Bye Week More Challenging than Game Week, What Gundy and Cowboys Need to Get Done

Thanks to COVID-19 a bye week in college football is more of a coaching challenge than a game week.

STILLWATER -- The sounds of football practice permeated the Sherman Smith Training Center and the adjacent turf practice field to the east. The Cowboys were in helmets, shoulder pads, and shorts on Tuesday. The quarterbacks, of which starter Spencer Sanders was more involved than any day since his ankle injury in the first series of the opener against Tulsa, were dressed in black practice jerseys. It's an ocassional diversion that happens when the Cowboys are going to play Baylor or another team that wears green. The scout team takes over the green jerseys normally worn by the quarterbacks. This is an important week with a lot of things to get done. It will also be a nerve wracking week for the coaching staff and medical staff. 

Oklahoma State football has a quick three-day schedule of practices starting Tuesday and running through Thursday before the Cowboys players will get two and a half days off and three days off over the next four days. Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy discovered long ago, actually before he became head coach that overworking a team in season was so much worse for preparation and for team morale than underworking was for game preparation. Some of former head coach Les Miles, the Cowboys recent opponent at Kansas last Saturday, four-hour practices are famous for making players mad and frustrated. Gundy always has told his teams that if they work and put forth the effort, practices will be two and a half hours or less. 

It is the COVID-19 pandemic that makes a bye week more challenging and tenuous than a game week. You can watch video, prepare for an opposing team, see them coming on Saturday. You can't see the coronavirus coming. All you can do is prepare for it and take precautions. Gundy knows with those days off after a morning conditioning workout and testing on Friday that players will leave. 

"We can't make them stay," Gundy has said. "You know Sunday and Wednesday testing (for COVID-19) are the hardest days of any week for us."

That will especially be the case next week when you know some of the players will have left the soft bubble that Oklahoma State has kind of built up with it's football team. The medical staff, and I spoke to several members, would love if the players would stay in place, but they know they probably won't. They will warn them and prepare them with speeches about masks, social distancing, knowing who you are around and being careful to keep that number low. Staying away from crowds and people you don't know. Home or your residence in Stillwater are better options than crowds and establishments. 

Gundy and his staff will keep it in the forefront of the player's thoughts just exactly how much they have sacrificed so far and what they have achieved. They will exort to them just how much is left to obtain in this season. All of their goals, all the accomplishments are all right there for this team. 

You have to hope that over the couple of days of freedom from football that football remains locked in the forward compartment of their thoughts. 

Now, from a football standpoint, and yes, that was an immediate transition. The offense is already in it's mode for the off week and that is ramping up Spencer Sanders. Sanders has practiced all but a couple of days since his ankle injury against Tulsa. He is close to 100 percent and it is time for him to get the bulk of the snaps and get ready to resume his leadership and play with the offense. The bye week actually came in a perfect place for this to happen. The biggest aspect of it is working on timing with backs and receivers and polishing the execution that was there going into the opener just over three weeks ago. 

The offensive line needs to continue it's work and a bonus was the quarter and a half of work the back-ups got in the win over Kansas. Gundy thought it was the best work for a second offensive line in a game as far back as he could remember. The performances were solid too. Continuing to build continuity on the starting offensive line and build up that depth with the second unit that includes left tackle Taylor Miterko, left guard Joe Michalski, center Tyrese Williams, right guard Preston Wilson, and right tackle and freshman Eli Russ. Freshman Cade Bennett is also getting some snaps work with the second group. 

For the running backs and receivers there is work to stay sharp and increasing work with Sanders. The same would go for the cowboy backs, who had a good day throwing blocks for that 295-yards of production in the run game, despite no catches in the passing offense. It was an excellent day for the cowboy backs from a blocking standpoint. 

Pass protection for all involved and route running and shoring up the passing game is applicable because the Cowboys have allowed nine sacks, which ranks eighth in the Big 12. There are some agressive pass rush teams ahead on the schedule. 

On defense the work is on increasing the stranglehold that the secondary has had in coverage. Oklahoma State is second in the conference in pass efficiency defense and they have limited opponents to 180.7-yards a game in passing with two touchdowns and two interceptions. The straight ratio on touchdowns to interceptions surely won't keep up, but it is good for three games against teams where two have solid passers in Tulsa's Zach Smith and West Virginia's Jarret Doege. It helps that the front of the defense leads the Big 12 in sacks with 12-for-77-yards so far in the young season. 

Special teams have been solid with Alex Hale a perfect 8-for-8 on field goals and 9-for-9 on point afters. Tom Hutton is fourth in the Big 12 in punting with an average of 41.7-yards a kick. He has had six downed inside the 20 and just two touchbacks. Opponents have negative five-yards on returns. Oklahoma State is third in net punting and second in kickoff coverage. Overall, they have the best special teams in the Big 12 and that may have been a product of four special teams practices in camp. The most I can ever remember, but it was the longest camp in memory. 

They need to keep working and keep improving because with Baylor, Iowa State, Texas, and Kansas State up in the next month before another bye week they need to play better.