Should Cowboy Fans Panic Over Offensive Line Numbers? How Good Can OL Be?

STILLWATER – I know Zach Lancaster of our staff wrote on this yesterday. If Mike Gundy had his wish the fans would see a split squad spring game on Saturday at 1 p.m. in Boone Pickens Stadium. Some fans think that is a load of manure because they remember Gundy’s days as an offensive coordinator and early days as a head coach wanting that 15th practice allowed by the NCAA and keeping his first and second offensive units together. However, I will vouch, Gundy has changed, and he likes the show the game puts on for the fans, the competition it revs up within the team, and he has an appreciation now for everybody playing and being put in a competitive situations because as COVID-19 and other factors have taught him, you never know who is going to have to play in a game.

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Gundy wshes he had more healty offensive linemen.

“I wish we had 12 (offensive) linemen and we could split up six each side and play a game. We just don’t have that luxury at this time,” Gundy told the media on Monday. “To go out and practice on Saturday like we are going to today will be more beneficial for the fans that trying to split up and have players subbing in from the other sideline.”

That’s the problem as spring practice started with the Cowboys having 10 offensive linemen suited up each day in practice and capable of going in 11-on-11 full speed football. Starting right guard Hunter Woodard, back-up jumbo Cowboy back Silas Barr moving back to offensive line, and centers Preston Wilson and Joe Michalski suit up and do some drills and the learning periods but coming off postseason surgeries aren’t cleared for full contact. You don’t want to risk those guys.

The line was down some to begin with as four linemen from last season went into the portal, three transferred, and one is still waiting to find a destination.  

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There are 14 offensive linemen in the spring, but four are held out of full speed work.

Then after two weeks of 11-on-11 team periods with three units, a first team offensive line, a second team offensive line, and a third unit that was rotated with players off the first and second; injuries took the line down to eight healthy linemen. In 11-on-11 work there are still three units, the ones, the twos, and threes, but one of those groups goes seven-on-seven when it is their turn.

“You would like to think as coaches that we have done the best that we can for the big picture,” Dunn said of how they have practiced around the offensive line issues. “That means all positions, offensive line, defensive line, but also make sure our quarterback feels it too. You can’t just go seven-on-seven all of the time. We’ve had some nicks and bumps and bruises so we are a little bit light there, but at the end of the day I think we’ve given most of our team the best chance we can to be out there playing 11-on-11 football.”

Not being able to have a game was a slam dunk. You can’t ask eight players to cover two offenses in a game pace. In practice you can take breaks, pause for instruction. You can nurse your way through it. In a game you can’t. On social media and the internet and on my talk radio show some fans are in a real panic over the offensive line for this fall.

“We will have 25 offensive linemen in August, so we will be just fine. We don’t have them now,” Gundy said when asked if he was worried. “They (healthy offensive line survivors) are doing well, and most of these guys are first year players because we have the four starters that are in rehab (post-surgery rehab) right now. These guys are for the most part new so they are getting full speed work which is good because if they get thrown into the fire in August then they’ve had a lot of reps this spring.”

Building back, Woodard, Wilson, Michalski, and Barr will join the spring 10 back going full speed. That is 14 offensive linemen.

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Collier is the least experienced of the three transfers but he is 6-7, 300-pounds.

The Cowboys added 6-7, 300-pound offensive tackle Casey Collier from USC, 6-4, 300-pound Jason Brooks Jr. from Vanderbilt, and Prince Pines, a 6-5, 330-pound offensive guard from Sam Houston State and previously Baylor. All three of those players arrive in early June to start the summer program and the number is 17.

There are three freshmen Austin Kawecki, David Dotson, and Calvin Harvey that signed in the 2022 recruiting class. Junior college transfer and New Mexico Military All-American Tyrone Webber is here going through spring. Now, that is 20 offensive linemen.

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Evan Bax

Then there are five preferred walk-on offensive linemen and that includes Big All-City offensive tackle Matthew Wade of Edmond Deer Creek, Norman’s Viliami Makahununiu, and all the way from Georgia impressive 6-4, 280-pound athlete Evan Bax of Marietta (Walton), Ga.

Gundy’s not fooling and the Cowboys are always looking to add to the walk-on offensive linemen because that is a position where you are more apt to strike it rich with walk-ons.

The pressure and the urgency will be in bringing the chemistry and culture you need within an offensive line together in a shorter period of time as you didn’t have everybody together in the spring.