Brown's Return Signals Desire for Home Run on Offense

STILLWATER – The Cowboys went through their second practice of the spring on Tuesday afternoon. The practice in helmets, jerseys, and shorts was part of the required acclimatization period by the NCAA before the team can add pads and go with contact. The team went through position drills, inside, seven-on-seven, and team. The amazing thing is that they are able to put four different offenses and four different defensive groups out there. A few players may have to go with two groups but not many.

“We have a lot of skill players, a lot of skill players,” head coach Mike Gundy said. 

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Mike Gundy watches practice.

Gundy seemed to be happy with all the different players and he was happy that some of the younger players like slot receiver John Paul Richardson are showing up early and are capable of making plays. 

“The attitude, the intensity, and the effort is there. If we keep that consistent and with all the players we have out here then we will get a lot accomplished. We are getting reps for a lot of players and that is only going to make us better. We are practicing maybe 15-20 minutes shorter than we have in springs past, but we are getting more work in.”

Back for his second season as offensive coordinator and his 11th season on the whole, Kasey Dunn is eager to get going. He made note that last season was so unusual with practice  opportunities and time with the team compromised by COVID-19. Dunn kept the transition in moving to coordinate the offense simple.

“The last year was really putting my hands on the wheel and driving the bus, not really wanting to change anything,” Dunn admitted. “You know we were productive the year before in the run game, especially with Spencer (Sanders) in the read game. And we hit a bunch of explosive runs in 2019. You know we have to get that explosiveness back, specifically in the run game. That is the focus for me right now.”

That might surprise you for a guy that has coached All-American receiver after All-American receiver in his time as the Cowboys wide receivers coach. Dunn has always seemed to be primarily about throwing the football. He understands that the best offenses do both well. He gets that a big running game makes the passing game that much easier to execute. You know one of my favorite terms, run-pass conflict.

 “The pass game is moving back to where we want it to be. We want to be a top 10 passing team in the country,” Dunn continued to explain his offensive doctrine. We have to throw the ball, plain and simple, but we have to have those explosive run plays. We just didn’t hit enough chunk run plays in games last season to set us apart.”

That should happen a lot more this season. When you look over to about the 30-yard-line in the Sherman Smith Training Center and the are where running backs coach John Wozniak drills his backs you see speedster L.D. Brown, the strong frame of Dezmon Jackson, the sleek freshman that proved himself last season Dominic Richardson, and now there is another muscle man to carry the ball in Utah State transfer Jaylen Warren.

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Brown takes handoff from Sanders.

“That’s a position that we’re pretty deep at right now. We’ve got a lot of experience in L.D. (Brown),” Gundy said. “We tested last week and he ran (forty) a 4.37 or 4.39 and he is rolling pretty good, has a lot of experience, been here a long time. You can never replace experience, in my opinion. It’s good to have him back and fortunately, we have some guys that can take the load off of him because as I’ve told you guys that position gets beat up. (Beat up) at this level, at high school, and in the NFL. That position takes a beating and hopefully, we can keep those guys healthy.”

Brown caught a touchdown pass in the spring practice on Tuesday as with no contact the practice was more about the passing game. Run game gets more of a workout when the pads come on. Last season the Cowboys had four different players that rushed for over 100-yards in a game. Freshman Dominic Richardson had his at Baylor and rushed for 223-yards on the season and 5.1-yards per carry. Dezmon Jackson topped the 200-yard mark against Texas Tech and totaled 547-yards and four touchdowns on the season as he averaged 5.5-yards a carry. Brown was the first to top 100-yards and finished with 437-yards. His big run against West Virginia and his gutty performance on the road at Kansas State were memorable. His 66-yard touchdown against the Mountaineers was the longest run from scrimmage last season.

“I love L.D. (Brown) and he is a great kid, smiling all the time,” Dunn said. “He’s fast now. The joker can go and we need to get him the ball in position to take it to the house and there are very few people on the field that can catch him. We need those plays from him this season, but at the same time we can’t get him beat up. He’s not going to be Chuba at 205-210 pounds and can take those kinds of hits consistently. We need to pick our spots with him and get him in position in those moments to go to the house.”

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Jackson rushed for 235-yards and 3 touchdowns vs. Texas Tech.

During that testing there were others that impressed a bunch at the running back position. Jackson and Richardson are both in the 4.4 range and Warren (5-8, 215), who might give wrestler A.J. Ferrari competition on the squat in the weight room ran right at 4.5. This is a fast quartet of running backs.

“The other guys are good too, Jaylen Warren, the guy from Utah State looks good,” Dunn continued. “So far, so good, he looks really good. Dominic (Richardson) is good and Dez (Jackson) is kicking ass too. I really like all four of those backs and Dez makes all the right decisions in the backfield, and it’s a pretty good one-two punch with Dezmon and L.D. because Dezmon is just straight ahead and slices through the hole and L.D. can go the distance. It is just a matter of timing them up on touches.”

If the runners live up to reputation and the offensive line, older and certainly more experienced and deeper, do their job then the chunk runs will be there and the passing game will thrive. 

The Cowboys have Wednesday off with a special teams meeting and position meetings. The next practice will be on Thursday.