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Oklahoma State Football

Spring Football Begins March 21 With Lots of New Options

March 19, 2021
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STILLWATER – I bumped into Oklahoma State head football coach Mike Gundy earlier this week and I made mention that the squad looked good throughout offseason training this winter. Gundy acknowledged that the team did look and good and trained hard in Rob Glass’ program He also said there are still aspects of this team that need to be cleared up, some answers that need to reveal themselves in order for the Cowboys to be considered a potential top tier team in the Big 12 Conference.

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Spring Football Begins March 21 With Lots of New Options

2,566 Views | 6 Replies | Last: 3 yr ago by CaliforniaCowboy
CanadianCowboy
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Thanks for the rundown, Robert! Each spring, I get excited to see the preview of the next evolution of O-State football. Being a defensive kind of guy, I am always keenly tuned into how the defense projects to perform. Although I understood the defenses of Bill Clay, Bill Young, and Glenn Spencer, and why they were crafted to be to varying degrees "bend, not break" defenses, I feel like we have an absolute gem in Jim Knowles. I believe Knowles studies every B12 offense and applies a LOT of calculated thought to engineering a base defense that can challenge the high-octane offenses of the Big 12, and then recruits to his scheme. I'm very enthused to seeing the next step in the evolution. Go Pokes!
Orangeheart72
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I absolutely agree with Canadian about Knowles.....a strong positive for the Cowboys. And while I agree with the thought you raise in your article of needing to develop positions and depth Robert, I'm excited about our offensive line being an actual positive this year. In fact, I'll be surprised if it's not one of the two or three best in the conference.....and that's been absent for a long while!
We have so many with experience returning, lots of big athletes recruited by two fine OL coaches, and the addition of two important appearing transfers. And look at what Coach Charlie Dickey pulled off last year, literally using players who were 3rd team candidates going into last spring (and even entering the TU game) due to 10 to 12 player losses and/or injuries.
And it ended up we were at least fair to good on OL in all but about 2 games (TCU and OU). And as usual, the offensive coaches worked thru most of this mess (although Spencer might disagree from his experience in the pocket!). So absent another injury/discipline calamity....it just about has to be much, much better!
CanadianCowboy
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And I agree with your assessment of the OL situation & future. The next area of interest for me is O-Line, partly because my son played every spot on the line in HS (in OK & TX), then ended up coaching HS O-Line for several years in Texas. I do think improvement in the O-State O-Line will be visible in the coming season, and may well represent an evolution - and will be a HUGE factor toward team success. I didn't mean to appear to discount the importance of the O-Line in my post - I am just very enthused about the continuation of improvement in the Defense representing true evolution in the Cowboy Culture.
WorldseriesofPoke
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Excited for the future of Cowboy football.!!!
Si
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Every year, you need to have a few "breakout players" on both offense, defense and special teams if you are going to take a step up in performance. Let's hope we see that on the team this year and every year!
CaliforniaCowboy
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Si said:

Every year, you need to have a few "breakout players" on both offense, defense and special teams if you are going to take a step up in performance. Let's hope we see that on the team this year and every year!
and we need "go to" players, which we usually know who one or two of those are by now.... this year is a wait and see who will get the reps and touches . . .

Lots of returning talent at almost every position, but still somewhat of a mystery . . .
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