Oklahoma State Football Series: Part Six - Defense

And trust Lacy, Asi, Tuihalmaka, Ross, Oliver, Ford, Black, Cobb, Benson, Roberson, Clay, Bishop, Muhammad and Daniels. Bunch of talent there.

Robert, I personally have never seen you provide a better or more interesting/valuable article series. This was great reading and for those who try to follow the depth of the "Jims and Joes", so very handy. It would be great if these could be kept in a handy file on Pokes Report for future ('22) football season reference. I hope you can update these with the new signees and basically do it again after spring or especially fall camp! Thanks so much Robert!

Si - I personally think the offense uptick is a virtual given with our quarterback, receivers and new running backs IF the offensive line can be as good as it was by the end of last year and we keep the qb and skill folks healthy. That's constantly the seeming struggle, replacement of those experienced lineman who are gone and adding enough depth to cover the injuries that seemingly always occur on the OL. I think we've got the right OL coach in place, but it's sure been tough getting back to having some good, experienced talent across the front and keeping them healthy! But again, for a Gundy offense, last year's start was not the norm......we were short WR's and then as they came back, OL folks who were healthy.

I'm not feeling the uptick... and since we won't have enough kids for a spring game, we won't really know much of anything about 2022 until we line them up for the first time.

Clearly the defense carried us last year, which undergoing a major change in personnel and coaches.

the Offense took a major hit to the Oline losing seniors and other players, the top WR is gone, along with our top 3 RBs.

We just went from a very experienced team with lots of quality depth, to a team with marginal starting experience with new and unproven depth.

We should be able to put together a decent season but we're going to need the ball to bounce our way in a few games.

Cal, I was answering Si's comment about an offensive uptick. And I qualified it with IF we're as good on the OL as we were at season's end. Per your concerns, our defense could certainly not be as good with all the new folks and that affects a lot. But I'd be surprised personally if the offense isn't better, IF we're as good at OL.

Spencer has gotten better, our RB's appear to have a nice infusion of talent/depth (although Jalen's is a tough act to follow) and we're much better seemingly at receiver (and probably CW/TE) than we were starting last year. But again, if the offensive line is worse, qb gets hurt or defense falls much, we could have a worse record overall certainly. I get it that last year was pretty sweet buddy!

Orangeheart72 said:

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Cal, I was answering Si's comment about an offensive uptick. And I qualified it with IF we're as good on the OL as we were at season's end. Per your concerns, our defense could certainly not be as good with all the new folks and that affects a lot. But I'd be surprised personally if the offense isn't better, IF we're as good at OL.

Spencer has gotten better, our RB's appear to have a nice infusion of talent/depth (although Jalen's is a tough act to follow) and we're much better seemingly at receiver (and probably CW/TE) than we were starting last year. But again, if the offensive line is worse, qb gets hurt or defense falls much, we could have a worse record overall certainly. I get it that last year was pretty sweet buddy!

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yep... I knew you were referencing the prior post RE: uptick, which is why I did not respond to your post, nor quote you.... and as I stated, I disagree.

We will be worse at every position on offense. Spencer IS NOT better, he threw 4 picks in the game before... one bowl game does not a season make, and now we have no backup when he goes down, and he ALWAYS goes down.

I like the kids we have, but the are green, green, green..... we lost our 2 best Olinemen, and our best backup, and tons of kids with promise, and replaced them with one JUCO kid (essentially). We have no backup center at this moment, I don't think. Nobody on the team is as good as Martin, nor as experienced. We played Boise last year with walk-ons at WR we were so depleted. adding these new WR kids is great, but if we're counting on them for next year, then whoa is us.

Who are we adding to the OLine besides possibly Webber?

I'm asking because I'm hoping that somebody can post something that give me more hope than I have at the moment.

We have about 17 OL players going into next year. I can't tell you which ones Coach Dickey will sort out as the starting five, but the Cowboys aren't particularly thin in big bodies. If he can keep his top 7 or 8 healthy for the first few games our consistency of play seems to go way up. And in my rough count, we have about 7 or 8 returners who have started at some point. Dickey has had a history of getting younger players to play well at KSU. We'll see as this goes along. And Cal, as to Tay, that's a big loss. But adding Shettron and another Presley should be a step up in short timeframe.

Our starting 5 should be decent, we really only have to replace Sills at guard (our backup center played the last 5 games and did great).

We should be able to fill in Sills' guard spot.

provided we don't suffer a slew of injuries, the OLine should be good.