Injury bug still biting unbeaten Cowboys
STILLWATER — On Sundays during the football season, Oklahoma State's Mike Gundy meets with his coaching staff to dissect all the happenings of the previous day's game, and at some point, injuries are addressed.
That portion of the meeting takes a little longer than usual these days.
Gundy's squad can't squash the injury bug that seems to be holding a spot on the Cowboy roster this season.
“For two years,” offensive coordinator Kasey Dunn said, referencing the 2020 injury battles OSU also faced. “I've been here for 11 years, I haven't seen anything like it.
“This takes the cake, for sure.” Somehow 3-0 this season, the Pokes are preparing for a 6 p.m. Saturday visit from No. 25-ranked Kansas State at Boone Pickens Stadium in which several OSU players will be out once again.
Exactly who will be missing? Gundy says he and his staff will “know more Wednesday,” on the injured Cowboys.
A few are already known, like defensive end Trace Ford, who suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament in practice the
‘When you have this kind of adversity and you come out on top the way that we did ... it’s priceless.’
Kasey Dunn
OSU offensive coordinator
Thursday before the season opener against Missouri State and is out for the season.
Safety Tre Sterling is the latest to join the “out for the year” crowd, with an undisclosed injury suffered in the days before OSU went up to Idaho and won 21-20 at Boise State on Saturday.
But it's not just the season-ending injuries that are nagging the Cowboys. One of the team's top offensive linemen, Hunter Woodard, missed the first two games. Tight end Logan Carter has yet to suit up. Running back Dezmon Jackson got hurt against Tulsa two Saturdays ago and didn't make the trip to Boise. And then there are the receivers. Langston Anderson — who has had more than a couple bouts with injuries in his career — suffered a broken foot during warmups for the Missouri State game.
Anderson was set to back up starter Tay Martin, who injured his ankle in the opener, and played only two plays against Tulsa the next week, then didn't travel to Boise.
True freshman Jaden Bray was the third-stringer behind Martin and Anderson at the start of the season before rising to a starting role by the second game of the year. He suffered a foot injury against Tulsa and missed Boise as well, with no known return date.
Senior slot receiver Braydon Johnson hasn't played since the opener, and true freshman Blaine Green has yet to play at all.
Green was set to be a starter before he got injured, and was replaced by his twin brother, Bryson Green. Now Bryson is on the shelf with a hand injury suffered against Boise State.
With so many injured wideouts, Gundy and Dunn have had to curtail the offensive playbook to fit what their players can execute. And that resulted in a heavy dose of the run game on Saturday.
All the injuries led to players like sophomore Rashod Owens — technically, the fourth-string player at the outside receiver position he played on Saturday — and redshirt freshman Cale Cabbiness making crucial catches in Saturday's win at Boise State.
Owens is only in his second year, but he has already played all three receiver positions in the offense. And Cabbiness didn't learn until last Wednesday that he'd even be on the traveling squad for the game — much less on the field to make the game-clinching reception on third-and-long in the final minutes.
“Why is Cabbiness on the field?” Dunn asked rhetorically. “Because if he wasn't, I'd be up next.
“We usually travel nine receivers. We traveled seven this time. There's a lot of guys that should be playing that are hurt. I think I have more hurt than actually teeing up and playing. There's more guys on the IR than on the bus.
“That makes it difficult.”
Like Dunn, Gundy has never faced such injury adversity.
“I've never, ever — that I know of in 32 years as a coach — started two true freshmen at one position, and we've done it a couple times this year,” Gundy said. “So, no, I've never been in this situation.”
After the victory at Boise State, Dunn was excited because of the difficulties his team faced and overcome to win.
“When you have this kind of adversity and you come out on top the way that we did… it's priceless,” Dunn said. “This is what you live for as a coach, as a player, and we got it done. It's a special night, a special moment for us.”