Sunday Doldrums: Some Thoughts

[Osucowboys344]

I don’t put too much faith in the portal for fixing the OL.

Just watched them try to do that in the offseason and the consistent analysis was that there weren’t many good players in the portal at OL. Their OL is a disaster, again this season.

Arkansas did a good job with it

 

[Georgia Poke]

I hate to say this but someone once told me that coaches like to come to Oklahoma state because they have “work life balance” under gundy. They talked about how hard it was to work for Bill Snyder because he would work from 6am to 2:00am on most days. Bill expected hard work and dedication.

Gundy is on cruise control. He wants the big pay check but doesn’t demand the hours that these guys need to be successful. We were clearly unprepared Saturday and it showed. The problem I see is that they will come back and work hard for a few games and then slack off again leading to more frustration. It’s an endless cycle until gundy decides to commit to championship level football and coaching

Football is not more important than one’s family.

 

[Osucowboys344]

Football is not more important than one’s family.

No it’s not but if you commit to making 9-10 million or even a million a year. You must understand that work is your priority. Family is more important and you want more time then pick a different career than a college football coach

 

[Backin82]

I think we have a better shot next year. We can get better offensive linemen in the portal that know how to run block. Also, maybe we can pickup a QB that can throw 10 yards.

"Maybe next year" is a valid thought when you don't have the personnel or coaching staff to succeed. The problem is that we've seen this exact same group have success consistently last year. The obvious question is, "What changed?" How can you have so much success last season, and fail this miserably after an entire offseason of strength & conditioning, preparing, maturing, and coaches developing? This points to a system failure, which points to a leadership failure.

Secondly, we have a small NIL budget and a coach that enjoys a more normal work/life balance for him and his staff. If you think we can address our alleged talent problem via the portal, then I think you're off-base. We could have done that this offseason, and we didn't.

What evidence suggests we'll do anything differently or that such changes will yield improvements?

 

[Osucowboys344]

"Maybe next year" is a valid thought when you don't have the personnel or coaching staff to succeed. The problem is that we've seen this exact same group have success consistently last year. The obvious question is, "What changed?" How can you have so much success last season, and fail this miserably after an entire offseason of strength & conditioning, preparing, maturing, and coaches developing? This points to a system failure, which is points to a leadership failure.

Secondly, we have a small NIL budget and a coach that enjoys a more normal work/life balance for him and his staff. If you think we can address our alleged talent problem via the portal, then I think you're off-base. We could have done that this offseason, and we didn't.

What evidence suggests we'll do anything differently or that such changes will yield improvements?

You make some good points. I mean we are the worst run blocking team in the country. I am not sure how the addition of division 1 power 5 transfer who is coached better at a different program wouldn’t improve our oline.

It may not improve our pass protection but maybe we could find some guy who can run block. I don’t deny our lazy staff will consistently let them down.

I just see Arkansas who added a running back and oline from the portal and looks a lot more polished this year.

I think we added one guy from the portal because we assumed our oline was “2 deep”. Next cycle, a lot of these guys will be gone because they are seniors. So this gives us an opportunity to find better coached lineman in the portal

 

[Cowboyshoopspride]

I don’t put too much faith in the portal for fixing the OL.

Just watched them try to do that in the offseason and the consistent analysis was that there weren’t many good players in the portal at OL. Their OL is a disaster, again this season.

Run blocking is a disaster. Pass pro has been very good. Would prefer we stop asking them to do things they can't do.

 

[DxCowboy]

Arkansas did a good job with it

Not saying it can’t be done, especially if you have their collective $$$, which we don’t.

If Dickey is still coaching them, we’ll…

 

[Osucowboy79]

Run blocking is a disaster. Pass pro has been very good. Would prefer we stop asking them to do things they can't do.

Any word on when Lofton comes back? I'd love to see us run more 4 wide.

Ford is going to be a stud but he misses some blocks and Foster hasn't looked great. Why keep a TE in to lead block if they're not effective? Add a receiver and make them bump a guy out of the box.

 

[ClintDagger]

Football is not more important than one’s family.

From the coaches perspective, sure. If the HC is willing to let you work less than the industry standard why wouldn’t you? I think it’s on the AD to police that. If you’re getting paid market standard the expectation should be to work market standard hours.

 

[cowboyinexile]

Football is not more important than one’s family.

 

[Cowboyshoopspride]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1838598148974920183

 

[Poke Rocker]

No one can answer that. All we can do is base it off of what limited snaps we saw from Rangel or Gundy last year. However, while I can't say who definitively is the better QB, I can tell you that there's not a significant difference between Rangel and Bowman. Where Bowman has the edge over Rangel is in the intangibles- leadership, experience, etc. From just a talent perspective, they're about the same. Rangel is better mechanically, but Bowman is a bit faster at processing.

My gut? Based on very little evidence but through videos of practices and what I've heard and read, Flores is going to be the best QB on this roster. Is he the best QB right now? Probably not. I think he'll end up being the best, however.

Is he better than the freshman from California Maeli Smith long term? We haven’t really seen either one of them so I guess we all have our opinions on the subject!

 

[Poke2010]

You’re not going to like this.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1838359719041229053

I pose the question again, what does the staff do all week outside of practice. They’re not out blazing on the recruiting trail, I’ve stated before it appears they don’t watch film.

AB may have just said the quiet part out loud. Not only did they fail to plan for the main defense Utah’s runs but then they couldn’t adjust quick enough either. Absolutely horrendous.

Crazy that reporters will ask tough questions to a kid, but not have the gumption to pose the same questions the same way to the coach.

 

[EdmondPoke]

You’re not going to like this.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1838359719041229053

I pose the question again, what does the staff do all week outside of practice. They’re not out blazing on the recruiting trail, I’ve stated before it appears they don’t watch film.

AB may have just said the quiet part out loud. Not only did they fail to plan for the main defense Utah’s runs but then they couldn’t adjust quick enough either. Absolutely horrendous.

I’m going to ask an even more basic question.

A One High Shell formation and playing Cover 1 is a core tenant in the 3-3-5 defense. How the hell have the players “not seen that at all this year”, including “even during fall camp”? Either that’s a colossal failure on the coaching staff, or we’re not getting the full story here.

Truthfully, I find it difficult to believe that we’ve never seen Cover 1. Even if we hadn’t, however, Bowman is a 7th year Senior who’s played against ISU and TCU multiple times. He’s seen it before. It’s not some recent, ground breaking discovery. Something doesn’t pass the sniff test.

 

[Poke Rocker]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1838598148974920183

We won 45 games from 2015 to 2019! So far from 2020 to 4 games into 2024 we have won 40 games! Say we win 7 more this year and we will have won more games 47 to 45 than from 2015 to 2019!!! I care more about Ws than anything else but I guess Mr Bad Hairdo has a differing opinion!!!

 

[Osucowboys344]

Is he better than the freshman from California Maeli Smith long term? We haven’t really seen either one of them so I guess we all have our opinions on the subject!

We don’t know if he is better. The one thing we know is that gundy and Dunn will pick the least talented of the 2.

 

[DxCowboy]

We won 45 games from 2015 to 2019! So far from 2020 to 4 games into 2024 we have won 40 games! Say we win 7 more this year and we will have won more games 47 to 45 than from 2015 to 2019!!! I care more about Ws than anything else but I guess Mr Bad Hairdo has a differing opinion!!!

Looks like someone is reading message boards and trying to come up with something they think is profound, except it’s not.

 

[CptnQuirk]

Run blocking is a disaster. Pass pro has been very good. Would prefer we stop asking them to do things they can't do.

What change was made in the line blocking scheme last year that opened up holes for Ollie?

 

[Coco Cincinnati]

What change was made in the line blocking scheme last year that opened up holes for Ollie?

Whatever it was, the other teams have adjusted to it now and we're right back where we were before the change.... predictable and inflexible.

 

[Osucowboys344]

What change was made in the line blocking scheme last year that opened up holes for Ollie?

I think part of it as that Josiah Johnson use to give us some excellent blocking.

Ford is great but green. Not sure Tyler foster provides us with as much physicality.

Also, if you remember we struggled when teams went to a box. BYU did it first and we almost lost to them. So I think the coaches can’t develop creative plays to get Ollie to the 2nd level