'Definitely going to miss that': Oklahoma State football team's unique bond has contributed to success​

Scott Wright
Oklahoman

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Several Oklahoma State players and coaches have been asked this week what they’ll miss most about the 2021 edition of the Cowboy football team, and virtually every one of them pointed to the same quality.

Team chemistry.

It might sound like a trite or abstract idea, because the phrase gets thrown around so much, but these Cowboys understand that what they have this season is truly unique. And they know it doesn’t always come together for every team.

The chemistry of a football team lives for only one season, and can’t be recreated in its exact form, so the OSU players know the special bond this team has forged will cease to exist in its current state beyond Saturday.

The ninth-ranked Cowboys face No. 5 Notre Dame at noon Saturday in the Fiesta Bowl at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, where OSU is looking for just the second 12-win season in program history.

A rare accomplishment for a rare team.

“I think this is the closest I have been with a team since maybe, like, high school,” receiver Brennan Presley said. “For me, it's going to be weird next year, when we are working out, not looking over and seeing Malcolm (Rodriguez) telling me to put more weight on the bar, or Tay (Martin) telling me what he did last night, or talking trash about (video games) or something like that.

“It's always unique when you win with one team and then next year, pieces and parts, they change. So I think that's just going to be the hardest thing for me.”

The unique bond of this team can be felt by coaches as well.

“I think it's the overall leadership and the character of these players,” defensive line coach Joe Bob Clements said. “This has been such a mature group to work with. Their work ethic has been second to none throughout the entirety of the season. The maturity and calmness with which they play the game — there's never any panic. They just kind of look forward to the next play. They take the call, digest the information, and just play their hearts out each and every game.

“I just think the maturity and the cohesiveness of it is what I'm going to miss the most.”

Head coach Mike Gundy has talked for months about how this team’s personality is unique in the players’ ability to have fun while also taking things seriously, particularly in practice.

Early on, their joking nature worried Gundy, because he thought they weren’t getting enough out of practice. But his worries subsided when he realized the players were being goofy, but not goofing off.

“We practiced today for 2 hours and 20 minutes, and they are laughing. They are having fun,” Gundy said earlier this week after the team arrived in Arizona. “They are competing. They are running to the ball, so we can just sit back as coaches and make some corrections and enjoy the process. You don't always get a group of players that are accustomed to doing that every day, and this group has now for five months.

Of course, winning makes everyone happy, but with this team, the joy of being together came before the winning.

“I feel like if a team makes a connection better and they get along overall, you have a better chance of winning because it's just another gear you play with when you're out there sacrificing for a guy next to you on the field,” Martin said. “So I feel like it's just a mindset of ‘I'm not going to let my brother down.’ So it definitely pays off when you have that better connection with the team.”

That genuine connection will be missed throughout the team.

“The chemistry, for sure. I'm going to miss how close we are and how much we blend together outside of football and on the field,” senior cornerback Jarrick Bernard-Converse said. “I feel like this year I built a lot of relationships with guys that I usually don't talk to. So I'm definitely going to miss that.”

While the leftist are oblivious to their hypocrisy, it's hilarious to those not suffering from the mental illness that is liberalism.

'All I've wanted for the past year': OSU's Brennan Presley finally gets his Christmas wish at Fiesta Bowl​

Jacob Unruh
Oklahoman

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Oklahoma State wide receiver Brennan Presley’s Christmas wish finally came true.

He got his gaming console, a PlayStation 5 provided by the Fiesta Bowl to each player.

And it’s just how he imagined.

“It means everything because it's all I've wanted for the past year,” Presley said.

After the ninth-ranked Cowboys face No. 5 Notre Dame at noon Saturday in the Fiesta Bowl, they will head back to Stillwater where the smack talk can begin on the gaming system in the offseason.

“So, I got it,” Presley said. “Everybody else got it. So there's no excuse to duck any smoke on the game. We all got the same game. We all got ‘Call of Duty.’

“Give me about a month and I will be going crazy.”

Presley said before the Cowboys were even selected to the bowl game that he hoped for a gaming system for Christmas. Making the Fiesta Bowl, which is sponsored by PlayStation, worked out perfectly.

As a result, he received a new game for Christmas from his family — the new NBA 2K game. But Presley is more of a Madden fan.

He is also looking to add “Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2” in the near future.

“Something I'm good at,” Presley said. “I don't like to just play just to be playing. I want to be good at it, because I like to talk trash.”

Collin Oliver finalist for freshman award​

OSU defensive end Collin Oliver is one of three finalists for the Football Writers Association of American Freshman of the Year Award.

Oliver — the lone defensive player among the finalists — is joined by Ohio State quarterback CJ Stroud and Georgia tight end Brock Bowers. The winner will be announced in January.

Oliver, a true freshman from Edmond Santa Fe, was the unanimous Big 12 Defensive Freshman of the Year along with freshman All-America honors from ESPN, 247Sports, The Athletic and Pro Football Focus.

Oliver is also a semifinalist for the Shaun Alexander Freshman of the Year Award.

He enters his final game of the season leading the Big 12 with 11.5 sacks, which is also seventh in FBS. He broke OSU’s freshman sack record of nine by Rodney Harding in 1981, the first year the program tracked the statistic.

Oliver also leads OSU with 15 tackles for loss, which leads all Power 5 freshmen.

Arizona connections​

It’s been a decade since OSU offensive coordinator Kasey Dunn coached in the Fiesta Bowl. Each time, it’s a bit of a homecoming.

Dunn was Arizona’s running backs coach from 2004-06 before moving to Baylor. He joined OSU in 2011, the last season the Cowboys played in the Fiesta Bowl.

“This is a great town out here,” Dunn said. “And like I said earlier, it's a great bowl game. This is kind of a bookend for me. My first bowl game here was the Fiesta Bowl, so this is exciting for us to get back here.”

But it’s also a homecoming for multiple Cowboys coaches.

Offensive line coach Charlie Dickey is from Scottsdale and went to high school at Saguaro High, where the Cowboys have practiced throughout the week. He also played and coached at both Scottsdale Community College and Arizona.

Quarterbacks coach Tim Rattay also went to Phoenix Christian High and played at Scottsdale CC before transferring to Louisiana Tech.

And Brent Zdebski, a defensive quality control coach, is from Michigan originally, but his father, Mike, is now the head football and track coach at Hamilton High in Chandler, Arizona.

Michalski continues growth​

With center Danny Godlevske out Saturday due to his leg injury, redshirt sophomore Joe Michalski will make his fifth straight start.

Each game has had more importance since Godlevske went down with the injury, too. But Michalski has overall held his own.

“He's grown incredibly,” OSU quarterback Spencer Sanders said. “He's taken the steps of not just an easy job. That's center, that's IDs, that's calls, that's all that kind of stuff. It's not an easy job. And as we see, he's done pretty good.


“I'm proud of every snap he's played. He plays his tail off and gives it 110% every time.”

Anyone know where there is a good place to find parking for game? An app?

It’s very good. They have athletes at every level. I really hope Warren gives us more of a punch on offense because our best chance at winning this game is having success on the ground.

Apparently several testing positive and are being sent home.

Are against ranked opponents. And then the two games after that are @Florida and @Kansas St. Per usual, the Big 12 looks like the best conference once again. This is going to be a brutal stretch

Well it might be Heuple.

Nice recognition from Rivals as the #35 overall player in the country.

Or Kung Flu (my fav) when it originated in the US when Dr Desth Fauchi took the novel corona virus and added the spike proteins to it as gain of function research? All before shipping it off to Wuhan (after Obama have them millions) for it to be be further developed and released?

Why is it not called the "Fauchi flu?"

trying to make some plans and needed that info. Thank you.

Don't know how many of you are like me...

I can watch our 2011 OSU/OU game highlights again & again. That game & possibly in 2004, when we beat St. Joe's to go to the Final Four, are the two high points of my OSU fandom. This season's OSU/OU game was amazing... what a game!... what an atmosphere! However, I've tried to watch the game highlights a few times now, and it's just not the same. I mean... ya, it's great we beat the evil empire, but damn... with what happened the following week & not winning the Big 12 Title... really puts a damper on it for me. It's just not the same. Sorry for the downer attitude, but I'm not even really that fired up for ND because of Baylor.

Is he looking at me, or you?

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Remember when leftist said they want the US to be more like Europe?

**** them hoes.

Starting center for most of the year the only one out? Haven’t heard of any other injuries. Maybe one of the Greens at WR. All quiet on here.

Pedo:

So far so good!

We have had some threads about the transformation this man makes with our team. Is there any current pics? Also I remember the Jeremy Smith picture, does anyone have that pic? @casdas

This as happened to me twice with this shit company, first time okay, it was just a glitch that was only an inconvenience for me, but the second time it didn't affect just me, it screwed my son and his family.

My son and his beautiful family bought a new house and I bought them a new refrigerator as a Christmas gift, ordered it from Lowes wanted it delivered last week but they told me it couldn't be there until today 12/28. So Sunday I get an email saying my payment was declined, the money had already came off my card. I called and they told me that because I didn't take delivery in 7 days they reversed the charge and I'd have to do it over. The kicker is the $2000 was not back on my card and probably wouldn't be on there for 3 to 4 days. I'm like what the F, you guys set the delivery date. Got an email this morning saying it would be delivered today. It wasn't.

To make a long story short. I have to repurchase the refrigerator and wait until they fit it into their delivery schedule. So now they want me to repurchase even though I don't have the money from my first purchase back and if they can't get it there in 7 days I have to do it all over again. FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFuuuuuuuuuuuuuuCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK! Loewes!

They are dead to me. I'll pay double before I buy anything from this sh!t company.

Duke’s basketball team has to many players with Covid.

Feel free to take a shit on the sidewalk but don’t walk into any indoor facility without a shitty cloth mask.