Dave Aranda Speaks on Oklahoma State Defense and Jim Knowles
Oklahoma State has played lights out on defense for most of the 2021 season. They’ve held nearly every single opponent to less than their averages in points, passing and rushing yards, as well as nearly every other single category. An exception would be allowing 307 passing yards in the Iowa State game when the Cyclones are only averaging 268 yards a game on the season.
It’s no surprise that the Cowboys clinched a berth into their first Big 12 title game in a game where the defense shutout the other team, Texas Tech. It was the first time the Red Raiders had been shutout at home since 1987.
The Cowboys will face Baylor in the Big 12 title game this coming Saturday. The Cowboys came out on top the first time around, a 24-14 win over the Bears in Stillwater. They held them to 280 total yards, 173 through the air and 107 on the ground.
Because of the defensive effort this season, Cowboy defensive coordinator Jim Knowles was named one of five finalists for the Broyles Award, which is given out to the top assistant coach in college football. Baylor head coach Dave Aranda met with the media on Monday and had some pretty good things to say about Knowles.
“With coach [Jim] Knowles, there's an intelligence about him, there is a real strong football coach about him, just this passion. Back when I was at LSU, we would talk. I would call him and go, 'Hey, man, what you doing? And he goes, I'm just watching this tape. 'Hey, you want to visit like tomorrow?' And he’d go, yeah. So, it'd be stuff like that. He just wants to talk ball and get into it and go through all this stuff. Those times were fun. You can see, when you watch their film, there is an intelligence about them, there is an edge about them. They play with a confidence, and they play with a respect, all fear none. And it screams off the tape and so it's awfully impressive. I think their linebackers are a great representation of all of it. The way he plays and calling out plays and the toughness and just everything about him, is a kind of a caricature of him and his philosophy and that defense. They've been a four-man rush and they've been man coverage and that gave us issues however many games ago that was, but the last two years particularly, but they added three man rush, drop eight and then making that look the same, has really given them the benefit of the doubt of taking away just man beaters and everything else that I think they were being hurt on early in his tenure at Oklahoma State. His ability to learn and grow in that space under the type of pressure and everything that he's under, speaks a lot of him and that program and all of it. Really impressed. I'm a fan of coaches, I'm a fan of his.”
Baylor has definitely gotten better since the early Oct. loss to the Pokes. Since then, they’ve lost only one game, a 30-28 squeaker in the rivalry game against TCU on Nov. 6. They also have a win over No. 4 Oklahoma and one over No. 19 BYU. They’re currently sitting one spot behind the Pokes at No. 8 in the CFP rankings and have an 11-2 overall record on the season.
There’s a lot riding on the line for both teams on Saturday, including a potential berth in the College Football Playoff. So, this has all the makings of what could be one of the best Big 12 title games of all time.