Day Two for Oklahoma State Walk Thrus and Pokes Use a Different Routine, Meanwhile Important NCAA Vote Friday
STILLWATER -- Day two of Oklahoma State being able to go out and throw around the football while walking through offensive plays and defensive sets. The Cowboys staff went with a different routine on day two as the offense went out early and did their walk thru in the stadium, just as they did on Wednesday. The defense came in later and also used the field inside Boone Pickens Stadium for a walk thru closer to lunch. On Wednesday, the first day of activities that can best be described as OTA-type work that is an NFL staple, the offense and defense went at the same time with the offense in the stadium and the defense inside the Sherman Smith Training Center.
Obviously, no media contact, so hard to know or guess why the different routine. It might have been as simple as the overcast skies kept things cooler and allowed to get both sides of the ball work in the stadium.
Great to step on the field again!#okstate #GoPokes pic.twitter.com/ua0brxYGW4
— OSU Cowboy Football (@CowboyFB) July 22, 2020
It has to feel good with no team functions basically since Thursday, March 12, the third and last practice the Cowboys got in during the spring. The current walk thru workouts are accompanied by position meetings where the work in the walk thrus is both reviewed for mistakes and improvement as well as previewed for less mistakes and better execution.
The Cowboys will continue this routine along with strength and conditioning work with Rob Glass and his staff until they begin fall camp on Aug. 5, which is the date they can begin with a scheduled opener on Thursday, Sept. 3.
Also, there is no new news on an opening game opponent. While there are reports that Alabama and BYU are filling their opening week vacancies with each other. Oklahoma State could be in business with a lot of options including Northern Iowa, Northern Arizona, and Florida Atlantic. Some fans were hoping for Notre Dame, but the Irish and Navy have now moved their game on Aug. 29, once scheduled for Ireland to the Labor Day weekend in Annapolis.
Meanwhile, Friday is going to be a big day from a perception standpoint as the NCAA Board of Governors, of which Oklahoma State President V. Burns Hargis is a member. Hargis is one of eight members representing FBS institutions including the chair Michael V. Drake of The Ohio State University. There are 21 members of the Board of Governors and they are set to consider voting on whether to cancel fall championships on NCAA sports. This would not include Division I FBS football, but it would include Division I FCS football and all other fall sports. It would set a precedence that would be tough for the FBS football schools to go against.
Shane Lyons, the athletic director at Big 12 member West Virginia is the chairman of the NCAA Football Oversight Committee and on behalf of that group he sent a letter to the NCAA Board of Governors asking for patience making that decision on NCAA fall championships.
“The Committee strongly believes that a patient approach…to evaluating the possibility of conducting 2020 fall championships will provide the remaining conferences and schools the best opportunity to make deliberate decisions about conducting practices and competition this fall,” Lyons wrote in his letter.
This was reported by Pete Thamel of Yahoo Sports.
Hargis is certainly a sympathetic and cooperative ear, but it will be interesting as there are eight voting members of the Board of Governors, whose institutions either don't have football or have already postponed or cancelled their football season.
