5 Observations from Week 1 of OSU’s Fall Camp

Posted on August 9, 2018

By: Michael Doutey

The 2018 campaign for Oklahoma State football is now a week into camp. The pads are officially out and popping and the season is growing ever closer. The Cowboys are just 21 days away from their first outing against Missouri State inside Boone Pickens Stadium.

OSU is replacing so many big playmakers who have been staples around OSU for the past three or four seasons. Big names like OSU’s all-time leading passer in Mason Rudolph and all-time leading receiver in James Washington as well as Marcel Ateman, Brad Lundblade, Zac Crabtree and Chris Lacy on the offensive side. The defense has some big losses as well in Tre Flowers, Chad Whitner, Ramon Richards and DQ Osborne.

Despite those big losses there is still excitement for the new season. Justice Hill is a huge reason for fans excitement. Hill is coming off an excellent season, rushing for 1467 yards on 5.5 yards-per-carry and 15 touchdowns. There is a level of excitement (paired with severe nervousness) when there is unknown surrounding the roster. There is a new quarterback, a new defensive coordinator in Jim Knowles and some new playmakers at receiver that have fans excited for the upcoming season.

There is also excitement for the new additions to Boone Pickens Stadium. There is an enormous new video board plastered across the west side of Gallagher-Iba Arena. The old screens in the four corners for BPS will remain and display stats during the game, which I think is a really nice addition to the game day atmosphere.

Earlier this summer OSU announced that beer will be sold in the stadium, which will boost the game day atmosphere in a big way. There will also be new foods to buy from local vendors around Stillwater, which is a nice touch.

There are a bunch of reasons for fans to be looking forward to the start of the season. But now there is actual football to talk about as we stand a week deep in camp. Here are my five observations from the first week of OSU camp.

1. Program Comfortable with Taylor Cornelius

It started back at Big 12 Media Days in mid-July when Mike Gundy dubbed Taylor Cornelius as the guy at quarterback. While it caught me off guard, it made sense. Grad transfer, Dru Brown, and super talented freshman, Spencer Sanders, had yet to go through a practice in Stillwater. So, all Gundy had to go on was what Cornelius has done in the past. The common thought out there was that once practice started the Sanders and Brown would challenge Cornelius. But thena couple days before camp started I stood next to offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich and listened to him gush over Cornelius. While standing in the media scrum surrounding Yurcich in the locker room at Karsten Creek, it dawned on me that these guys are legit comfortable with Taylor Cornelius as their day one starter. Players are excited for him and confident in him. Gundy said at local Media Day in Stillwater that they are very comfortable with him but they just don’t know how he will perform when BPS is full and the score is tied 0-0 to start the game. My personal take is that we will know where OSU stands at quarterback after the Boise State game. Boise is legit, so if Cornelius can find a way to win that game, it’s his job all season long, barring and injury. If he struggles in that game then the quarterback derby will be on and it is anybody’s guess how that will end up.

2. In Wait and See Mode on OSU Defense

Don’t get me wrong here. I am encouraged by Jim Knowles, who is an incredibly intense coach. I think his 4-2-5 defense is a perfect fit for OSU and the Big 12. But as coach Gundy has said, we won’t know much about this defense until Big 12 play starts. OSU is going to have to show me over the course of a season that they have improved enough to make a difference for this team. I like what I hear about the press coverage with the corners and the atypical blitz packages with the front seven. Still, I need to see it against OU, TCU and West Virginia before I have a good feel of what this new defense really is. I will say if this new scheme does fit like I think it can, OSU could have one of their better season on that side of the ball for the first time in a number of years

3. Gundy is Very Comfortable with the Offensive Line

Ever since I’ve been covering the team, Gundy has been brutally honest about his offensive line. In 2014, that line was as bad as it gets at the Power 5 level. In 2015, it was better but not by much. It was still bad. It is a miracle OSU won 10 games that season with the offensive line in the shape that it was. In 2016, OSU was better on the line but more so in the running game. Last season was OSU’s best line since 2013, when OSU was a Justin Gilbert dropped interception away from a Big 12 Championship. This season, Gundy thinks by October that this line will be better than last seasons. He was bold enough to say that they are comfortable with 11 guys playing on the line this season, which I’m not totally sure I buy yet. But, I can say that they are deeper there than they have been in years. Saturday, Gundy said they were operating at 15 or 16 guys in the whole program on the line and now they are up to 24. We’ll see just how good they are as the season progresses. 

4. There are Still Tons of Playmakers Out Wide

Tyron Johnson. Jalen McCleskey. Dillon Stoner. Those are names you are familiar with. Tylan Wallace. Patrick McKaufman. LC Greenwood. Landon Wolf. Those are some names you should get to know. These are guys who are going to make plays this season and in a big way. This group isn’t as top heavy as last years, but I think they are more diverse in ability compared to the past couple seasons. They are an exciting and young group, outside of McCleskey who is the lone senior of the group. Dillon Stoner doesn’t think there will be any drop off from last year to this year. I think there might be some, but not as much as you might assume. But I think this group will execute big plays in different ways than Washington or Ateman did. It will be fun to see how this groups talents are used this season.

5. Injury Update

This biggest injury that has been reported is punter, Zach Sinor. He had surgery Tuesday for a hernia injury and his length of absence is unknown. Gundy said over the weekend at media day that reserve linebacker, Parick Macon, is going to be out for a few months with a foot injury. And Cowboy back, Jake Ross, has yet to practice due to an injury. However, I have not seen what the injury is.

Over the the next few weeks we will go position group by position group breaking down this 2018 team as we get closer to kickoff. 

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