Mike Gundy has done it again in Stillwater. After being written off by many people coming into the season and starting 2-2 with a humiliating home loss to South Alabama, the Cowboys have won 7 of their last 8 and now find themselves facing the Longhorns for the the conference title.
Offense
The Oklahoma State offense revolves around RB Ollie Gordon, who is likely to win the Doak Walker award after rushing for 1,580 yards in 12 games. Gordon was not the primary running back until week 4 but has ripped off 100 or more rushing yards in 8 of his last 9 games. He has carried a heavy load this season (6 games of 25+ carries) and will be leaned on heavily Saturday.
After playing QB musical chairs to start the season, Gundy eventually settled on Alan Bowman, who transferred in from Michigan but also started for Texas Tech in 2020. Bowman has more INT’s (11) than passing TD’s (10) on the season and is completing under 60% of his passes. He is averaging just 6.8 yards per attempt but has gone over 300 yards passing 4 different times. Despite a very strong running game, Oklahoma State will throw the ball around, if needed. Bowman has games of 47,43,42,41 and 48 passing attempts.
Brennan Presley was one of the few wide receivers left from last year after a mass exodus to the portal/graduation. Presley leads Oklahoma State in receptions (76), yards (746) and receiving TD’s (5). Division III transfer Leon Johnson III has come on extremely strong of late, including 9 catches last week against BYU. The wide receiver unit as a whole is solid but would not be confused for one of the best units Texas has faced this year.
Like usual, the Cowboys have a veteran offensive line made up of 4 redshirt senior starters. LT Dalton Cooper leads the unit. Alan Bowman has only been sacked 6 times this year, which speaks to solid pass protection and a scheme designed to get the ball out very quickly.
Defense
New defensive coordinator Bryan Nardo transitioned the OSU defense to the increasingly popular 3-3-5 defense. The Longhorns should be familiar with the scheme after facing similar styles in matchups against KSU, TCU and ISU. The Cowboys has been feast or famine at times this year, bleeding explosive plays at alarming rates.
The strength of the unit is at linebacker. Collin Oliver, Nick Martin and Xavier Benson make up perhaps the best LB trio in the Big 12. Oliver and Martin have combined for half of Oklahoma State’s 24 sacks this season.
In the secondary, Korie Black and Kendal Daniels are the two players to watch. Black is an experienced corner playing solid football and Daniels, who had a big game against Texas last year, ranks second on the team with 90 tackles. Oklahoma State has been a poor pass defense at times this year, including a blowout against UCF in which the Knights averaged over 15 yards per pass attempt.
Overall Thoughts
The path to victory for OSU likely includes bleeding the black with Ollie Gordon while playing keep-away from the Texas offense. The Cowboys probably do not want to get into a shootout. Expect Gordon to touch the ball 30+ times and for Gundy to try to muddy things up in an attempt to keep the game close into the 4th quarter.
