Breaking down the Cowboys, 10/26
SCOUTING REPORT
From Kansas coach Mark Mangino, whose Jayhawks led 17-0 before giving up 42 second-half points in a 42-32 loss to the Cowboys; and from Texas A&M coach Dennis Franchione, whose Aggies tied OSU with three seconds left in the fourth quarter before winning 34-33 in overtime.
Mangino: “Oklahoma State was moving the ball in the first half. We got some turnovers, they drove the length of the field, we were able to stop them on downs inside the 5-yard line. (But) we knew when we went into halftime that we were going to have to be more aggressive in our play, because they were moving the ball.
“The thing that works best for Bobby (Reid) is when they give him plenty of time to throw, he’s shown that he’s poised. He looks at the field and he gets his progression and he finds the open man. He seems to do much better when he is kind of rolling, or just gets plenty of time to throw. When his protection is good, he throws the ball very well and throws it with a lot more accuracy than he had perhaps a year ago. He can be dangerous. He’s a big, strong-armed kid and can just see well over the line of scrimmage.
“(Adarius Bowman has) got a lot of size and speed to him, and he’s a very good player. But if you evaluate the game very carefully, you will see that he caught balls that were just uncontested, with safeties squeezing the zone, caught some balls where the linebacker should have been underneath and was not. But you have to credit him, he really ran and got some yardage with his speed and athleticism after the catch. (Our) pass defense wasn’t very good, but to say it was just the secondary, that would be unfair to the secondary. I felt like we didn’t read patterns well with our linebackers, sink into our zone reads with our linebackers. I didn’t think we got adequate pressure on the quarterback ... and that comes with the defensive line. And we did not do a good job in our blitzes.”
Franchione: “I said before the season Oklahoma State would be a much-improved club and I think that’s the most vivid part. What you see is a team that is comfortable with what they’re doing, as compared with last year, when it was all new. They do so much no-huddle, that was probably a challenge for their players in the beginning and it’s starting to pay its dividends now. They have good team speed (on defense), get to the football. They’re younger on that side of the ball but still playing pretty well.”
THE OFFENSE
Base formation: No-huddle spread
2006 per-game averages - Points: 37.4, Total yards: 421.7, Rushing yards: 203.3, Passing yards: 218.4, Turnovers lost: 1.7, Time of possession: 28:40
THE DEFENSE
Base formation: 4-3
2006 per-game averages - Points: 22.3, Total yards: 341.6, Rushing yards: 144.6, Passing yards: 197, Turnovers gained: 1.9
THE COACH
Mike Gundy
Year at Oklahoma State: 2nd
Record: 8-10
Worth noting: At 39, Gundy is the fifth-youngest head coach in NCAA Division I-A. The former OSU quarterback is just the second alum to lead the Cowboys. The other was Jim Lookabaugh, who steered the Pokes to back-to-back New Year’s Day bowl appearances in 1944 and ‘45.
THE GAMERS
Bobby Reid
Position: QB Year: So.
Height: 6-3
Weight: 230
Worth noting: He’s No. 3 in the nation with a 177.65 passing-efficiency rating thanks to 17 touchdowns and six interceptions and a nation-best 10.2 yards-per-attempt average. Reid is completing 59.6 percent of his passes and also averaging 4.2 yards per rush.
Adarius Bowman
Position: WR Year: Jr.
Height: 6-4
Weight: 220
Worth noting: The North Carolina transfer ranks No. 2 nationally with 113 receiving yards per game. His 13-catch, 300-yard, four-touchdown performance against Kansas represented the 11th-highest receiving yardage total in college history.
Victor DeGrate
Position: DE Year: Sr.
Height: 6-3
Weight: 250
Worth noting: He’s No. 6 nationally in sacks, averaging just more than one per game. Now with 7½, he needs to get 10 to crack OSU’s single-season top five. While earning all-league honorable mention in 2005, DeGrate had five sacks and a team-best 11 tackles for loss.
QUARTERBACKS
Bobby Reid is No. 6 in the country in average points responsible for (17.14). In his first 14 games, he’s produced two of the top four offensive marks in OSU history, including a school-record 457 yards two weeks ago against Kansas. When Reid was knocked out of last week’s game against Texas A&M with a head injury, freshman Zac Robinson came in to throw three touchdown passes and did not commit a turnover. Reid is expected back Saturday.
RUNNING BACKS
Mike Hamilton rushed for 961 yard as a freshman last year to earn second-team All-Big 12 recognition. He’s fifth in the league, averaging 69.9 yards per game (and 6.0 per carry). He has 23 more attempts than any other Cowboy, but OSU will rotate three capable backs. Freshman Keith Toston, who started against Kansas, is 14th in the Big 12 at 51.3 yards per game. Junior college transfer Dantrell Savage is coming off a 134-yard performance against Texas A&M and is averaging a team-best 8.6 yards per carry.
RECEIVERS
This will tell you how fond OSU is of going downfield. As a team, the Cowboys average 16.6 yards per reception. Adarius Bowman’s average of nearly 22 yards, which ranks No. 3 nationally, has come on 36 catches. The two players ahead of him nationally have a combined 36 receptions. Bowman has five scoring receptions from at least 54 yards. He’s complemented by senior D’Juan Woods, No. 3 at OSU with 2,373 career yards and 138 catches. Bowman and Woods both reach the end zone once out of every four receptions. Tight end Brandon Pettigrew is the team’s No. 3 receiver with 13 catches for 157 yards.
O-LINE
Outside of right tackle Corey Hilliard (36 career starts and an honorable mention all-league pick last season), this in-the-trenches group is a bunch of no-names that includes a first-time senior starter (right guard Kurt Seifried). Don’t think they can’t play, though. After three Big 12 games, the Cowboys have allowed a league-low five sacks. Center David Washington has started all 18 games of his career. Hilliard has slid to left tackle the last two games with redshirt freshman Brady Bond out with an injury. True freshman Russell Okung has been at right tackle.
D-LINE
With Victor DeGrate leading the way, the Cowboys rank seventh nationally with 25 sacks — one more than they recorded all of 2005. They also have 60 tackles for loss, more than double their opponents’ total. DeGrate and Marque Fountain are fourth and seventh, respectively, in the Big 12 in stops behind the line with 9½ and 7, respectively. Fountain had four of those in one game. Nathan Peterson, who’s listed behind left end Darnell Smith, is sixth with five sacks and leads the team with four hurries. Senior tackle Ryan McBean has started all 17 games of his career.
LINEBACKERS
Rodrick Johnson in the middle is third on the team with 33 tackles, including 6½ for loss. Against Texas A&M, he had three behind the line, and forced and recovered a fumble. He had one-third of his tackles against Houston. Freshman Patrick Lavine had eight tackles last week. Jeremy Nethon (24 tackles and three breakups) adds solid depth on the outside rotating with Alex Odiari. The Cowboys miss freshman Chris Collins, who was the No. 2 tackler before being injured against Kansas.
SECONDARY
OSU’s six interceptions are one more than it had all last season. Strong safety Andre Sexton, who redshirted last year as a freshman after suffering a preseason injury, is the anchor. He leads OSU with 48 tackles. Against Texas A&M, he had 15 and forced a fumble. Free safety Donovan Woods, a former quarterback, has the second-most stops with 36. He made a career-high 11, in addition to getting his first interception of the season, last week. He and Sexton also have forced two fumbles. The play at cornerback has been shaky. OSU allowed 313 passing yard to Houston’s Kevin Kolb, and opponents are completing 60 percent of passes and averaging 13.1 yards a catch. Backup cornerback Perrish Cox is the only secondary player with more than two breakups.
SPECIALISTS
Perrish Cox is No. 6 nationally in kickoff returns, averaging 31.4 yards. He went 96 yards in the opener for a TD. Grant Jones actually has a better average (39 yards) but has just five returns. As a team, the Cowboys lead the nation. Cox also ranks 11th in punt returns with 13.9-yard average. Punter Matt Fodge has three punts of at least 70 yards this season and is averaging a league-best 49.2 yards, nearly 10 more than he averaged last season. Kicker Jason Ricks is 31-for-32 on extra points this season, but the miss came in overtime in last week’s loss to Texas A&M. OSU also botched a PAT on a bad exchange. After leading the 2004 Cowboys in scoring and then redshirting last year because of injury, Ricks is 6-for-8 on field goals and has a 53-yarder. OSU has had some coverage issues. It gave up a 95-yard kickoff return to Kansas State, and has allowed three others of at least 40 yards, and also had a punt blocked for a score against the Wildcats.
From Kansas coach Mark Mangino, whose Jayhawks led 17-0 before giving up 42 second-half points in a 42-32 loss to the Cowboys; and from Texas A&M coach Dennis Franchione, whose Aggies tied OSU with three seconds left in the fourth quarter before winning 34-33 in overtime.
Mangino: “Oklahoma State was moving the ball in the first half. We got some turnovers, they drove the length of the field, we were able to stop them on downs inside the 5-yard line. (But) we knew when we went into halftime that we were going to have to be more aggressive in our play, because they were moving the ball.
“The thing that works best for Bobby (Reid) is when they give him plenty of time to throw, he’s shown that he’s poised. He looks at the field and he gets his progression and he finds the open man. He seems to do much better when he is kind of rolling, or just gets plenty of time to throw. When his protection is good, he throws the ball very well and throws it with a lot more accuracy than he had perhaps a year ago. He can be dangerous. He’s a big, strong-armed kid and can just see well over the line of scrimmage.
“(Adarius Bowman has) got a lot of size and speed to him, and he’s a very good player. But if you evaluate the game very carefully, you will see that he caught balls that were just uncontested, with safeties squeezing the zone, caught some balls where the linebacker should have been underneath and was not. But you have to credit him, he really ran and got some yardage with his speed and athleticism after the catch. (Our) pass defense wasn’t very good, but to say it was just the secondary, that would be unfair to the secondary. I felt like we didn’t read patterns well with our linebackers, sink into our zone reads with our linebackers. I didn’t think we got adequate pressure on the quarterback ... and that comes with the defensive line. And we did not do a good job in our blitzes.”
Franchione: “I said before the season Oklahoma State would be a much-improved club and I think that’s the most vivid part. What you see is a team that is comfortable with what they’re doing, as compared with last year, when it was all new. They do so much no-huddle, that was probably a challenge for their players in the beginning and it’s starting to pay its dividends now. They have good team speed (on defense), get to the football. They’re younger on that side of the ball but still playing pretty well.”
THE OFFENSE
Base formation: No-huddle spread
2006 per-game averages - Points: 37.4, Total yards: 421.7, Rushing yards: 203.3, Passing yards: 218.4, Turnovers lost: 1.7, Time of possession: 28:40
THE DEFENSE
Base formation: 4-3
2006 per-game averages - Points: 22.3, Total yards: 341.6, Rushing yards: 144.6, Passing yards: 197, Turnovers gained: 1.9
THE COACH
Mike Gundy
Year at Oklahoma State: 2nd
Record: 8-10
Worth noting: At 39, Gundy is the fifth-youngest head coach in NCAA Division I-A. The former OSU quarterback is just the second alum to lead the Cowboys. The other was Jim Lookabaugh, who steered the Pokes to back-to-back New Year’s Day bowl appearances in 1944 and ‘45.
THE GAMERS
Bobby Reid
Position: QB Year: So.
Height: 6-3
Weight: 230
Worth noting: He’s No. 3 in the nation with a 177.65 passing-efficiency rating thanks to 17 touchdowns and six interceptions and a nation-best 10.2 yards-per-attempt average. Reid is completing 59.6 percent of his passes and also averaging 4.2 yards per rush.
Adarius Bowman
Position: WR Year: Jr.
Height: 6-4
Weight: 220
Worth noting: The North Carolina transfer ranks No. 2 nationally with 113 receiving yards per game. His 13-catch, 300-yard, four-touchdown performance against Kansas represented the 11th-highest receiving yardage total in college history.
Victor DeGrate
Position: DE Year: Sr.
Height: 6-3
Weight: 250
Worth noting: He’s No. 6 nationally in sacks, averaging just more than one per game. Now with 7½, he needs to get 10 to crack OSU’s single-season top five. While earning all-league honorable mention in 2005, DeGrate had five sacks and a team-best 11 tackles for loss.
QUARTERBACKS
Bobby Reid is No. 6 in the country in average points responsible for (17.14). In his first 14 games, he’s produced two of the top four offensive marks in OSU history, including a school-record 457 yards two weeks ago against Kansas. When Reid was knocked out of last week’s game against Texas A&M with a head injury, freshman Zac Robinson came in to throw three touchdown passes and did not commit a turnover. Reid is expected back Saturday.
RUNNING BACKS
Mike Hamilton rushed for 961 yard as a freshman last year to earn second-team All-Big 12 recognition. He’s fifth in the league, averaging 69.9 yards per game (and 6.0 per carry). He has 23 more attempts than any other Cowboy, but OSU will rotate three capable backs. Freshman Keith Toston, who started against Kansas, is 14th in the Big 12 at 51.3 yards per game. Junior college transfer Dantrell Savage is coming off a 134-yard performance against Texas A&M and is averaging a team-best 8.6 yards per carry.
RECEIVERS
This will tell you how fond OSU is of going downfield. As a team, the Cowboys average 16.6 yards per reception. Adarius Bowman’s average of nearly 22 yards, which ranks No. 3 nationally, has come on 36 catches. The two players ahead of him nationally have a combined 36 receptions. Bowman has five scoring receptions from at least 54 yards. He’s complemented by senior D’Juan Woods, No. 3 at OSU with 2,373 career yards and 138 catches. Bowman and Woods both reach the end zone once out of every four receptions. Tight end Brandon Pettigrew is the team’s No. 3 receiver with 13 catches for 157 yards.
O-LINE
Outside of right tackle Corey Hilliard (36 career starts and an honorable mention all-league pick last season), this in-the-trenches group is a bunch of no-names that includes a first-time senior starter (right guard Kurt Seifried). Don’t think they can’t play, though. After three Big 12 games, the Cowboys have allowed a league-low five sacks. Center David Washington has started all 18 games of his career. Hilliard has slid to left tackle the last two games with redshirt freshman Brady Bond out with an injury. True freshman Russell Okung has been at right tackle.
D-LINE
With Victor DeGrate leading the way, the Cowboys rank seventh nationally with 25 sacks — one more than they recorded all of 2005. They also have 60 tackles for loss, more than double their opponents’ total. DeGrate and Marque Fountain are fourth and seventh, respectively, in the Big 12 in stops behind the line with 9½ and 7, respectively. Fountain had four of those in one game. Nathan Peterson, who’s listed behind left end Darnell Smith, is sixth with five sacks and leads the team with four hurries. Senior tackle Ryan McBean has started all 17 games of his career.
LINEBACKERS
Rodrick Johnson in the middle is third on the team with 33 tackles, including 6½ for loss. Against Texas A&M, he had three behind the line, and forced and recovered a fumble. He had one-third of his tackles against Houston. Freshman Patrick Lavine had eight tackles last week. Jeremy Nethon (24 tackles and three breakups) adds solid depth on the outside rotating with Alex Odiari. The Cowboys miss freshman Chris Collins, who was the No. 2 tackler before being injured against Kansas.
SECONDARY
OSU’s six interceptions are one more than it had all last season. Strong safety Andre Sexton, who redshirted last year as a freshman after suffering a preseason injury, is the anchor. He leads OSU with 48 tackles. Against Texas A&M, he had 15 and forced a fumble. Free safety Donovan Woods, a former quarterback, has the second-most stops with 36. He made a career-high 11, in addition to getting his first interception of the season, last week. He and Sexton also have forced two fumbles. The play at cornerback has been shaky. OSU allowed 313 passing yard to Houston’s Kevin Kolb, and opponents are completing 60 percent of passes and averaging 13.1 yards a catch. Backup cornerback Perrish Cox is the only secondary player with more than two breakups.
SPECIALISTS
Perrish Cox is No. 6 nationally in kickoff returns, averaging 31.4 yards. He went 96 yards in the opener for a TD. Grant Jones actually has a better average (39 yards) but has just five returns. As a team, the Cowboys lead the nation. Cox also ranks 11th in punt returns with 13.9-yard average. Punter Matt Fodge has three punts of at least 70 yards this season and is averaging a league-best 49.2 yards, nearly 10 more than he averaged last season. Kicker Jason Ricks is 31-for-32 on extra points this season, but the miss came in overtime in last week’s loss to Texas A&M. OSU also botched a PAT on a bad exchange. After leading the 2004 Cowboys in scoring and then redshirting last year because of injury, Ricks is 6-for-8 on field goals and has a 53-yarder. OSU has had some coverage issues. It gave up a 95-yard kickoff return to Kansas State, and has allowed three others of at least 40 yards, and also had a punt blocked for a score against the Wildcats.
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