Gundy says offensive line gets ‘ better each week’
STILLWATER — After reviewing the game on video, Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy thinks he was a little hard on his offensive line after the Cowboys' 2823 win over Tulsa on Saturday at Boone Pickens Stadium.
“They probably played a little better than I gave them credit for,” Gundy said on Monday at his weekly press conference. “Some of the stuff that I was concerned about after the game, without me watching the tape — they improved from the last week, let's put it that way. “They'll get better each week.” The Cowboys will need every drop of improvement they can squeeze out this week, heading to Idaho as four-point underdogs to face Boise State at 8 p.m. Saturday on FS1.
OSU gave up two quarterback sacks, nine tackles for loss and three quarterback hurries against Tulsa, while the offense rushed for 140 yards on 43 carries, an average of 3.3 yards per attempt.
But Gundy says the offense as a whole is going through some schematic growing pains with young players at key
‘ They probably played a little better than I gave them credit for.’
spots, particularly receiver. Senior starters Tay Martin and Braydon Johnson were out with injuries on Saturday.
“Some of what we're dealing with is trying to go through a little bit of an adjustment, scheme-wise, based on our injury situation at wideout,” Gundy said. “It's a little bit of an adjustment for us that got thrown at us last week late in the week. That's tough to do. We have a little better feel of where we're at now.”
The offensive line is blending some young players, like redshirt sophomore tackles Cole Birmingham and Jake Springfield, with seniors like left guard Josh Sills and transfer center Danny Godlevske. Starting right guard Hunter Woodard has been out the first two games because of injury, but Gundy didn't want to speculate on Woodard's possible return this week.
Birmingham went from backup right guard to starting left tackle in a matter of two weeks as offensive line coach Charlie Dickey tries to find the right mix of players up front to open holes for OSU's talented running backs.
“It's just based on some of the changes we made with our personnel and trying to give ourselves the best chance. Some of it is based on a matchup with the teams we're playing,” Gundy said. “Some of these guys are still really young, and so we're trying to move them around and put them in the best position to give us success based on who we're playing.”
The Cowboys had been excited about their running backs — LD Brown, Jaylen Warren, Dezmon Jackson and Dominic Richardson — but the excitement has cooled after producing subpar yardage totals in the first two games.
Warren, the senior transfer from Utah State, got the most carries on Saturday, with 14 for 37 yards and a zig-zagging 11yard touchdown. Richardson had 18 yards on four attempts, including a key fourth-down conversion and a 13-yard run that is the longest by an OSU running back all season.
Still, until the Cowboys can win enough battles up front, the run game is going to struggle to produce on a consistent basis.
“It's a numbers game,” Gundy said. “We lost a group of wide receivers. (Defenses) play different coverages, put an extra guy in the box. It's very simple. If that guy's not in the box, if he's back there playing pass, that's one less guy to block, one less guy that can make a tackle in the running game.”