Givens takes fast track to starting job
STILLWATER — As he watched practice tape of his special teams coverage units in preparation for last week’s game against Missouri State, Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy kept noticing one of the scout team players blowing past the first-team blockers.
Then, late in Thursday night’s blowout victory, Gundy saw the same player do the same thing to Missouri State’s coverage teams.
After he watched the Missouri State game tape on Friday, Gundy decided that player needed to be a special teams starter, not a scout teamer — and he went to Twitter to announce that Malik Givens “has earned a starting job next week. Love the effort and toughness from this walk-on.”
Gundy uses Twitter to celebrate a lot of OSUrelated things, football and otherwise. But it’s hard to recall a time he used the platform to announce a player’s move into the starting lineup.
It was a unique method, fitting of Givens’ unique path from the track team to his new job on special teams as the Cowboys prepare to host South Alabama at 7 p.m. Saturday at Boone Pickens Stadium.
Givens, who is classified as a redshirt junior because he’s spent the last three years competing for Oklahoma State’s track team, decided last spring that he wanted to give football a shot.
He had been a standout defensive back at Tulsa’s Booker T. Washington, where he was teammates with current Cowboys Justice Hill and Jordan Brailford.
Givens was named the team’s defensive MVP in the fall of his senior year, then won three gold medals at the state track meet in the spring — in the 100 and
200 meters, and the 400meter relay.
Givens, who is off limits to the media as a first-year player on the team, chose track out of high school, and was a strong sprinter for the Cowboys. During his career, he ran the indoor 60 meters in 6.70 seconds, the 100 in 10.51 and the 200 in 21.42.
At 5-foot-11 and 179 pounds, Givens quickly began to settle in as a backup receiver with the football team, despite being buried in the Cowboys’ deep and talented group.
Much has been made about Hill’s speed, centering around the race he held with his highly recruited younger brother, Dax. But Hill doesn’t sound interested in racing Givens anytime soon.
“I ran track with him in high school and he used to leave me all the time,” Hill said with a laugh. “He’s a fast guy.
“He makes plays all the time. It’s nice to see him out there, seeing his hard work pay off.”
Givens’ attitude and behavior, as much as his speed and natural gifts, contributed to him getting an opportunity.
“He’s an example of our Cowboy culture, things that make us proud around here,” Gundy said this week. “He’s a young man who is doing it for free. He doesn’t feel entitled to anything at all, doesn’t feel that we owe him anything.”
Hill and Brailford both expected an impact from Givens when he joined the team.
Of course, no one expects a new walk-on to go from the scout team to a starting job — even on special teams — after playing a few plays in one game.
“Oh, I did,” Brailford said with a smile. “Booker T. people just find a way to shine, no matter where they start out.
“Once he decided to give football a try, I was all with it. He’s a hard worker, and he really wants this.”