Can Ollie Gordon II's hands be a more useful tool in boosting Oklahoma State offense?
Scott WrightThe Oklahoman
STILLWATER — On Oklahoma State’s first snap Saturday, Alan Bowman faked a handoff to Ollie Gordon II and briefly looked to the right before spinning back to the left, where Gordon was waiting for a pass.
With linemen in front of him, it looked like a potentially huge gain for Gordon, but Tulsa’s Devin Robinson slipped through the wall of blockers to make the tackle.
That turned out to be the end of Gordon’s production as a receiver for the day. He was targeted once later but appeared to have a miscommunication with Bowman and the pass fell incomplete.
Now, with the 15th-ranked Cowboys set to host No. 10 Utah at 3 p.m. Saturday at Boone Pickens Stadium, coach Mike Gundy and offensive coordinator Kasey Dunn are working to find running room for Gordon.
And his hands might become a key factor.
“He’s always been a good receiver,” Gundy said. “He’s always caught the ball well, he understands routes and runs well afterwards. That’s not anything new for us, because he’s been good at that from Day 1.”
In fact, one of Gordon’s biggest plays of the year came as a receiver, when he caught the two-point conversion in the second and final overtime of the 39-31 win against Arkansas.
“Shoot, I was just hoping I caught it,” Gordon said. “Nah, I’m just playing. We stay on the Jugs (passing machine) as running backs. Eliminate those drops and we’ll be good.”
Through the Pokes’ 3-0 start, Gordon has been thrown to seven times, catching six for 44 yards. Through three games last year, he had six catches for 45 yards, but ended the season with 330 yards on 39 receptions. He had six games with at least four catches.
So it seems likely that more passes will be coming Gordon’s way, particularly with the struggle to run the ball between the tackles as opponents load the box to stop him.
Getting Gordon outside will be paramount against defenses like Utah that focus first on stopping the run.
“That’s what they do,” Gundy said. “Very, very high percentage, 90% plus, they’re having an extra guy in the box, all the time.”
To this point, Poke folks aren’t panicking about the run game production. Gordon is averaging 3.5 yards per carry, after posting a 6.1 average last year.
As a team, OSU is averaging 3.4 per carry and hasn’t reached the 150-yard mark in any of its three games.
“From our standpoint, we need to run the ball better, and everyone knows that,” center Joe Michalski said. “It’s just something we’ve got to execute better at.
“Our blocking hasn’t been up to our standard and what we wanna be.”
As long as teams continue to overload the box — and there’s no reason to expect it to end soon — OSU’s offense is going to be most effective outside the hash marks.
And getting the team’s most dynamic runner involved will remain a necessity.
It’s not unusual for the Cowboys to break out a new package of plays when conference play arrives, so maybe the run game shakes itself loose this week regardless.
“We’re close,” Michalski said. “Everyone’s taking their turn, but we’re one block away on most stuff. We’ve got to execute better as a unit. We’ve got individuals that are doing really good, but at times, it’ll just be one guy missing a block and it messes up the whole cohesiveness of the unit.”
