We are now into week six of the 2021-22 college football season and a good time to reflect on what things look like at this point for the Oklahoma State Cowboys team. My wife and I have been attending the OSU home games and enjoying every minute of it. The Cowboys are 5-0 with an open week before heading Austin to take on the Longhorns next Saturday. I like what I see for the Cowboys so far. Yes, they have struggled offensively and all of the games have been "close". However, the defense is playing very well and I see enough improvement in the offense to feel good about the remainder of the regular season. Our offensive line is starting to play better and our running game is gradually improving. The main concern I have at this point is our passing game. We are having to play 2 or 3 freshmen at WR (due to injuries) and while they are very talented they are still freshmen. My concern is more with the play of Spencer Sanders (when it comes to passing). Though he is a junior and has playing experience, there are times that he presses and makes poor decisions throwing the ball. The good news is that his running ability helps keep defenses more "honest" and allows greater opportunity for our running back to find a gap opening to run. Perhaps the brightest spot for the Cowboy offense so far is Jaylen Warren (running back). He is quick, strong, and consistently runs hard. He makes good decisions on making cuts and bursts with great speed once he decides on where to cut up the field. As for those who may things are "bad" for the Cowboys, I would think it mainly relates to our offensive struggles and to the lack of education about the technical aspects and complexities of the game. Sure, it is expected that fans want our team to look perfect and "dominate" opponents. However, the talent and coaching is very close to the same for all major college teams and there is "thin" difference to negotiate wins with. Inexperience at key positions, injuries to key players, and the natural "breaks" that occur can make a huge difference in the outcome of most games. So, I believe there is greater credible evidence to feel "good" about the Cowboys to this point of the season. Of course we will know more soon as the Cowboys have to travel to Texas and to Iowa State for their next two games. The good news about these challenging road games is that Texas has to play against OU before playing the Cowboys and Iowa State has to play Kansas State prior to playing OSU. Go Pokes!
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Saturday is Bedlam. Oklahoma State heads to Norman, Oklahoma to take on the Oklahoma Sooners.
OU is a 7-9 point favorite and history strongly suggests the Sooners will win. However, This college football season (and the COVID 19 situation) has not been "normal" in any sense and it just may be that the Cowboys will find a way to beat the odds and history. The Cowboys enter the game with many questions about the health of players (especially on the offense) and with an offensive line that is mostly inexperienced (and young). The Sooners come into the game on the rise (after losing 2 games early in the season) and very confident. While I won't be surprised if OU wins, my hope is that the Cowboys find a way to win. In fact, my confidence for a Cowboy victory is high (though I can't logically explain why). Go Pokes!!! Oklahoma State beat Oregon State 52-36 last night (actually, in Oklahoma it was very early this morning as the game didn't end until around 1:15 am this morning).
It was an impressive victory given the Cowboys were on the road for the opening game and playing several "young" and mostly inexperienced players. Spencer Sanders started at QB and did a fantastic job of executing the offense, passing and rushing. Chubba Hubbard (RB) had an outstanding game with over 200 yards rushing on just 23 attempts and WR Tylan Wallace made some great catches (and scored 2 receiving TDs). Knowing some fans had high hopes that the Poke defense would be much improved this season (2nd year for Defensive Coordinator Knowles), I would think they may come away from this game with concerns. However, given the number of young and inexperienced players thrown into the fire for the first time, I felt they played well. Oregon State's offense played better than I thought they would (especially QB Luten and WR Hodgsen) and after the first half of Quarter One, the Poke defense held the Beavers in check for the most part. My biggest take-aways from the game are: The Cowboy offense is going to be very, very good and tough to deal with for opponents. The triple threat presented by QB Sanders, RB Chubba Hubbard, and WR Tylan Wallace presents a lot of challenge for defenses. Also, I am confident that with game experience, our young (but very talented) defensive front 7 will improve to at least a "respectable" level. Next up is McNeese State. It seems some Cowboy fans are having a difficult time with delaying gratification and knowing who will start at QB for OSU this coming season. This is understandable given we are less than two months from the opener at Oregon State.
However, I believe Coach Gundy has earned trust over his 15 years at the helm of the Cowboy football program and I have little concern as to which person he starts at QB for game 1. According to our head coach there isn't a clear enough distinction to make the decision now on our starting QB. I trust this to be true and trust Coach Gundy to make the decision whenever it is the right thing to do. I also trust that if there is no clear distinction by game 1 it is fine to play both Sanders and Brown against the Beavers. Barry Sanders is the best football player I have ever seen play. I was blessed to see him play college football at Oklahoma State and still can't.explain what made him so special. He wasn't the.biggest or fastest player I have ever seen but, he had rare talent that made tacklers miss and great peripheral vision, super instinct and lightening quickness in small space.
A few years ago I made a stab at writing a short story. The "story" is personal and based on my life experiences with the game/sport of football.
The 2019-20 College Football season is less than 100 days out and I have decided to give a little thought as to the Oklahoma State University Cowboy schedule. The Cowboy schedule begins with 3 out of the first 4 games on the road. This may be quite challenging and I am anxious to see if the Pokes can win all 3 of the road games (especially difficult task given one will be at Texas). The good news is that 3 out of the last 4 regular season games will be held in Stillwater (and that includes a visit by Oklahoma on Nov. 30th). The Cowboys open the season on Friday, August 30th playing at Oregon State. While opening games have always made me a little extra nervous (former player & coach and as a fan of college football), I am confident in thinking the Cowboys will win this game. Cowboy teams, under Coach Gundy, have generally played well on the road and even though the Pokes will have a new starting quarterback I feel they are more talented than the Beavers. The Cowboys will be at home Saturday, Sept. 7th hosting McNeese State. I don't know much about McNeese State but feel it fair to assume the Cowboys will ride to a dominate victory here. September 14th the Cowboys travel to take on the Tulsa Golden Hurricane in Tulsa. This game is a little scary to me. Tulsa should have a fairly strong team and will bring a "underdog" mentality of motivation to this game. However, under Coach Gundy, the Cowboys have done a good job of handling Tulsa and I like the Pokes here. OSU will begin BIG XII Conference play on the road Sept. 21st in Austin, Texas. The Longhorns will have a little extra motivation here due to the way the game ended in Stillwater last season. At the end of the game there was a activity that led to the Texas head coach showing a lot of anger and frustration toward OSU. Texas will be very talented (as usual) and the Longhorns are playing much better under Coach Herman. However, OSU has played very, very well at Austin lately and though I don't know of the reason why I do put credence to recent trend here. Being a fan of OSU, I take the Cowboys here. September 28th the Cowboys return home to take on Kansas State. Coach Snyder retired after last season so the Wildcats will come to Stillwater under new coach Chris Klieman (pronounced KLY-men). Klieman won five conference championships and three national championships in five seasons as the head coach at North Dakota State. For some reason OSU-KS games have been very close contests recently. OSU hasn't played up to expectations and KS has played well for the most part. I do feel OSU will be the more talented team this season and put more confidence in the fact this will be a home conference game. Cowboys win here. Next up for OSU is a game in Lubbock, Texas on October 5th. The Pokes take on Texas Tech and I really don't know what to expect. The Red Raiders have a new coach in Matt Wells (Wells had a 44-34 record in six seasons at Utah State and is considered by many to be a quality and proven head coach). It seems the Cowboys and Tech love to have "shootouts" and this may be another "hold on to your hat" game. I feel the Cowboys will carry a little extra motivation here. The Cowboys were embarrassed by Tech in Stillwater last season. Tech played a freshman QB and he had an outstanding game. It can be tough to win in Lubbock but I see the Pokes getting a victory here. To Read More on my take with the 2019-20 FB Schedule "CLICK" on "Read More" Oklahoma State University Athletics has recently "upgraded" their efforts with graphic design. Peyton Aufill is a graphic designer for OSU Athletics and he shared this new graphic image on Twitter recently.
I think it is great that the graphic design group at OSU Athletics has latched onto the concept of the Avengers Endgame movie with Oklahoma State in this graphic. |
"Gridiron Poop"John Dolezal - a long-time fan of Oklahoma State football. A former high school football coach and current football season ticket holder at OSU. This blog is John's perspective on college football with a strong "bias" for Oklahoma State University. Archives
October 2021
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