Cowboys Taking Full Advantage of Bowl Practice to Prepare for Future

STILLWATER – You know coaches always talk about the value, the added value of bowl practices is the work the younger players get. In some cases, those younger players have been on scout teams all season. Other young players may have been focused on special teams work throughout the season or even forced to play a different position like offensive guard Silas Barr moving to be a heavy blocking Cowboy back. The bowl practices allow them to get in extra work on what they will be doing in the future.

After the Friday practice last week, virtually the entire team stayed out to watch a red-zone scrimmage between the young offensive players and those on defense. The older players were all charged up and ready to talk some trash with the other side of the ball. Freshman quarterback Gunnar Gundy gave the offensive guys ammo with a pair of touchdown passes. The first to C.J. Tate on a fade in the corner of the end zone. The second was a slant inside to Cowboy back Quinton Stewart.

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Nixon has shown up big on the field with the long touchdown run vs. TCU. It starts here in practice.

This is the time when Barr moves back to offensive line and junior college transfer Caleb Etienne gets great work at tackle, where he needs to be in the future. In the backfield freshman Jaden Nixon is able to show off a little.

"Well, we've practiced and our young guys have scrimmaged between 30 and 40 plays every day at the end of practice,” head coach Mike Gundy said. “So they're getting a considerable amount of reps. If you put a pencil to it: by the time we finish bowl practice, the young guys will have had a spring practice and they're doing fine. They all make mistakes and then they all make some plays, which is what's going to happen. They're getting really quality work."

It truly is like an extra spring practice foe these guys. On defense it has been great for players like tackle Aden Kelley, who actually played some snaps early in the season when injuries required it. At linebacker it is a good time for guys like Jeff Roberson and Nickolas Martin. In the secondary Beggs standout Kendal Daniels, Muskogee’s Ty Williams, corner Raymond Gay of Red Oak, Texas.

The fun and valuable experience continued Sunday with a 38-play scrimmage where they put the ball down on the 50-yard-line.

“We only have one offensive line, so I had to cut it off at 38-plays,” Gundy said.

They were back at it today with more. In coming seasons when you see all these young players developed and making critical plays inside Boone Pickens Stadium, you can thank these bowl practices as part of the important maturation process.