More Prepared To Be a Cowboy Than Before - Holmes Emerges at Corner
STILLWATER – During fall camp, Pokes Report really accentuated a position battle, one of the better ones we’ve seen was going on between left tackle candidates in Taylor Miterko, who claimed the spot in the spring, and new arrival and highly regarded Caleb Etienne. It is hard to get past the 6-8 and 350-pound athletic Etienne, but Miterko is 6-6, 295-pounds and tough.
There has been another position battle over on defense with “super senior” cornerback Christian Holmes, who actually played against Oklahoma State in the 2018 Liberty Bowl. Holmes came in last season and played as a back-up. Toward the end of the season after Rodarius Williams was done with a nagging foot injury after the TCU loss, then Holmes played more.
Holmes admits he wasn’t ready to play as his transfer season didn’t go as planned. Nobody’s 2020 went as planned because of everything that was happening starting with the pandemic.
"(I) definitely feel like I'm handling it more mature, on the level of when I came in. The thing everybody in the world was dealing with, it kind of caught me off guard,” explained Holmes the other day to the media. “I didn't know how to respond to it. I felt like (I) held my own composure but coming around guys like (he pointed to Brock Martin standing next to him) and other guys that got me on board coming back for another year. (They) showed me the real Cowboy way of doing things without COVID."
Holmes got in a full spring and competed with young corners like Korie Black, who had come in and made a big play to seal the bowl win over Miami, Fla., and Jabbar Muhammad. Holmes has played in 45 career games, 34 at Missouri and 11 at Oklahoma State. He has 91 tackles, two interceptions, and lots of experience.
Like he said, and like head coach Mike Gundy put it, he didn’t have the “Cowboy culture”. Last season it was lacking for all the newcomers. A huge part of that “Cowboy culture” is “Body by Glass,” the winter offseason and summer program of strength and conditioning with Rob Glass and his staff. As Pokes Report has pointed out, that has always been a big difference for transfers coming into the Oklahoma State program.
"We get young men that come in here and transfer in, the portal or whatever, graduate transfer, and the first thing that they will tell you is no matter where they came from, ‘We weren’t used to working like this,’ said Gundy fortifying that theory. “With COVID last year, we didn’t get to push our guys and get them in really good shape. He’s (Holmes) in good condition now. Tay Martin is in good condition now. That’s a big difference, in our opinion, in order to play in this league.”
Gundy believes it is a major factor in the way the Cowboys compete.
“It’s no different than anybody here,” Gundy added. “If we’re not tired and we’re doing something, we can do it pretty good. Then go get really tired and try to do the same thing. You can’t think, and you’re not as productive. Well, that’s what Christian was doing last year in games, and that’s what Tay [Martin] was doing last year in games. Now they’re in good condition. I feel good about where they’re at, so they should start performing at a higher level, and the guys behind him should be able to give him a little bit of a break this year."
It's hard to believe that a strength and conditioning program is at the core of a culture. It’s kind of the backbone of it. All the other principles that are part of it just seem to click in after you’ve been through it.
It’s probably a big reason that Holmes has jumped out and looks like he will start opposite Jarrick Bernard-Converse at corner.
"Ever since camp started when you come back in a guy like me and a guy like (again, he pointed to Brock Martin), you see the weaknesses in your strengths,” Holmes said. “And so, guys like us, we're always focusing on our weaknesses. And things that I saw a lot of people write about as my weaknesses, I don't even consider to be weaknesses to this point. After going through this amount of practices, I feel like I'm on top of my game, especially my weaknesses."
He is on top for now as one of the starting corners for the Cowboys and he has the Cowboy culture as his backbone.