Cowboys Benefit from Struggle with Wide Receivers Health, Back to Playing Fast

STILLWATER – So much focus on the defense and I can tell you on day five and practice four of Fall Camp, the Oklahoma State defense has looked good. At one point the defensive line had end Nathan Latu, very impressive so far, Tyler Lacy at tackle, Sione Asi at tackle, and Brock Martin at end. The series the defense dominated the offense, multiple negative plays and in the secondary were corners Jabbar Muhammad, Korie Black, with safeties Jason Taylor II, Thomas Harper, and red-shirt freshman Kendal Daniels. The linebackers with that group were Lamont Bishop and Jeff Roberson, but it is primarily Xavier Benson and Mason Cobb with the first unit. The defense had it’s share of success, but the offense was okay as well.

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Clayton Barbour is one of those receivers that made that Boise trip, shown here in fall camp.

On the very first series in team period, Spencer Sanders hit Braydon Johnson with an out route for a significant gain into the red zone. Then a play or two later Sanders went to the other side of the field and hit sophomore Jaden Bray on the fade for a touchdown. There were scramble drills for the offense and blitz pick-up continued to be a necessary quality for the quarterbacks and for the second day in a row, Gunnar Gundy picked up a blitz early and by doing so was able to position himself for a huge gain on the quarterback run. It was not called but improvised.

Last season, the Cowboys badly needed the stout defense. In the early season the normally explosive offense had it’s issues. I remember looking around on the blue turf of Boise during a Friday walk thru and I did not recognize some of the receivers on the 75-man road roster.

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C.J. Tate is another receiver that made the Boise trip.

“We should be in a better situation,” Gundy said of the receivers. “Anybody that followed us last year should know it was really scary the first several games. We couldn’t do much on offense and we were playing true freshmen at wide receiver. Guys were just high school players and they were just trying to get lined up on offense and that is not a very productive situation. That is the hand we were dealt. The good news is a number of those guys have played quality reps in live situations. They shouldn’t have, but they did. That will help us particularly in August preparation and then on game day.”

Against Tulsa Sanders only passed for 173-yards and only 82-yards at Boise. Then the Cowboys got healthy and the offense did what it does best and sped up.

“I like playing with tempo,” Sanders said at Big 12 Media Days. “I like the defense on their heels. I like to keep them guessing. The more I can keep you guessing, you don’t know what to call, you don’t know what to say. The better I can keep you edgy, you’ve got to make quick play calls, because I can move the offense pretty fast. 

Playing fast at Texas the Cowboys had 398-yards and up tempo early with TCU finished with 682-yards also because the Frogs couldn’t stop the run. You saw what happened with Notre Dame as the Cowboys outscored the Irish 30-to-7 in the final 35 minutes of the game primarily going fast on offense.

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Sanders on the run in practice this fall camp.

“We always want to play fast and we’ve done it for a long time now,” Gundy said of a system that he and former offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich, now at Penn State, came up with. “We have to evaluate all factors, for instance last season when we were playing all those freshman receivers that were just trying to get lined up, speed became a non-factor. Health can be a factor. If we are mature and upfront with our health we stay good, Spencer can play fast. That is an advantage we have with him. He’s become a magician with our offense over a number of years.”

Sanders is the man when it comes to going tempo or warp speed turbo on offense. However, in the battle of the backups for number two, Gunnar Gundy is a football gym rat that can go fast and Garret Rangel is similar and he is getting to where he is more comfortable with it.

“Playing fast is the responsibility of the quarterback, okay,” Gundy added. “If we stay healthy that gives us an opportunity. Sometimes we take into considerations matchups and things like that, but basically, we want to play fast.”

Thanks to a stout defense that prides itself in stops on quick or sudden change situations, the Cowboys can all enjoy and thrive with tempo.

Sunday is an off day and the Extreme Camp will wrap up with some meetings with the coaches. The players will have a pair of meetings during the day and then be back in practice on Monday in helmets and shoulder pads before full pads for the first time in Tuesday’s practice.