughness) November 23, 2024
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The Oklahoma State coaching staff appeared to be protecting Smith’s redshirt in the previous weeks, but with another freshman season secured, Smith took to the field and showed exactly why he was one of the top quarterbacks of his class.
Smith completed 26-of-36 passes on the day for a career-high 326 yards. He averaged 9.1 yards per completion on the night and completed passes to five different Oklahoma State receivers. More than a third of those completions went to senior wide receiver Brennan Presley who hauled in 10 catches for 55 yards in his final football game in Boone Pickens Stadium.
The freshman gunslinger had a pair of 100-yard receivers on the day with De’Zhaun Stribling leading the way with 133 receiving yards and Rashod Owens was not far behind with 124 receiving yards. Both of those receivers were recipients of Smith touchdown passes.
Oklahoma State might have a QB in Maealiuaki Smith
— Unnecessary Roughness (@UnnecRoughness) November 23, 2024
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Smith also showed that he was capable of making things happen on the ground. He scored his first career rushing touchdown on a 13-yard run in the third quarter to even the game up at 28-28. His touchdown pass to Stribling came at a crucial moment in the game at the beginning of the fourth quarter with the Cowboys trailing by seven. Smith threaded the needle and found Stribling in the back of the endzone to tie the game once again at 35-35.
The Cowboys ran out of time late in the game and fell 56-48. Although it was a heartbreaking loss, the play of Maealiuaki Smith has Cowboy fans itching to see what is in store for the program in 2025.
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Taylor Skieens has been an avid sports journalist with the McCurtain Gazette in Idabel, Oklahoma for seven years. He holds the title of Sports Editor for one of the oldest remaining print publications in the state of Oklahoma. Taylor grew up in the small lumber town of Wright City Oklahoma where he played baseball and basketball for the Lumberjax.