Oklahoma State football rewind: Top players, eye-popping TV stat, redshirt tracker & more
Scott WrightOklahoman
STILLWATER — As Oklahoma State nears the halfway mark of the regular season still undefeated, it finds itself going back on the road to a place that hasn’t been kind in recent trips.
The eighth-ranked Cowboys face No. 13 TCU at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Amon G. Carter Stadium in Fort Worth, Texas.
But before we get to that, here’s a look back at a few things we learned from the Pokes’ 41-31 win over Texas Tech:
Top 5 OSU football players of the week
Linebacker Mason Cobb: The junior and first-year starter had eight tackles, with a half-tackle for loss, but his most important play was his third-quarter interception with the game tied at 31. That set up the Cowboys to take the lead for good.Receiver Bryson Green: With top wideout Braydon Johnson missing nearly the entire game with an injury, Green stepped into a prominent role, drawing nine targets. He caught five of them for 115 yards and a touchdown, making multiple impressive plays along the way.
Cornerback Jabbar Muhammad: With fellow cornerback Korie Black and his backup Demarco Jones both sidelined by injury, it would have seemed more likely that Texas Tech would target the replacement, redshirt freshman Cam Smith. But instead, the Red Raiders went after Muhammad, and the junior held up well. His receiver was targeted 14 times, but he gave up just eight catches for 60 yards with three pass breakups.
Offensive tackle Jake Springfield: The offensive line faced a unique style of pressure from Texas Tech, with a variety of attack methods. Even though Tech got through for three sacks, Springfield didn’t allow any pressure from his spot at right tackle, and his run blocking was strong as well.
Quarterback Spencer Sanders: The fourth-year starter wasn’t his sharpest, completing 48.9% of his passes. But he still produced 297 yards through the air, plus another 56 on the ground with three total touchdowns. And he seemed to be at his best in clutch moments, like the gritty 2-yard touchdown run he had that helped the Cowboys tie the game in the third quarter.
Top 5 OSU football players of the season
Quarterback Spencer Sanders: He just keeps producing. Sanders now has 12 touchdown passes to two interceptions while completing 61.5% of his passes. And he has rushed for 241 yards and six touchdowns. Last week, he became the third Cowboy in school history to reach the 10,000-total-yard mark. He has 10,111 total yards, trailing Mason Rudolph (13,646) and Zac Robinson (10,175) on the school’s all-time list.Defensive lineman Tyler Lacy: Even when his numbers aren’t eye-popping, Lacy is impacting plays with his push at the line of scrimmage, both from his regular defensive end spot and his growing role at defensive tackle.
Defensive end Brock Martin: The super-senior is averaging 56.0 per game, tops among a very deep defensive line. And he was battling an injury on Saturday as well. But in typical Martin fashion, he gutted it out and finished four tackles, three for loss, two sacks, two quarterback hurries and a pass breakup.
Offensive guard Hunter Woodard: While the offensive line has had its inconsistent moments at times, particularly with run blocking, Woodard has remained reliable at right guard. He continues to grade out high on a week-to-week basis, according to Pro Football Focus, which has him as a top-25 guard in the country.
Linebacker Mason Cobb: He remains the team’s leading tackler with 38 stops, one more than safety Jason Taylor II and four more than fellow linebacker Xavier Benson. But Cobb is making plays all over. He leads the team in tackles for loss with 7.5 to go with two sacks, six quarterback hurries and his all-important pick last week.
TFL talk
Primarily a product of their talented defensive line, the Cowboys had 14 tackles for loss against Texas Tech on Saturday. That brought their season total to 51 — or 10.2 per game, the highest average in Division I football.Cincinnati leads the nation in total TFLs with 58, but averages just 9.7 per game.
And the Cowboys are spreading out the work. Ten players have at least two tackles for loss this season.
Grabbing eyeballs
If you want to look at a stat that matters to OSU well beyond what happens on the field, here’s one for you.OSU’s game against Texas Tech, in the 2:30 p.m. timeslot last Saturday, was the most-watched Big 12 game televised by FS1 since the Bedlam game of 2017, according to Fox Sports.
OSU-Tech pulled in 1,633,000 viewers, while the 2017 Bedlam game had 2,497,000.
Last season, Big 12 games on FS1 averaged 480,000 viewers per game.
The value in bringing eyeballs to your game broadcasts is hard to weigh in the short-term, but in the long-term, it’s highly meaningful. It will matter to the Big 12 in its upcoming negotiations with networks, or it will matter to OSU if it finds itself looking for a better landing spot in the next round of conference realignment.
And the fact that this was OSU-Texas Tech — two programs remaining in the Big 12 after OU and Texas leave for the SEC — is key, because the league needs to show it can generate good ratings apart from the two lame-duck members.
Fort Worth frustrations
OSU head coach Mike Gundy said he hadn’t thought about the fact that his team has struggled in its last two trips to Fort Worth to play TCU, in 2018 and 2020.The Cowboys lost each game by a touchdown after entering as favorites.
But perhaps that’s where the trend turns this week.
The Pokes come in as a 3.5-point underdog as of Tuesday afternoon, and have won three of the last four games they entered as road underdogs.
Redshirt tracker
Ollie Gordon has officially passed the four-game redshirt barrier, and a few others appear headed that way.Gundy said last week he does not expect receivers Braylin Presley or Stephon Johnson Jr. to redshirt, and cornerback D.J. McKinney saw action in a third game because of injuries.
Here’s a look at where the Cowboy freshmen stand in participation:
Appeared in more than four games, unable to redshirt: Running back Ollie Gordon.
Appeared in four games: Receiver Stephon Johnson Jr.
Appeared in three games: Cornerback D.J. McKinney, receiver Braylin Presley.
Appeared in two games: Cornerback Cameron Epps.
Appeared in one game: Defensive end DeSean Brown, linebacker Gabe Brown, linebacker Chance Clements, offensive lineman Austin Kawecki, quarterback Garret Rangel, tight end Tabry Shettron, receiver Talyn Shettron.
