Tramel's ScissorTales: Oklahoma State's hurry-up will change standards for Cowboys defense
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In the 2020 season opener, OSU’s defense gave up seven points and 277 total yards to Tulsa.
In the 2021 season opener, OSU’s defense gave up 16 points and 336 total yards to Missouri State.
In the 2022 season opener, OSU’s defense gave up 44 points and 546 total yards to Central Michigan.
Cause for concern? Yes. Cause for alarm? No. Cause for readjusted analysis? Yes.
The Cowboy defense will be affected by the loss of stalwarts like Malcolm Rodriguez, Devin Harper, Kolby Harvell-Peel and Jarrick Bernard-Converse. The Cowboy defense will miss coordinator Jim Knowles, off to Ohio State.
But here’s what we learned in OSU’s 58-44 victory over Central Michigan on Thursday night: OSU’s defense might be most impacted by OSU’s offense.
The Cowboys, who only occasionally played up-tempo offensively the last few years, spent most of the Central Michigan game like they were trying to catch the last train of the night.
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High-speed offense. Hurry-up. Fast-paced.
College football, OSU included, has slowed a little in recent years. But the Cowboys are going yesteryear, not back to the methodical 20th century, but back to the uptempo offense so popular a decade or so ago.
It was quite effective against Central Michigan. Spencer Sanders looked fabulous, the Cowboys rolled up the points until they finally slowed trying to get the clock expired, and offense seems ready to bear much of the load it relinquished the last couple of seasons.
But it comes at a cost.
Central Michigan got 16 possessions. Give an offense 16 possessions, and even great defenses are hard-pressed to produce numbers pleasing to traditional metrics.
“We understand what our offense is,” said new defensive coordinator Derek Mason. “It’s about growing up and having to grow up pretty fast. The idea of how games shake out, how games play out, you take those things quarter by quarter.”
Last season, the OSU offense played much more deliberately, and Cowboy opponents averaged 12.5 possessions per game. Tulsa, West Virginia and Iowa State got 11 possessions each.
Only Notre Dame, in the Fiesta Bowl, had more than 14 possessions. The Fighting Irish had 16 – and scored 35 points.
OSU football report card:Defense struggles against Central Michigan, but offense shines
“I didn’t really notice it (the up-tempo’s effect) that much, but I can see where it could affect some defenses,” said OSU safety Jason Taylor II, one of the few veterans in the Cowboy defense’s back seven. He called the CMU game “little growing pains, you know? But we’ll be all right. We’ll get better. We always do.”
OSU’s defense is not going to approach the superb unit of 2021, and nobody believes otherwise. Too many great players departed; too many young players learning on the go; too much adjustment from Knowles to Mason.
But don’t fall into the trap of believing OSU’s defense has disintegrated, just because of 44 points and 546 yards.
In baseball parlance, OSU’s defense has moved from a pitcher’s park to a hitter’s park, courtesy of that hurryup offense.
“Defensively, we played good up until middle of the third quarter, and we had a lot of young guys get a taste of what it's like to be out there,” Mike Gundy said.
“We try to tell them that the game goes fast, plays fast. But there's just no substitute for being in the game.”
In the first half, Central Michigan had eight possessions and scored just two touchdowns. OSU’s defense even produced a safety. Then the Chips scored one touchdown on their first four possessions of the second half.
At that point, CMU had produced 21 points on 12 possessions. That’s winning defense. But the Cowboys tired and gave up three consecutive touchdown drives in the fourth quarter.
Carlson:Spencer Sanders' numbers vs. Central Michigan weren't his most impressive feat
Gundy reeled off the jersey numbers of Cowboys trying to fill in for Knowles’ stars. Linebackers Lamont Bishop, Mason Cobb and Xavier Benson. Defensive backs Cam Smith, Korie Black and Jabbar Muhammad.
Young guys baptized by fire. Not trying to turn Central Michigan into Alabama, but Chippewas coach Jim McElwain is an established offensive mind – he was Nick Saban’s offensive coordinator from 2008-11 – whose short-passing schemes repeatedly compromised the Cowboys.
Central Michigan’s Daniel Richardson is a solid quarterback. Give Richardson and McElwain 16 possessions, and they will do some damage.
Not that OSU’s defense is complaining. A prolific offense can be a defense’s best friend. A year ago, in several games, the Cowboy defense had little wiggle room. The margin of error was small.
Looks like this OSU offense will be different. Capable of winning shootouts.
“It’s good to see what our offense did tonight,” Mason said. “I think they’re a pretty explosive group. We’re playing a little catchup. But that’s OK.”
Cut the Cowboy defense a little slack. Its numbers likely will startle fans who quickly grew accustomed to low-scoring games. The Cowboy defense is rebuilding, and it’s rebuilding having moved to a hitter’s park.
OSU vs. Central Michigan:Spencer Sanders joins Patrick Mahomes & more Week 1 stats
West Virginia suffers demoralizing defeat vs. Pitt
The football zipped towards Bryce Ford-Wheaton's hands, and a wild Backyard Brawl seemed to be in West Virginia’s favor. Ford-Wheaton stood relatively alone, just past the 50-yard line.
Pittsburgh defenders were several yards behind and to the side of Ford-Wheaton; he seemed to be in a bubble. Free to make a catch and give the Mountaineers a first down at maybe the Pitt 45-yard line, with 3½ minutes left in a tie game.
Ford-Wheaton is an accomplished receiver: 69 catches, 991 yards and six touchdowns through two Mountaineer seasons. Two more TDs Thursday night against Pitt.
But football is a funny game. J.T. Daniels’ pass zipped right between Ford-Wheaton's hands. Pitt cornerback MJ Devonshire caught the ball, headed upfield and weaved 56 yards for a touchdown. A few minutes later, the Panthers had a wild, 38-31 victory in Pittsburgh at the stadium formerly named Heinz Field.
''This is one of the greatest rivalries in college football and I just did something crazy I'm going to get to tell my kids about,'' Devonshire said.
The verdict had more than the usual impact of a college football game.
➤ The West Virginia loss prevented the Big 12 from superb bragging rights. Pitt is the defending Atlantic Coast Conference champion and is ranked 17th in The Associated Press poll. West Virginia was picked to be a second-division Big 12 team.
A victory over the Panthers would have boosted the Big 12’s status in the 2022 college football food chain.
But no.
➤ The loss was demoralizing to the regime of WVU coach Neal Brown, who entered the game with a 17-18 record in three years. Brown desperately needed a jolt to show the Mountaineers are making progress in trying to catch the Oklahoma States and Baylors of the Big 12.
West Virginians got a jolt, all right.
WVU showed promise, especially with new quarterback J.T. Daniels, who transferred from Georgia. Daniels completed 23 of 40 passes for 214 yards, two touchdowns and one interception.
Daniels even put WVU in position for a vaunted comeback. His desperation, 4th-and-16 pass on a play that started at the Pitt 28-yard line in the final seconds, was seemingly caught by a diving Reese Smith at the Panther 1-yard line with less than 20 seconds left in the game. But replay review overturned the call.
“I thought J.T. did a really nice job,” Brown said. “Threw the deep ball well. Gave our guys a chance. In his first game out, first time playing in a long time, handled himself very well.”
Daniels certainly appears to give West Virginia an upgrade at quarterback after going with OU transfer Austin Kendall or Bowling Green transfer Jarrett Doege the last three seasons.
But the memory of this loss will linger.
Especially considering WVU led 31-24 with little more than six minutes left. The Mountaineers faced 4th-and-1 from the Pitt 48-yard line, and Brown ordered a punt.
“We’re up seven,” Brown said. “You pin ‘em, and we did; 6:01 to go. They had to go 98 yards, and we’re up seven. If I had to do it again, I would do the same decision.”
Pitt actually needed to go 92 yards, but Brown’s point is well made.
The Mountaineers needed only about a foot for a first down, but “they’ve been really really good in short-yardage (defensive) situations,” Brown said of Pitt.
“Take the whole scope of the game. Their drive before that, they had (allowed) two sacks, and we played really well defensively on back-to-back drives.”
I would have gone for the first down, for this reason. What did Pitt want WVU to do in that situation: punt or go for it? Punt, right? Pitt wanted the ball back, anyway it could get the ball back. The only way to keep the ball from the Panthers was trying to make that foot.
But give Pitt credit. The Panthers made the plays to tie, then Wheaton-Ford let a ball go right between his hands and the Panthers won a Backyard Brawl that will be long-regretted in West Virginia.
Tramel:For Brent Venables, 'all the hard work has built up to this' with OU football
NBA East gets an edge
The Utah Jazz traded Donovan Mitchell to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Thursday in another one of those crazy deals that has become the NBA norm. Trade your future drafts for current stars.
It’s a concept pioneered by the Thunder in the Paul George deal of three years ago, and Utah did it well, twice, this summer.
The Jazz traded Mitchell to Cleveland for three unprotected first-round draft picks (2025, 2027, 2029); pick swaps in 2026 and 2028; and players Lauri Markkanen, the just-drafted Ochai Agbaji and Collin Sexton, who signed a four-year contract with Utah to make the deal possible.
That comes on the heels of Utah trading center Rudy Gobert to Minnesota for four first-round picks (2023, 2025, 2027, 2029); a 2026 pick swap; and five players – Malik Beasley, Patrick Beverley, Leandro Bolmaro, Jarred Vanderbilt and the just-drafted Walker Kessler. Those five collectively don’t approach the value of Gobert.
The Jazz are in full tank mode, just like the Thunder and Rockets before them. One big difference: OKC and Houston tore down aging teams that featured stars in their 30s. Utah just tore down a team that featured stars (Gobert, Mitchell) in their 20s. A little more curious.
The trade helps shift the balance of power in the NBA. This should solidify Cleveland as a playoff team. The Gobert trade just shifted the balance within the West, from Utah to Minnesota. But now the Cavs are fortified with a core of Jarrett Allen, Darius Garland, Evan Mobley and Mitchell. Maybe not a great fit with their skillsets, but a heck of a young talent base.
It also means the Thunder, the Jazz, the Rockets and the Pelicans control much of the NBA Drafts through the end of this decade.
The Thunder has 15 first-round picks through 2029. The Jazz has 14, but Utah’s are unprotected. Only nine of OKC’s 15 are unprotected.
New Orleans has 10 first-round picks through 2029, one of them protected. And Houston has eight first-round picks through 2029.
That’s seven years of drafts, 210 first-round picks, and four franchises control 47 of them.
But it came at a cost to OKC, Utah and Houston. Big rebuilding jobs.
How did Utah do compared to what the Thunder got for George?
Well, in some ways, the PG13 trade remains the gold standard, because not only did the Thunder get five first-round picks, it got a cornerstone future star in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
Of course, the counter is that the Thunder’s picks from the Clippers don’t figure to be high in the draft anytime soon, this past draft being an exception, when OKC was blessed with the No. 12 pick from Los Angeles.
But it all adds up to a shifting balance in the NBA. The Thunder and Rockets were playoff regulars throughout the 2010s. The Jazz joined them halfway through the decade.
Now all are rebuilding, and Cleveland is back in the playoff business.
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Mailbag: OU’s projected record
In my weekly She Said He Said with Jenni Carlson, I predicted a 10-4 record for the Sooners. Yep, raised some eyebrows.
John: “You predict that Oklahoma will go 10-4. Where are the four losses?”
Tramel: Oh, I have no idea. I just figured OU likely will play 14 games, counting the Big 12 Championship.
Look at it this way. The Sooners were 11-2 a year ago, won a bunch of close games and lost only one close game, then lost a bunch of talented players, including five defenders to the NFL Draft and a quarterback in Caleb Williams projected to be a Heisman Trophy contender.
Considering all that, dropping the equivalent of 1½ games compared to 2021 seems rather likely.
Maybe Brent Venables invigorates the OU defense, which frankly needed invigorating. Maybe Dillon Gabriel is every bit as good as Williams. We’ll see.
But if the Sooners play 14 games, I can see 10 that are losable. That’s a lot in college football.
Road games at Nebraska, Texas Christian, West Virginia and Iowa State, plus Texas in Dallas, then Kansas State, Baylor and OSU in Norman. Then Arlington and a bowl game.
OU could be favored in all of those games. But none are pushovers. I mean, the Huskers and Horned Frogs might topple easily, but Nebraska played OU tough last season even after a demoralizing season-opening loss to Illinois, same as this time with Northwestern.
If OU beats my prediction and goes 11-3, that’s a heck of a year.
OU vs. UTEP football: Can the Sooners start the Brent Venables era with a blowout win?
The List: Tulsa football coaches
The University of Tulsa opens its 2022 season Saturday at Wyoming, and this is -- can you believe it? -- Philip Montgomery’s eighth season as the Golden Hurricane head coach.
Montgomery thus matches the iconic Glenn Dobbs and John Cooper on TU’s list of longest-serving head coaches. Here are the Tulsa coaches with the most wins in school history:
1. John Cooper, 1977-84: In eight seasons at TU, Cooper’s teams went 56-32 before Arizona State hired him away. Three years later, Cooper went to Ohio State, where he lasted 13 seasons, the longest tenure in Buckeye history, other than Woody Hayes.
2. Dave Rader, 1988-99: Rader lasted 12 years. His 1991 team went 10-2, which helped him stave off a long run of losing seasons that put his overall TU record at 50-83-1.
3. John “Buddy” Brothers, 1946-52: Produced a variety of big wins in TU’s golden era. His record was 45-25-4. Brothers later coached Norman High School, in 1956.
3. Glenn Dobbs Jr., 1961-68: The TU graduate ushered in the pass-crazy era with the likes of quarterbacks Jerry Rhome and Billy Guy Anderson. Dobbs’ Golden Hurricane went 45-37.
5. Henry Frnka, 1941-45: His teams were dominant in the depleted World War II years, going 40-9-1, including trips to two Sugar Bowls and an Orange Bowl. Glenn Dobbs was Frnka’s star player.
6. Philip Montgomery, 2015-22: Montgomery’s teams are 38-46 but have showed a revival the last two years. If Tulsa can get to eight wins this year, Montgomery zooms to No. 3 on the TU victory list.
7. Todd Graham, 2007-10: Graham, a former Carl Albert High School head coach, went 36-17 in four years at TU before embarking on a coaching odyssey at Pittsburgh, Arizona State and Hawaii.
8. F.A. Dry, 1972-76: The Hurricane went 31-18-1 under Dry, before he was hired away by TCU.
9. Robert Dobbs, 1955-60: Glenn Dobbs’ brother went 30-28-2 at Tulsa. The Dobbs brothers were from Frederick.
10. Steve Kragthorpe, 2003-06: Kragthorpe went 29-22 in four seasons before he was hired away by Louisville.
Berry Tramel: Berry can be reached at 405-760-8080 or at btramel@oklahoman.com. He can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including FM-98.1. Support his work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma State football hurry-up offense will affect defense standards
