Tylan Wallace Is Looking To Be Just as Explosive Against Iowa State as He Was in 2019
STILLWATER – Flash back to late Oct. 2019. The news broke on the Wednesday before the TCU game that receiver Tylan Wallace was done for the year as he had suffered a torn ACL. Devastating news as Tylan was one of the favorites to win the Biletnikoff Trophy and was just coming off a dominating performance in the upset of Iowa State in Ames.
Wallace had hauled in eight receptions for 131 yards and one touchdown. Oh, and that touchdown came on the play where Wallace stiff armed an ISU defender back to the second grade.
Broken tackles ➡️ stiff arm x2 🖐
— Action Network (@ActionNetworkHQ) October 26, 2019
Tylan Wallace takes it to the crib to give Oklahoma St (+11) with the early lead...
pic.twitter.com/qqQG1xCmxa
"That was just kind of me playing football,” said Wallace during Tuesday Zoom call. “I really didn't expect to end up in the end zone on that play, I just kind of was going out there and playing football. I saw a guy coming up to me, I just put my shoulder down, kept my balance and kept going from there, and just made plays I guess.”
Wallace rehabbed the injury for the next several months and was ready to start fall camp in August with a non-contact green jersey. However, that didn’t last that long and he was out there with full contact and seemed just as explosive as he was before the injury.
There aren’t too many situations where an athlete, in any sport, tears an ACL or has a major knee injury and comes back just as healthy and has explosive as they were before they went down.
"I think most of it comes in the rehab process,” said Wallace. “It's all really a mindset type thing, at least that's what I was told. You really got to attack rehab and I feel like I did that going in. I feel like I went in and did what I was supposed to do, worked as much as I could on it and tried to get back right. I think that was a really big – key thing for me is that I wanted to be where I was, I didn't want to kind of just half-ass through rehab and kind of just be somewhat back to where I was. I wanted to be back and possibly better than what I was, so I made sure to attack the rehab process as hard as I could."
2020 has been a weird year and that’s carried over to the football season. Oklahoma State should be entering game five against Iowa State, but will mark just the fourth game of the season in the second to last week of October.
Despite it being a weird season that saw starting quarterback Spencer Sanders sidelined the last three games with an ankle injury, Wallace has still got his yards. He’s sitting at 19 receptions for 325 yards and two touchdowns.
Iowa State is going to be a tough opponent for Oklahoma State as the Cyclones are starting to find their rhythm. But I would fully expect Wallace to go out, be just as explosive and get his yards.
"I think you got to come out there, especially this week [against Iowa State] and go out there and just be physical," said Wallace. "I think that's the really key thing for us, especially on offense; just go out there and make sure we're a physical football team and go out there and do what we're supposed to do."
Kickoff for Oklahoma State and Iowa State in Stillwater this Saturday is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. CT on FOX.
