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Oklahoma State Football

Gundy on Rest of Season: “We’re Going To Be in Fourth Quarter Games From Here on Out.”

September 21, 2021
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STILLWATER – Let me make this perfectly clear. Saturday night when the Oklahoma State team, staff, and support staff squeezed into the small visitor’s locker room at Boise State the feeling permeating the room was of joy and satisfaction. It was not lost on the players, the equipment managers, and most certainly the medical staff that this was a good win. Way too many missing pieces particularly at wide receiver, but also players like defensive end Trace Ford, safety Tre Sterling, and running back Dezmon Jackson were back in Oklahoma. The receivers alone made up six players that would have been on the plane and in the line-up. Sure, there are Tay Martin (ankle), Langston Anderson (broken foot), Braydon Johnson (medical condition), Blaine Green (shoulder), Jaden Bray (foot), and Matt Polk (knee).

Brian Losness-USA TODAY Sports
Oklaho,ma State needed everything they got from jaylen Worren.

Players understand what a barrage of injuries like that to one position can do to a football team. They realized they had done something special in Boise thanks to the contributions of many from the offensive line to running back Jaylen Warren, quarterback Spencer Sanders, the few healthy receivers, the entire defense, punter Tom Hutton and the punt team, all the special teams. This was a group victory, a team victory in all regards. Coaches thought long and hard as to what to do at certain points in the game to give the players the best chance to execute and win the game.

Style points haven’t mattered since the week before the Sept. 4 season opener with Missouri State. The record is 3-0, but the scrap book isn’t loaded with highlights. The final score and Oklahoma State with one more point that the opposition is what has mattered.

“As you look across the country, you might have four or five teams that are playing really well, but most everybody else is essentially beating themselves,” Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy theorized. “If you can avoid beating yourself, it will give you a chance in most games. I think our players up to this point have understood that. The things that can really hurt you as a football team, if you can avoid those, you will have a chance in the fourth quarter. That's really where we're at right now with this team."

As he looks at the video of this week’s opponent in Kansas State, he sees a team in the same mode. The Wildcats had most everybody healthy and flexed their muscles, more muscles than most Big 12 observers thought they had, in a 24-7 win over Stanford. That is the same Stanford team that came bac week two and hammered USC 42-28 and helped Trojans athletic director Mike Bohn decide to fire his head coach Clay Helton.

Scott Sewell-USA TODAY Sports
Will Howard

Then against Southern Illinois, the Wildcats in the first quarter lost heart and soul quarterback Skyler Thompson. Back-up quarterback Will Howard is experienced. He started against Oklahoma State last season, but he changes things. K-State has now lost defensive end and pass rusher Khalid Duke.

They still have explosive Big 12 rushing leader Duece Vaughn. They have solid receivers led by speedster Malik Knowles, a big transfer tight end in Daniel Imatorbhebhe, a good offensive line, and a solid overall defense. They are winning games running the football and playing defense and special teams.

Both teams threw the ball just 13 times in wins last week. Kansas State, at home, beat a good Nevada team 38-17. The score was 17-17 going to the fourth quarter before the Wildcats exploded for 21 points.

The fourth quarter will be big for both teams and Gundy believes for his Cowboys it will be important the rest of the season. He knows Oklahoma State fans have become used to leaving early and even before the fourth quarter to eat, drink, and be merry at the tailgates. The Cowboys will need their fans for the fourth quarter.

Scott Sewell-USA TODAY Sports
Duece Vaughn leads Big 12 in rushing with 371-yards.

"We'll be in a fourth quarter game. We're going to be in fourth quarter games from here on out,” Gundy said on Monday. “We lost a pretty good firepower on offense for the year. So, we're trying to do the best we can to manage and work together as a team, rush the football, work the clock, keep the defense off the field and play good special teams. We're trying to find a way to win the game other than just saying that we have guys injured and we don't know what we're going to do. It's just like what happened on Saturday. We rushed the football effectively enough, we had the football for 21 and a half minutes in the second half, they only had it for nine. We had really good target punting and special teams, and that's what won the game for us."

They’ll need all those things again this week. They could use some healthy receivers returning with Martin, Green, and Bray being the most likely, but there are no promises. The only promise is that the majority of the games will be closer and the exits to the tailgates and the parking lot later than they’ve been in a few years in Stillwater.

Discussion from...

Gundy on Rest of Season: “We’re Going To Be in Fourth Quarter Games From Here on Out.”

4,646 Views | 24 Replies | Last: 2 yr ago by CowboyFan4Life
CaliforniaCowboy
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Bleh... that's BS

put in Shane and let's get back to scoring..... for gosh sakes
Osufenceman
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CaliforniaCowboy said:

Bleh... that's BS

put in Shane and let's get back to scoring..... for gosh sakes


Who's he going throw it to?
CaliforniaCowboy
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Osufenceman said:

CaliforniaCowboy said:

Bleh... that's BS

put in Shane and let's get back to scoring..... for gosh sakes


Who's he going throw it to?
LOL... you funny....

our guys can catch if you can hit them...... when coach put in max protect last week, even Sanders could hit the walkon, and guess what ... he caught it. Go figure. We had a couple of dropped balls, but we always have a couple of dropped balls, even with the regular starters....

I don't see any other teams complaining about who they have on the field.... sure you want to limit the number of freshmen that you have to play.... but at the end of the day you go with the best available....

Polston31
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So it sounds like these guys are out for awhile? This article pretty much implies we aren't getting those receivers back and we are gonna be thin out wide all year?
OctaviusRex
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That is what I wanna know. He said we've lost a lot of offensive firepower for the year. Who else besides Braydon Johnson? That's big loss, no doubt, but it shouldn't absolutely torpedo our offense.
CaliforniaCowboy
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no.... last I heard most of them will be available Saturday. Martin, Green, and possibly Johnson....

as a recap....

this is from the Daily Oklahoman

OSU report card:Coaching adjustments, punting & run defense get A's vs. Boise State

Safety Tre Sterling is the latest to join the "out for the year" crowd, with an undisclosed injury suffered in the days before OSU went up to Idaho and won 21-20 at Boise State on Saturday.

But it's not just the season-ending injuries that are nagging the Cowboys. One of the team's top offensive linemen, Hunter Woodard, missed the first two games. Tight end Logan Carter has yet to suit up. Running back Dezmon Jackson got hurt against Tulsa two Saturdays ago and didn't make the trip to Boise.

And then there are the receivers.

Langston Anderson who has had more than a couple bouts with injuries in his career suffered a broken foot during warmups for the Missouri State game.

Anderson was set to back up starter Tay Martin, who injured his ankle in the opener, and played only two plays against Tulsa the next week, then didn't travel to Boise.

True freshman Jaden Bray was the third-stringer behind Martin and Anderson at the start of the season before rising to a starting role by the second game of the year. He suffered a foot injury against Tulsa and missed Boise as well, with no known return date.

Senior slot receiver Braydon Johnson hasn't played since the opener, and true freshman Blaine Green has yet to play at all.

Green was set to be a starter before he got injured, and was replaced by his twin brother, Bryson Green. Now Bryson is on the shelf with a hand injury suffered against Boise State.

With so many injured wideouts, Gundy and Dunn have had to curtail the offensive playbook to fit what their players can execute. And that resulted in a heavy dose of the run game on Saturday.

All the injuries led to players like sophomore Rashod Owens technically, the fourth-string player at the outside receiver position he played on Saturday and redshirt freshman Cale Cabbiness making crucial catches in Saturday's win at Boise State.

Owens is only in his second year, but he has already played all three receiver positions in the offense. And Cabbiness didn't learn until last Wednesday that he'd even be on the traveling squad for the game much less on the field to make the game-clinching reception on third-and-long in the final minutes.

"Why is Cabbiness on the field?" Dunn asked rhetorically. "Because if he wasn't, I'd be up next.

"We usually travel nine receivers. We traveled seven this time. There's a lot of guys that should be playing that are hurt. I think I have more hurt than actually teeing up and playing. There's more guys on the IR than on the bus.

"That makes it difficult."

Like Dunn, Gundy has never faced such injury adversity.

"I've never, ever that I know of in 32 years as a coach started two true freshmen at one position, and we've done it a couple times this year," Gundy said. "So, no, I've never been in this situation."
thetruth
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Martin is out. Won't be known until Wednesday (9/22) who else won't be available.
thetruth
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CaliforniaCowboy said:

Osufenceman said:

CaliforniaCowboy said:

Bleh... that's BS

put in Shane and let's get back to scoring..... for gosh sakes


Who's he going throw it to?
LOL... you funny....

our guys can catch if you can hit them...... when coach put in max protect last week, even Sanders could hit the walkon, and guess what ... he caught it. Go figure. We had a couple of dropped balls, but we always have a couple of dropped balls, even with the regular starters....

I don't see any other teams complaining about who they have on the field.... sure you want to limit the number of freshmen that you have to play.... but at the end of the day you go with the best available....


you have no idea what your talking about.
Orangeheart72
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So basically we've lost our top four players at the two wide out receiver positions and one of the two starting slot and top tight end. Nice. Sounds like a couple receivers may be back at some point soon, but this is unbelievable. That's on top of perhaps our top two defensive stars from last year.
OctaviusRex
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where did you see that? do we expect martin to be out for awhile?
GumbyFromPokeyLand
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thetruth said:

CaliforniaCowboy said:

Osufenceman said:

CaliforniaCowboy said:

Bleh... that's BS

put in Shane and let's get back to scoring..... for gosh sakes


Who's he going throw it to?
LOL... you funny....

our guys can catch if you can hit them...... when coach put in max protect last week, even Sanders could hit the walkon, and guess what ... he caught it. Go figure. We had a couple of dropped balls, but we always have a couple of dropped balls, even with the regular starters....

I don't see any other teams complaining about who they have on the field.... sure you want to limit the number of freshmen that you have to play.... but at the end of the day you go with the best available....


you have no idea what your talking about.


That is the Truth (ha, ha). Johnson has been removed from the depth chart and is out for the year along with Anderson and Carter. Martins ankle might be good enough to go on Saturday, or he could be out for weeks - ankles are tricky. The severity of the injuries to the Greene twins, Bray and Polk are unknown as is their return. Putting an immobile Illingworth in to throw to inexperienced receivers that are more prone to bad routes, dropped balls and poor blocking is asking for a disaster.

Waaay too many fans think it's as easy as "just throw the ball" or "call better plays" is the answer when it's not. In the game you can only run the plays in your game plan that you practice during the week with the players that are available to practice. SMH
Osufenceman
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GumbyFromPokeyLand said:

thetruth said:

CaliforniaCowboy said:

Osufenceman said:

CaliforniaCowboy said:

Bleh... that's BS

put in Shane and let's get back to scoring..... for gosh sakes


Who's he going throw it to?
LOL... you funny....

our guys can catch if you can hit them...... when coach put in max protect last week, even Sanders could hit the walkon, and guess what ... he caught it. Go figure. We had a couple of dropped balls, but we always have a couple of dropped balls, even with the regular starters....

I don't see any other teams complaining about who they have on the field.... sure you want to limit the number of freshmen that you have to play.... but at the end of the day you go with the best available....


you have no idea what your talking about.


That is the Truth (ha, ha). Johnson has been removed from the depth chart and is out for the year along with Anderson and Carter. Martins ankle might be good enough to go on Saturday, or he could be out for weeks - ankles are tricky. The severity of the injuries to the Greene twins, Bray and Polk are unknown as is their return. Putting an immobile Illingworth in to throw to inexperienced receivers that are more prone to bad routes, dropped balls and poor blocking is asking for a disaster.

Waaay too many fans think it's as easy as "just throw the ball" or "call better plays" is the answer when it's not. In the game you can only run the plays in your game plan that you practice during the week with the players that are available to practice. SMH


At least someone has a clue. It's incredible the number of players are out. Good luck trusting someone to run option routes that had almost no reps up to now.
Pistolp
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I read one of the WR's broke his foot during pre-game warmups?!? And this is not the first serious pre-game injury we have had, which I don't remember hearing of before. Crazy.
CaliforniaCowboy
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some of these comments just sound flat out pathetic..... oh poor us, we only have freshman WR's to put in so we're doomed for the season, and destined to run the ball 75 times per game. Boo hoo hoo us.

Dunn said, that some of the injuries at WR were during the week, and we didn't have a lot of time to get them added reps.... he did not say that they are incapable of playing, or that they can't play at a high level.

It's been another entire week, and we're 1/4 of the way into the season already, with spring ball and with a full summer of workouts, and with full Fall drills, and all the film watching that comes with 3 wins.

Owens has played every receiver position, Presley is a soph with plenty of game experience,

"Owens is only in his second year, but he has already played all three receiver positions in the offense. And Cabbiness didn't learn until last Wednesday that he'd even be on the traveling squad for the game..." Dunn

Martin returned for 2 plays against Tulsa, before they decided to sit him, which could suggest he'll be back soon, hopefully this week.

Green-1 traveled with the team, but they didn't use him, Green-2 hurt his hand, but should be okay.
FWIW - neither Green are listed on the 3rd party injury report, at the moment
https://legacy.donbest.com/ncaaf/injuries/

KState is likely going to try to run the ball.... OSU will likely try to run the ball a lot

We'll know soon enough, but making excuses isn't going to help much. The guy we have at WR are capable, and the coaches have had another week to get them ready.

CaliforniaCowboy
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thetruth said:




you have no idea what your talking about.
that's useful hate speech.... why don't you enlighten us?

JPat
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Where's the Richardson kid? Is he hurt too? And oh by the way, what happened to "Body By Glass"? Doesn't seem to be working. At all.
Zach Lancaster
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Staff
Pistolp said:

I read one of the WR's broke his foot during pre-game warmups?!? And this is not the first serious pre-game injury we have had, which I don't remember hearing of before. Crazy.
Langston Anderson was the receiver who broke his foot in warmups of Missouri State. I'm pretty disappointed about that because he's a hell of an athlete.
Joe Khatib
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Zach Lancaster said:

Pistolp said:

I read one of the WR's broke his foot during pre-game warmups?!? And this is not the first serious pre-game injury we have had, which I don't remember hearing of before. Crazy.
Langston Anderson was the receiver who broke his foot in warmups of Missouri State. I'm pretty disappointed about that because he's a hell of an athlete.
Yes, Zach is correct, they were anticipating him having a breakout type of year, but this young man has been incredibly snake bit in the injury department.
NJAggie
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JP Richardson is playing. I think he missed the first game but has been in the last two. He's in the slot rotation.
TeaTownCowboy
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Yeah, Mike, no one is going to be surprised when you keep calling same 20 plays over and over with no new wrinkles. Still on that train of thought that defensive coordinators don't watch film???
TeaTownCowboy
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That ain't the problem, we've got good receivers and players. It's the predictable playcalling and lack of new wrinkles which hurts the O-line too. But Mike's got indemnity from criticism!
CowboyFan4Life
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Osufenceman said:

CaliforniaCowboy said:

Bleh... that's BS

put in Shane and let's get back to scoring..... for gosh sakes


Who's he going throw it to?
Uuuummmmm….. maybe one of the others that can catch the ball but haven't been given the chance to??? There's a few TE's that were recruited specifically for that reason yet that haven't utilized them for that. Try watching some of their pre-OK films. It's stupid really…
CowboyFan4Life
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Polston31 said:

So it sounds like these guys are out for awhile? This article pretty much implies we aren't getting those receivers back and we are gonna be thin out wide all year?
There's receivers but they're not using them for God only knows what reason.
CowboyFan4Life
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GumbyFromPokeyLand said:

thetruth said:

CaliforniaCowboy said:

Osufenceman said:

CaliforniaCowboy said:

Bleh... that's BS

put in Shane and let's get back to scoring..... for gosh sakes


Who's he going throw it to?
LOL... you funny....

our guys can catch if you can hit them...... when coach put in max protect last week, even Sanders could hit the walkon, and guess what ... he caught it. Go figure. We had a couple of dropped balls, but we always have a couple of dropped balls, even with the regular starters....

I don't see any other teams complaining about who they have on the field.... sure you want to limit the number of freshmen that you have to play.... but at the end of the day you go with the best available....


you have no idea what your talking about.


That is the Truth (ha, ha). Johnson has been removed from the depth chart and is out for the year along with Anderson and Carter. Martins ankle might be good enough to go on Saturday, or he could be out for weeks - ankles are tricky. The severity of the injuries to the Greene twins, Bray and Polk are unknown as is their return. Putting an immobile Illingworth in to throw to inexperienced receivers that are more prone to bad routes, dropped balls and poor blocking is asking for a disaster.

Waaay too many fans think it's as easy as "just throw the ball" or "call better plays" is the answer when it's not. In the game you can only run the plays in your game plan that you practice during the week with the players that are available to practice. SMH
Or throw it to someone who's not a freshman and has receiving experience possibly??? They have one or two of those.
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