What Did We Learn from Three Days of Spring Football?
STILLWATER -- Oklahoma State head football coach Mike Gundy looked at his coaching and support staff in the staff meeting on Thursday morning, March 12, and said, "this may be our final day of spring practice, so we're changing the schedule and going in full pads." Gundy looks like he was right. If spring practice does continue, it may be summer before it happens.
Did Gundy and his staff glean anything from the three days of practice? The answer is yes.
On the defensive side, several younger players showed up. It is hard to tell much from the defensive line until the pads came on in practice three, but defensive line coaches Joe Bob Clements and Greg Richmond were doing plenty of smiling.
"The defensive line is so much deeper and we have so many more players than a year ago," Clements said.
Not only that, besides the emergence of defensive ends Isreal Isuman-Hundley and Kody Walterscheid, two redshirt freshmen with lots of potential; you have players that adjusted their bodies to get better and be more effective. Defensive tackles Israel Antwine, Brendon Evers, Jayden Jurnigan, Sione Asi and Samuela Tuihalamaka all dropped a few pounds to increase quickness and they still maintained their strength.
At the same time, defensive end Brock Martin, who spent some time in the wrestling room sparing with John Smith's heavyweights, also dropped a few pounds. Trace Ford, the other "Leo" defensive end put on some pounds up to 248. Tyler Lacy stayed about the same. Cameron Murray bulked up some and got stronger as he weighs in at 303, over 300 pounds for the first time in his Oklahoma State career.
The defensive line and offensive line is a healthy battle these days. It is a shame that the third spring practice may be all the full contact work they get against each other before fall camp. Hopefully, that will not be the case.
Most of the linebackers are a given, but young Kamryn Farrar out of Dallas Skyline High School had a very solid week of work in spring practice and showed signs of getting close to being ready to help out.
We knew that cornerback Thomas Harper was good and he showed it all week by making plays and doing an excellent job in drills with man coverage. Gabe Lemons at corner and Jason Taylor II at safety were two other defensive backs that showed up a lot in the three days on the field.
On the offensive side, we said the offensive line is not a concern. It is deeper and the arrival of West Virginia transfer Josh Sills is amazing and really puts the offensive line in a virtual state of five returning starters. The younger linemen are pushing the starters and it is a great situation.
Wide receiver is an area where new offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach Kasey Dunn was looking for guys to step up.
"This is an important spring for Langston Anderson," Dunn said on the first day.
Anderson was paying attention as he made big plays throughout the week including a pair of touchdown catches on Thursday. Anderson also looks a lot different that when he arrived. Body by (Rob) Glass has done it's work for the Midlothian (Heritage), Texas product. He is 6-0, 202-pounds and solid and explosive.
Two other receivers that made big plays and got noticed, albeit down the depth chart in team work were walk-on and former basketball walk-on Gabe Simpson. Also, transfers C.J. Tate and Cale Fulson from Arkansas Tech.
At running back, Deondrick Glass has improved and got plenty of reps during the week. Glass appeared to turn the corner this off-season. L.D. Brown took most of the first team reps, but Dezmon Jackson and walk-on Micah Cooper made runs that got them noticed.
Finally, at quarterback Spencer Sanders had a good week, but freshman Shane Illingworth showed off a big arm, really powerful. He also showed a good football IQ. Illingworth connected in team periods on two long touchdown passes, one to Cale Fulsom and one to Langston Anderson. Sanders noticed and bragged on him.
"He's a great kid and I love him off the field and on the field," Sanders said of the early arriving freshman from California. "He has a cannon of an arm, and he is 6-foot-5, so he can see over everybody. All it is going to take is time and I'm willing to help him with anything he needs. Help him any chance I get."
I believe this is going to be healthy competition. Sanders has a big arm too and the influence of new quarterback coach Tim Rattay is going to help immensely. Overall, this is only going to make the final product on offense that much better.
The unfortunate aspect of it is that if Gundy is right and there is no more spring football, then the development will not hit the level that it was going too. That also means that other teams in the Big 12, except for TCU (Feb. 28) and Texas Tech (March 3) that started early, either got less spring football or none at all.
Oklahoma got in two practices as did West Virginia. Baylor, Kansas State, Iowa State, Kansas and Texas all had yet to practice even once and now may get none at all. It will depend on how the COVID-19 spreads or becomes controlled.
