Lacy made gains in many ways
STILLWATER — Oklahoma State defensive end Tyler Lacy showed all kinds of gains during his redshirt year last season.
Weight. Knowledge. Even experience, despite not playing.
All of it together has the redshirt freshman in position to start for the Cowboys at defensive end as coordinator Jim Knowles remakes his defensive line.
“Tyler should be a starter for us,” Knowles said. “I thought he had a great spring, and he's doing extremely well this fall. He's put on weight, and I think he's a guy who can be a fouryear starter for us.”
In high school at Sachse, Texas, Lacy relied on speed. But he weighed 240 pounds then. He was up to 265 after his first summer at OSU working with conditioning coach Rob Glass, and has leveled off around 280 now.
In fact, he thought he had grown into a defensive tackle last season. He moved there when the Cowboys had less depth at the position.
“I moved to defensive tackle at one point, and those guys taught me a lot of things to help me out with my game,” Lacy said. “I gained a little weight, but I feel like I haven't lost anything as a defensive
end. Now, I can use my strength more.”
Some of those details he learned as a tackle will help him out, because he could find himself back there, particularly in some of Knowles' rush packages where he uses smaller guys inside.
“He'll move around a little bit, but I think he has the ability to do both,” Knowles said. “When a
guy knows he's not gonna redshirt, his attitude changes, too.”
Coach Mike Gundy went as far as to describe Lacy as “kinda lazy” last year, but he's seen maturity develop in the young player.
And Lacy soaked in everything he could. Midway through last season, he began traveling to road games, even though he wasn't playing.
“That really opened my eyes,” Lacy said. “Running out there, watching the guys in the locker room before the game getting mentally prepared. It was a good experience.”
Now that the redshirt season is behind him, Lacy's intensity has sparked.
“He's competing, playing hard,” Gundy said. “I would expect him to make some plays, and I would expect him to get waxed sometimes, too. When you're down in there where they play, and you're young, you're gonna get knocked down. You gotta get back up and make plays.
“But he does have ability and he does have a bright future.”