Cowboys Back to a Scrimmage After Four-Day Weekend

Oklahoma State is now inside two weeks of the first game of the season and with the college football season kicking off last Saturday there is some urgency to get into a routine. Speaking of urgency, Chuba Hubbards runs with some.

STILLWATER -- Oklahoma State was back on the field on Monday for the first time since last Wednesday. Mike Gundy wanted his team inside Boone Pickens Stadium for a Monday night scrimmage that started at 6 p.m. Mother Nature called for an audible to the Sherman Smith Center with a thunderstorm hitting Stillwater right around the start time. The primary reason for going late was a large number of players with 5 p.m. classes on Monday, which during the season is normally be an off day. 

The team did not show any rust from the four days off especially Chuba Hubbard, who Gundy had told media earlier in the day was practicing well and had shown off some in last week's work. He was at it again on Monday night flashing his elite speed and moves. Most of the time he was virtually uncatchable. The team went over the 100-plays that Gundy had planned for last Friday. It was steamy inside the Sherman Smith Center, but not nearly as warm as it would have been last Friday.

The Friday scrimmage would have taxed the players with the warmest day of the year going over 100 degrees, 102 at the Stillwater Municipal Airport. I can guarantee warmer than that on the Boone Pickens Stadium turf. However, with the NBA, Major League Baseball, NFL all postponing games and training camp practices, Oklahoma State joined in with a lot of other college teams and did not practice. 

"We let the players have input on the situation and the seniors kind of led the way and got together, had some discussions, got some good information, and now back to work today," Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy said of the smaller breakout meetings involving players and coaches on Friday to discuss the Jacob Blake shooting in Wisconsin and other social injustice or justice issues. 

Gundy, who held his regular Monday Zoom meeting with the local media, is keeping a stance of answering questions, especially non football questions, close to the vest.

It was back to work with Monday's scrimmage and Hubbard wasn't the only highlight. Spencer Sanders operated the offense well connecting with several players and the give and take was fair as the defense continued to have their highlights. 

3️⃣ weeks down, 2️⃣ to go! #LetsRide #GoPokes pic.twitter.com/IWJgd4wSKG

— OSU Cowboy Football (@CowboyFB) September 1, 2020

"Two practices this week, a day off and then we will get into a game week routine," Gundy said of the schedule. The Cowboys will really get into an elongated game week starting with Thursday's practice.

Last week had the rare four days off as Thursday was a designated day off between scrimmages, Friday's scrimmage was called, Saturday and Sunday were designated as off days on the final weekend before the in-season routine kicks in. 

I asked Gundy if everything involved in what is going on with society is keeping it very difficult from transitioning into a normal routine?

"Well it's been difficult with just all the COVID testing, players sitting out and adjusting schedules over the last month based on who you had available, who wasn't available by position," Gundy said going into more detail. "We're in a pretty good routine right now. I feel comfortable about this week and I feel comfortable about next week."

The normal routine really hasn't changed much as you play on Saturday, evening practice on Sundays, Monday is a day off, Tuesday full pads and heavy work, Wednesday in helmets and shoulder pads and another heavy day, Thursday is run thru in helmets, and Friday is travel and walk thru or walk thru at home. 

While Oklahoma State was practicing on Monday, the athletic ticket office online was in the final stages of allowing season ticket holders to chose new seats. Season ticket holders fortunate to get in for games this season had to switch their seats for the socially distanced configuration of Boone Pickens Stadium. The stadium will be limited to roughly 25 percent occupancy. I can tell you from talking to fans this was a passionate process as fans were hoping for the seats they enjoy and have become used to. Other fans were simply glad that they are getting in the stadium. The seat selection process will go on through Wednesday.

During his Zoom conference, I asked Gundy about his anticipation of how a smaller crowd will change the atmosphere for his team inside Boone Pickens Stadium.

“We always use the term in our organization about controlling what we can control,” said the Cowboys head coach. “We can’t control how many people are in the stands; there’s been a limit put on it by the University. I’m guessing that we’ll max that out based on the excitement of people that want to watch Cowboy football. Everywhere I go, that’s what I hear. So, we’ll fill it up as much as we can and once the games get going, the players will be focused on the game. I don’t think it will affect us much from the game standpoint and hopefully, as the season goes on, we can get more people in the stands.”

One aspect of it that Gundy may not have thought through yet is the smaller crowd will make coaches easier heard, whether they are shouting encouragement or instructions or something else that sometimes gets yelled. 

“I wouldn’t disagree with that,” Gundy said about the noise level allowing for fans and players to better hear coaches. “Noise for us has never been an issue the way we practice, but there’s a chance that a coach might be able to yell from the sideline and players hear him, I guess, based on the way it’s going to be for the first game.”

Something we've seen other teams do over the years, especially Baylor is have their reserve players or red-shirted players on the sidelines act almost like cheerleaders and jump around and create revelry. Could Gundy see his players doing that as they socially distance on the longer sideline bench areas that will go from 15-yard-line to 15, 70-yards of space now even if at Boone Pickens Stadium it is not very deep. 

"I thought our practices have been very enthusiastic," Gundy said of players generating more juice to make up for the smaller crowds. "The temperament and the way our team and other teams handle it on game day will be interesting. I wouldn't know which way to comment on that but I do know that it will be interesting, I haven't watched any games on TV, so I can't comment on that. It will be interesting to see how teams deal with the smaller stadium crowds."

The calendar tells us we are less than two weeks away from finding out what that socially-distanced stadium will look like.

Oklahoma State is scheduled to practice on Tuesday afternoon, take Wednesday off and then practice on Thursday and Friday.