Five Things Notre Dame Fans Should Know About Oklahoma State

Five things Notre Dame fans should know about its Fiesta Bowl opponent, the Oklahoma State Cowboys

Five things Notre Dame fans should know about its Fiesta Bowl opponent, the Oklahoma State Cowboys.

1. Head coach Mike Gundy has been Oklahoma State’s coach since 2005. Gundy, a 1989 OSU graduate who played quarterback, carved an offensive identity out for the Cowboys. Until a few years ago.

That’s when Gundy realized that the Big 12’s brand of wide-open football throw it around the field type of football was getting crowded. Gundy hired Jim Knowles in 2018 as his defensive coordinator and he decided to devote a few more scholarships to defense. Knowles left for Ohio State but the move paid dividends big time this year. OSU is ranked first in the country in sacks with 54, third in total defense, and fifth in rushing defense.

2. The Cowboys (11-2) are a much better team offensively when running back Jaylen Warren is playing. OSU is a run-first team. It averages 181 yards rushing per game. In Baylor’s 21-16 victory over the Cowboys in the Big 12 Championship, Warren was out with an injury. The Bears held them to 70 yards rushing and they stopped Oklahoma State inside the 1-yard line on the final play. The Cowboys had three chances to punch it in from the 1. Warren, a 5 foot 8, 215-pound plug, is averaging 4.8 yards per carry and rushed for 1,134 yards. Warren is healthy and ready to go.

3. Defensive end Collin Oliver, a 6 foot 2, 225-pound true freshman who doesn't start, leads the team in sacks with 11.5, and he's been on a tear lately. Oliver has seven sacks in his last five games. Against Baylor, in the Big 12 title game, he had two sacks and 2.5 tackles for losses. In the first game against Baylor, Oliver had two sacks and three TFLs. Oliver is one of three finalists for the Football Writers Freshman of the Year Award.

4. Notre Dame and Oklahoma State have never played. OSU tried to schedule a home-and-home with Notre Dame several years ago, according to Gundy but it didn't work out.

“They are scheduled so far in advance, but we wanted to try to play a home-at-home with them because we thought it would be good for Oklahoma State to play Notre Dame. So, it worked out for us. It’s fortunate,” Gundy said.

Gundy, an amateur football historian, has always respected the Notre Dame tradition.

“I think there are five logos that stand out in college football and I’ll just say Notre Dame is one of them,” Gundy said.

5. Oklahoma State, like Notre Dame, is without a permanent defensive coordinator. Gundy hasn’t tipped his hand on who will call plays on Saturday but he did say he was leaning toward using two people to replace Knowles for play calling. Notre Dame has designated play calling to defensive line coach Mike Elston. One of those play-callers will likely be defensive line coach Joe Bob Clements.

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