STILLWATER – Oklahoma State is now one week down, one-fifth of the way, three practices through spring football but with all practices in helmets, jerseys, and shorts there has been limited contact. There has been an inside drill at every practice, but until the pads come on it is hard to get a feel for the offensive line and how much the experience of last season has meant in pushing a bunch of young offensive lineman toward being really proficient. Enough talk of last season and the seemingly constant struggles with injuries and lost personnel. Jake Springfield, a red-shirt freshman walk-on gets awarded a scholarship in fall camp and by the second half of the first game he’s starting at right tackle. It was crazy. Now guys are still young, but they are steeped with experience.
“It’s exciting to see those guys because there was a lot of heat on these guys last year, some of it founded, some of it not,” offensive coordinator Kasey Dunn said. “Because whenever you have a lot of young guys step in like that and you are playing major college football and it wasn’t like we had a preseason where you could kind of sift it all out. We were thrown right into Big 12 football, so it was those guys being thrown in the fire right away. It was hard on them as they were trying to figure out who was going to play, who was going to start, who’s here, who’s there. You know Josh (Sills) played left guard, right tackle, left tackle. Holy smokes.”
Speaking of Sills, he came in from West Virginia as a transfer and quickly jelled with his teammates. It was a group of offensive linemen either leaning toward being quiet like senior center Ry Schneider and now NFL Draft potential first-round choice Teven Jenkins. The group needed a vocal leader and Sills eventually felt he needed to and was welcome to step in.
“I like what Sills is doing in that he comes out there aggressive with his approach,” Dunn added. “He kind of gets in their faces and there are a lot of young guys falling in line with that.”
“We’re looking forward to Josh performing at a really high level, mentally and physically,” head coach Mike Gundy said of Sills. “Last year he wasn’t in shape, came here coming off an injury and we had COVID, we didn’t train the way we should have trained. We couldn’t. I don’t think he was ever in (his best) condition to play. I think now he is in better shape than he has been in 18 months. That helps him, things resonate with him when he isn’t tired all the time, so I’m excited about the direction he is moving.”
Oklahoma State Athletics
Sills in practice this past week.
Sills has help in the form of young linemen like Springfield, Hunter Woodard, Cole Birmingham, Hunter Anthony, Preston Wilson, and Taylor Miterko, who all got playing time. He also has a new transfer in three-year starter and All-MAC caliber center Danny Godlevske from Miami of Ohio.
“Now we go out to the field and they are all veterans, but they are still young,” Dunn stated. “It’s an exciting time right now. We’ve got some really good leadership. Danny (Godlevske), our new guy that transferred in, I really like his personality. I think we’re going to be pretty good on the offensive line.”
Offensive line coach Charlie Dickey thinks so too, but Dickey has learned over the years to let his linemen do the talking. He told me that even the young guys that got experience aren’t the finished product. Dickey is still sweating over his job of getting the line ready for next season with so many offensive weapons they can successfully help explode on Saturdays. A big part of this is how Dickey will line them up. He has an idea, but there is room for experiment some this spring.
| Left Tackle |
Left Guard |
Center |
Right Guard |
Right Tackle |
| Taylor Miterko |
Josh Sills |
Danny Godlevske |
Hunter Woodard |
Jake Springifield |
| Hunter Anthony |
Joe Michalski |
Preston Wilson |
Cole Birmingham |
Eli Russ |
| Silas Barr |
Jake Henry |
Tyrese Williams |
Cade Bennett |
Monroe Mills |
This is just a working depth chart as there will be plenty of different looks that Dickey will check out this spring and players like Monroe Mills and even the young freshman Silas Barr will be looked at to see how ready they might be because both has excellent physical skills and size.
Like Dunn says, it’s just fun to see a different attitude this spring from the sometimes uncertainty and aprehension of last fall with so many injuries and players forced in to duty before they were seasoned some.
“I see energy,” Dunn said of the offensive line. “I see everybody bouncing around out there. There is no indecision, and everybody is pulling the rope the same direction.”
