With Bedlam a tight one, Oklahoma must exploit its one significant matchup advantage: OSU's offensive line
Mike Gundy has tried to keep things patched together.
But an unprecedented run of attrition and injury on the Oklahoma State offensive line has made things challenging for Gundy and offensive coordinator Kasey Dunn, as well as the entire OSU offense.
“I’m concerned when you have inexperienced youth playing on the offensive line,” Gundy said. “… I have concern when I have two freshmen guards playing in a game.”
Saturday’s Bedlam game in Norman is no time for Oklahoma to feel pity. The Sooners’ defensive line has a decided advantage over their Cowboys’ offensive counterparts, and as dangerous as OSU’s offense is in other areas, OU needs to be unrelenting up front.
Left tackle Jake Springfield, a redshirt freshman and former walk-on, started four games but hasn’t returned to this week’s two-deep yet after he injured an ankle against Texas.
With Springfield out for Kansas State, OSU O-line coach Charlie Dickey had West Virginia grad transfer Josh Sills step out from left guard to left tackle and brought in redshirt freshman Preston Wilson at left guard.
Right tackle and all-star candidate Teven Jenkins, who opened the season at left tackle, has made 34 career starts and is an NFL prospect, but got dinged up against Kansas State — and his backup is true freshman Eli Russ.
At right guard, third-year sophomore Hunter Woodard has started the last five games after Cole Birmingham was injured in the season opener. Right tackle Hunter Anthony also went down in that game, necessitating Jenkins’ switch to the right side.
“We had a very unfortunate incident in the first game where we had two young men who had serious injuries,” Gundy said, “and we got into musical chairs.”
Add all that to the preseason quagmire: returning starter Dylan Galloway opted out and retired from football in July after an injury-filled career. And in August, starting guard Bryce Bray and backup Jacob Farrell were dismissed from the team for violating team policy (Bray transferred to Tulsa).
“There's not any way to get players experience,” Gundy said, “other than putting them out there in games.”
It’s been Oklahoma State’s most confounding position — and has been especially so with a 2018 All-American at receiver (Tylan Wallace) and a 2019 All-American at running back (Chuba Hubbard). If those guys are allowed to make plays, OSU’s offense is as robust as there is in college football. If they’re not — well, the Cowboys’ defense has been good enough to allow the team to win with 16, 27, 24 and 20 points.
Meanwhile, Oklahoma’s defensive line play has been some of the best in the country.
Rush linebacker Nik Bonitto is arguably the most efficient pass rusher in major college football, according to Pro Football Focus. Isaiah Thomas was called the Sooners’ most valuable player by defensive coordinator Alex Grinch when he played mostly on the outside. Junior college transfers Perrion Winfrey and Josh Ellison have emerged as high-energy game wreckers on the inside, and Jordan Kelley has begun to make plays. Young players like Marcus Stripling and Reggie Grimes have gotten in on OU’s recent sack act. Senior rush ‘backer Jon-Michael Terry is having easily his best season.
And then there’s Ronnie Perkins.
The All-Big 12 defensive end returned from NCAA suspension three weeks ago and in his first two games back has changed the entire completion of the OU defense. His speed on the edge has allowed Thomas to move inside to the tackle position, giving the Sooners even more speed in the middle, and Perkins has bookended with Bonitto to become one of the game’s most feared tandems.
“Shoot,” said Perkins, “it’s great to have another guy on the edge, where you got some dominant guys on the inside and you got two dominant guys on the edge. So, it’s kind of great. You know, it gives us like no limit to what we can do.”
“I’m definitely feeling his presence and I feel like the whole defense is as well,” Bonitto said of Perkins. “That's a guy that automatically comes in and you can just feel his impact. You can see a lot of people are starting to get free on the D-line with more one-on-ones because they pay a lot of attention to him.”
OU is now ranked eighth nationally in quarterback sacks (3.71 per game), and the Sooners are 13th in tackles for loss (8.1 per game) — and those numbers have been climbing. In the last four games, Oklahoma has 38 tackles for loss and 20 QB sacks.
OSU, on the other hand, is 93rd nationally in sacks allowed, yielding 2.83 per game.
That’s not a good matchup for the Cowboys — especially if quarterback Spencer Sanders continues to be loose with the football.
“I still think it just comes down to executing your job,” said OU coach Lincoln Riley. “I mean, there’s obviously key matchups throughout a game that you’re gonna focus on. But you can’t always predetermine how those are gonna play out. I mean, offenses and defenses, especially both of these, are both so multiple. Both of ‘em can do so many things well that you may think you’re gonna have this matchup going into the game and then all of a sudden something changes.
“So I think it still comes down to just executing your assignments, executing your jobs and then, you know, when you do get those matchups that are advantageous to either side, you know, you’ve got to find a way to win those. Those are small, individual battles that go on throughout the course of a game, and a lot of times, especially in the trenches, those are the ones that end up being the most meaningful.”
Grinch says the first thing he looks at when he gets the game book on Saturdays is tackles for loss and quarterback sacks. The other team can’t be successful if it’s going the other direction.
Grinch isn’t exactly buying into the notion that his d-line has any distinct advantage this week — not publicly, and perhaps not behind closed doors.
“Number one, you want to give your opponent credit, making sure you don’t give them too much credit,” he said. “And equally as important for you is to give yourself credit, but not give yourself too much credit.
“Because we’ve been in situations … where you say, ‘This is how this thing is going to play out this weekend. They’re not going to be able to block ‘x’ pressure or this particular thing up front or they’re not going to be able to complete a ball versus this coverage,’ and then very early on in that particular game, ‘Oh by the way, they’ve been practicing that all week.’
“Then the same thing goes from a personnel standpoint — and I’ve put my foot in my mouth a number of times behind the scenes, saying that I’ve got no respect for this player and all of a sudden you walk off the game field and he earned it and you sure wish you would have respected him more going into it.”
Grinch said he wants to not “force things” and let the game play out while managing his expectations.
“It’s kinda like playing blackjack,” he said. “If you think you’re gonna win every hand now, you’re probably going to make some poor decisions — or play the give-up game. Manage expectations and understanding that it’s not gonna go as exactly as planned. Give them the tools and resources to adjust when those things happen. And make sure that our guys aren’t expecting a return of investment every single time you run that coverage or call that you think will be an advantage that week.”
Still, a patchwork offensive line trying to fortify an offense against a savage horde hungry for sacks and TFLs isn’t an ideal matchup.
“I honestly do feel like we're one of the most … conditioned teams in the country,” Bonitto said. “We also, I feel like, have one of the fastest defenses in the country. I feel like that’s a lot of pressure for an offense to deal with that type of stuff. Especially up front. You’re not going to see a lot of guys moving fast like the way we do. I definitely feel like it's a lot of pressure on an offense, and we kind of live for that kind of stuff so I definitely feel like it’s an advantage for us.”
Not specific to this week’s opponent, Perkins said whenever the games do occur in which he can exploit the other team's shortcomings, “It’s a good feeling. It's a good feeling just to know you’re whooping up on a guy and it’s probably taking a toll on them mentally. It’s just a good feeling. And it kind of gives you a boost to keep doing it and probably take it to another level on them, just to make them feel hopeless, really.”
“This’ll be their biggest test,” Gundy said of his o-line. “The guys up front for (OU), now that they’ve got some guys back, you know, they’re competitive, they can rush the quarterback and they’ve been good against the run. So offensively, we have to have a really good strategy. We have to be patient in the way that we want to attack. And reduce turnovers and play as consistent as possible up front with our blocking schemes.”
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