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Defensive Line Is What Should Get Cowboy Fans Really Excited

There's plenty to pump Pokes fans up as we head into summer with a report date for summer strength and conditioning work now set. Good thing because the big guys on defense will be important. I promise you.

STILLWATER -- A lot has happened over the last week as the Big 12 Presidents voted on allowing football student-athletes to begin workouts on campus on June 15. They will likely report earlier to get tested and go through protocols. ESPN Game Day host and Heisman Trophy winner Desmond Howard went off the grid some to predict that Oklahoma State running back Chuba Hubbard would win the 2020 Heisman Trophy. He had company as former Iowa State and NFL quarterback Dave Archer, who hosts a show on Sirius-XM Big 12 Network also made the same pick. All apologies to Chuba, receiver Tylan Wallace and all other important Cowboys. They are all important, but I predict the defensive line will be a major reason Oklahoma State achieves their lofty goals this upcoming season. 

It is Memorial Day weekend that we are passing, an annual mark on the calendar that college football season is closing in. This year another mark that has us continue to pray that college football will be played and the COVID-19 pandemic will continue to recede.

For veteran Oklahoma State defensive line coach Joe Bob Clements and his fellow defensive line coach Greg Richmond this Memorial Day is much different than last year. Okay, coronavirus aside, last year at this time, even coming off a complete spring practice, the defensive line had so little returning experience and so much youth. The line had no player returning that had ever started a game for the Cowboys. The depth chart had one senior in junior college  defensive end Mike Scott that had three sacks and 10 total tackles. Junior Cameron Murray had half of a sack and seven total tackles. The grand total of returning tackles on the defensive line was 24. 

"I'd never gone through in my career what we had to go through last year with the youth," Clements said. "You know we opened up last year on the road at Oregon State and I had never had two freshman on the field at once. We were watching cut ups (video after the game) and I had four on the field at once. We had two red-shirt freshmen and two true freshmen. That is something that I never had to go through before."

Yet, it worked. The Oklahoma State defense improved by allowing 5.7 less points per game and over 40-yards less of total offense per game. 

"That's a credit to the kids," Clements added. "They worked hard and they bought in and as the year went on they got better. We had our growing pains and I knew there were going to be quite a few and there were. It's a good group of players and they worked so hard."

Senior Cameron Murray is impressive as the senior for this fall from Bryant, Ark., became a leader and improved to play the best football of his career. He is now over 300 pounds and it is muscle. He is joined at defensive tackle by talented transfer and Millwood High School product Israel Antwine, red-shirt junior Brendon Evers, junior college product and red-shirt junior Sione Asi along with talented pups in red-shirt sophomore Samuela Tuihalamaka and sophomore Jayden Jernigan that played a lot last season as a true freshman. That is six deep and not counting transfer Collin Clay, senior Amadou Fofana, and red-shirt freshman Xavier Ross that also look like they can help out.

Defensive end is also stacked with talented freshman standout Trace Ford returning and now weighing almost 250-pounds. Tyler Lacy is back as a 6-4, 276-pound athletic defensive end. You have veteran Brock Martin, and youngsters Isreal Isuman-Hundley and Kody Walterscheid along with newcomer junior college transfer Tyren Irby. 

"You also have to give a lot of credit to Coach (Rob) Glass and his staff," Clements said. "We pushed them hard this off season, pushed them very hard. They rose up and met the challenge and competed. It got to the point that we had to push them further just to test them. They were eating the workouts up and getting better, bigger, stronger, and faster. It was a shame that spring ball was cut short, but just the little that we got to watch the guys, it's a good group."

I think it is a very good group and there are only two starters in the position group for this season with Murray and Fofana. The rest could all return for the 2021 season. I know it is strange to say, even think, but I look at the defensive line group as a whole and think this is what it looks like at the better SEC schools on the defensive line.

"So what I went through last year, I'd never been through before," Clements said. "Now, I have to look to see if I have ever returned all four starters before. I don't think I have. Not only four starters but all the back-ups, and we go into next season three-deep. It is pretty exciting."