This Oklahoma State Players Believes Cowboys Have Best Running Backs in America
The Oklahoma State Cowboys are underway with their spring practice. The program is looking to turn the page from 2020, when they camp up short of expectations, which were to make a run at a Big 12 Championship.
But is it possible we are going to see a very different Cowboys team this fall. As in one that is pounding the rock even more than last year and is possibly moving completely away from an offense that helped Mike Gundy put the Cowboys on the national stage over 10 years ago?
I don’t know if we are there yet, but offensive lineman Josh Sills talked this week about how impressed he is with the group of running backs in Stillwater.
The veteran said, “It’s special. Especially when you have four. You have LD (Brown), you have Dez (Jackson), you have Dominic (Richardson) and then you have Jaylen (Warren). That’s just, in my opinion, the most impressive running back room in the country. Each one has their own shake and sugar that they put on everything. They’re all really quick. Just the dynamic that they bring to our offense, as far as not only playing running back, but you can move them out to the slot. They move well in space. Pretty special.”
This is even more interesting since most college football fans are wondering how that’s possible with the program losing Chuba Hubbard. But for those who were watching the Pokes closely late in the 2020 season, you saw the talent that was in the backfield behind Hubbard.
Oklahoma State finished 8-3 overall, and 6-3 in the Big 12 in 2020. They threw the ball 341 times compared to 508 rushing attempts. But this has been a trend in recent seasons for the Pokes. In 2019, the Cowboys threw the ball 352 times compared to 562 rushes. The numbers were a bit more even in 2018, before Spencer Sander was QB, with 503 passing attempts and 505 rushing attempts.
But if you go back to the high-flying days of Brandon Weeden, Justin Blackmon and company, in 2011, the Cowboys threw the ball 595 times compared to 392 rushes.
So if we are to continue with these trends, then Oklahoma State will be pounding the rock even further this fall, which continues its recent trend, but will still be strange for fans around the Big 12 who have been watching Mike Gundy’s offenses closely for nearly 20 years.
**Want to win a $20 gift card? Go sign up here and join our conversation! The best poster each week wins a gift card to your favorite establishment!**
