The last time Zane Flores played in a Big Ten stadium, he threw for 414 yards and three touchdowns while running for 52 yards and another score.
That came in December of 2022 when he played for Gretna High in the Nebraska Class A State Championship at Lincoln Memorial Stadium, home of the Cornhuskers, a shootout he lost 43-41 to Omaha Westside.
Flores won Nebraska MaxPreps Player of the Year.
After a redshirt year, a medical hardship year (broken toe) and an injury to starter Hauss Hejny (broken foot) he's back in the lions' den again, this time as a first-time college starter on Saturday when Oklahoma State faces No. 6 Oregon in Autzen Stadium.
Despite head coach Mike Gundy claiming to be The Little Sisters of the Poor, the game will go on.
Flores, 6-3, 215, threw for 9,000 yards and 82 touchdowns at Gretna, a town of 9,000 21 miles southwest of Omaha. He ran for 29 more, a three-star quarterback in the class of 2023 who ranked No. 483 nationally and No. 30 at quarterback.
Zane Flores played in front of more people in the Nebraska State Championship game than Autzen holds.
— Wilson F. Ball, CFB Analyst (@WillyFoosball) September 2, 2025
Pokes by 50 pic.twitter.com/tlkUt5qQUY
Before Hejny went down in the first quarter Flores had never thrown a pass in a college game, yet he completed 13-20 for 136 yards and a touchdown against the Skyhawks, scrambling for 19 yards and a first down in the fourth quarter, 3rd and 10 from his own 8.
In the third quarter his 41-yard pass to Terrill Davis led to a Cowboy field goal.
Zane Flores was put into a very difficult position on Thursday. First, he's dealing with a ton of expectations; he was taking his first college snaps, and he was doing so in a situation where OSU had one arm tied behind its back in many ways.
— OState Daily (@Ostate_Daily) August 30, 2025
Once Hejny went down, OSU could not… pic.twitter.com/LMHDLLRYxe
After 20 years running the OSU program Gundy possesses a good feel for how to get a quarterback ready for a difficult situation. On Monday the OSU all-time great said, “He needs a good practice this week, and our coaches need to put him in a good position.”
“Need to give him things that — I guess what he does best. And he needs to go play and be aggressive, not look over his shoulder. He needs to go out and do what he’s done all of his life, play quarterback. Go out and play hard and have fun and compete, and our coaches need to put him in a good position.”
The highlight film shows good mobility and a bit of moxie, qualities he'll need in a loud stadium against a fierce pass rush. The Cowboy offense was creaky against UT-Martin; they had trouble running the football and a new offensive line struggled with inconsistency up front.
Flores boasts a nice cast of tall, fast receivers, something Dan Lanning feels they'll try to take advantage of by taking more deep shots. In Game One Flores and Hejney combined for three completions of over 30 yards.
They were hampered by their running game. which produced only 127 yards on 42 attempts, 3.02 per carry against their FCS opponents, mirroring the troubles Oregon had last year with Idaho. Running back Kalib Hicks still thinks they'll get it done against the Ducks.
“If they stack the box, we can throw it,” Hicks said. “And if they don’t, we run it. I think that for our team, whatever is open, we’ll take it.” The 5-11, 215-pound sophomore from Denton, Texas faltered in the opener, 56 yards on 21 carries.
Gundy doesn't think the noise in Autzen Stadium will be an issue. On Monday he told the press room, “I don’t know that will affect him a lot." Rarely has that been true for young starters at the Autzen Zoo.