Oklahoma QB Dillon Gabriel (offensive), Iowa State DB Beau Freyler (defensive), Oklahoma State CB Cameron Epps (newcomer) and Kansas PR Trevor Wilson (special teams) garnered Big 12 football weekly awards after helping their teams to Conference wins. Gabriel picked up his second honor of the season and the fifth of his career while the others earned their first recognition.
With his team trailing 30-27 with 1:17 to go and no timeouts, Gabriel drove Oklahoma 75 yards and threw a three-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Nic Anderson with 15 seconds remaining to give the Sooners a 34-30 win over No. 3 Texas on Saturday in the Cotton Bowl in Dallas. He completed 23 of 38 passes for 285 yards and a touchdown and rushed for a career-high 113 yards and a TD on 14 carries (8.1 yards per rush). The redshirt senior committed no turnovers and became the first Sooner to throw for at least 250 yards and rush for at least 100 yards in a game vs. Texas. Gabriel, whose previous career high in rushing yards was 64, registered a 44-yard run in the fourth quarter, which stands as OU’s longest rush of the season. He helped direct the Sooners to their first win against an AP top-five team since 2017 as OU gained 486 yards and scored 34 points against a Texas team that entered the day giving up 290.8 yards and 12.8 points. OU improved to 6-0 on the season and to 3-0 in conference play. Gabriel graduated from OU with a degree in multidisciplinary studies and is pursuing a master’s in human relations.
Freyler had his first career multiinterception game and led all tacklers with 11 stops as Iowa State beat TCU 27-14 to improve to 2-1 in Big 12 action. Both of Freyler’s interceptions came in the red zone to stop TCU drives. He recorded his fifth career game with double-digit tackles and now ranks inside the Big 12 Top 10 in both tackles and interceptions, the only Big 12 player to do so. Along with Freyler’s two interceptions, ISU had another pair of picks for its first four-interception game against a Conference opponent since 2005 (vs. Oklahoma State). The junior kinesiology student also had a pass breakup in the game.
In his second career start, Epps recorded the first two interceptions of his career, two additional pass breakups and five tackles in Oklahoma State’s 29-21 win over K-State. His first interception came in OSU territory on K-State’s second drive of the game. His second came on a thirddown play with less than 45 seconds remaining in the first half, as he cut off an out route and returned it down the sideline 35 yards to give the Cowboys a 20-7 lead entering halftime. Epps broke up a pass in OSU territory on K-State’s final possession of the game to help lock up the victory. The business major is the first Big 12 player to record multiple interceptions in a Conference matchup this season and the first Big 12 freshman to record multiple interceptions in a conference matchup since 2019. Epps is the only FBS freshman with a pick-six against a Power Five team this season and the first OSU freshman with two interceptions in a game since Shaun Lewis (vs. Oklahoma, November 27, 2010).
Wilson fielded one punt in Kansas’ 51-22 win over UCF in which he returned for an 82-yard touchdown. The TD was the junior’s first special teams score of his career and is the first punt return touchdown by a Jayhawk since Nick Harwell had a 76-yarder for a score against West Virginia in 2014. Wilson’s punt return TD is the fifthlongest in Kansas football history and is the longest by a Big 12 player in a Conference game this season.
