STILLWATER – Let me start with this, the similarities begin and end with soccer and American football with the fact that worldwide they are both called football. Another similarity is their is offense and defense. In soccer the same players have the responsibility with 11 on the field. In football it is two-platoon, so defensive players are all about defense. In the end, my premise on this story is kind of goofy. Most people don’t give me credit for doing goofy stories, but here is one for a change.
The Cowgirls are off to a 1-0 start with the 2-0 win in their opener over Mercer on THursday (Aug. 14) night. They also won an exhibition over neighboring rival Tulsa 2-0 last week. Head coach Colin Carmichael has always had a defensive reputation and that has not changed with a veteran team he has this season.
“The defense has been good and I can’t speak for all other coaches but I think the majority of us, the way soccer is set up in the preseason, spend the first four or five days making sure our defensive mentality, defensive shape and organization is good.” Carmichael, always a defensive-minded coach, explained. “Then you flip it and start working on how we are going to go score goals.”
The defense has not just been good, but heading to game two on the season on Sunday night at Bedlam rival Oklahoma, it has been really good. In the Tulsa win, Oklahoma State outshot Tulsa 10-2, just two shots allowed. Against Mercer, the Cowgirls outshot the Lady Bears 26-to-8. They had 11 corner kicks to just two for Mercer and the Cowgirls scored both goals in the last 10 minutes of the match off corners. One by Xcaret Pineda where she “bent it like Beckham”.
“The most pleasing thing for me is defensively, we’ve looked very solid,” Carmichael added.
Oklahoma State plays OU in Norman at 7 p.m. on Sunday night televised on SEC+.
In football, American football head coach Mike Gundy’s teams have more often been defined by offense, play-action power game, air raid spread, turbo, tempo, and combinations there of. Oklahoma State has been running back U, wide receiver U, but not defensive U.
There were the two years that recent defensive coordinator Jim Knowles kicked it up well, but last season with an historically bad campaign on defense. The numbers don’t need to be reprinted.
Mike Gundy hired former SEC and NFL defensive coordinator Todd Grantham and Grantham brought in a new staff on that side. They’ve brought in a new and aggressive defense.
“It is great because everyone does everything,” safety Dylan Smith told me of the Grantham-style defense the Cowboys are using. “There is nothing monotonous about this defense. You are going to be in different positions in different situations. There are a lot of ways to make plays for everybody.”
Practices closed and Oklahoma State, Gundy, Grantham, and everybody else would just as soon keep the defensive look under wraps of practice and bust it out on Thursday, Aug. 28 with the opener against UT-Martin.
Smith adds there has been preparation on and off the field.
“It definitely took more studying, but nothing that was abnormal,” Smith said of the effort it took to learn the defense. “I think as a football player that you should be studying anyway.”
The studying and the preparation has another couple of weeks and then it is show time. No promises on a pair of shutouts like Carmichael’s soccer team, but it would be nice, huh?
