When is the last time Oklahoma state football fans have been able to say this? And I mean feeling good about the current defense and the future of it? I know 2011 had a solid defense but it was kind of a one hit wonder. It didn’t last.
This season, minus last weekend, the defense at Oklahoma state has been solid. The best I’ve seen in years. But the point here is, this doesn’t seem to be just a one year deal. If you look at our depth chart we are starting to really develop talent and depth all across it. We have young players redshirting or contributing and I believe we are recruiting a better quality of athlete on defense.
This current recruiting class defensively is very impressive.
Dline- Aden Kelly and Collin Oliver. Both studs.
LBs-Donovan Stephens and Nick Martin. Both fly to the football and are beasts solid in fundamental tackling.
Safety- Williams is a freak. I really wanted to add Bassa, but Rawls looks equally impressive. This is a heck of a haul for us. Both very impressive takes for us.
Corner- good athletes but this is where we took some risks with Gay and Smith. They could turn out good but i personally would have liked to have seen us take higher rated guys here. Good news is last years class of Black and Muhammad was fantastic and we have a great one committed in the next class if we can hold on. There is another Muhammad coming up also that is a freak.
If you look at guys we are developing or recovering from injury, or sat out this season, or are just young you see promising names like:
DT Collin Clay
DT Jayden Jernigan
DT Xavier Ross
DE Israel Hundley
DE Kody Waltersheid
LB Jeff Roberson
LB Kamryn Farrar
LB LaMont Bishop
LB Na’Drain Dizadare
LB Mason Cobb
DB Korie Black
DB Jabbar Muhammad
S- Nick Session
S-Jordan Reagan
I know not all of those will pan out and be stars, but my point is that we don’t seem to be in a position like we have been in the past. All to often we would have a big graduating class of good defensive players and we would know the next 2 years will suck while we try to develop players for a solid defense again. Or we would lose players and it would take time to develop players at that position again.
We also seem to be doing it all across the board at all positions. We always were missing something. We were lacking at a position group. We might of had a good dline one year, but our LBs weren’t very good. Or we might of had good corners one year, but our safety’s weren’t very good. Like that 2011 defense was pretty solid at every position, but was probably lacking at DT. We seem to now be putting it all together at every position. We seem to be in a position to handle good graduating players or players leaving early and have the next guy up step into that position and we not miss a beat. This point is still to be proven some but it looks promising.
Heck, take a look at our 2022 class. Already 2 very good defensive recruits in Gabe Brown and De’Kelvion Beamon. Brown kind of reminds me of a Seth Jacobs type linebacker and Beamon is going to be a guy we just hope we can hold onto because he is going to be highly recruited. Already has a Texas offer.
My point here is that while it hasn’t been perfect, OSU defense is in a much better position than it’s ever been. Not sure how anyone could deny that? I know last weekend was a struggle against Tech. I know we haven’t come up with a very good plan against Ou, (although this year had more to do with the offense)but all around and building toward the future I feel very confident with Jim Knowles.
We need to keep him here and continue to develop within his system. We seem to have a good thing going on that side of the ball and we need to do what it takes to keep it. OSU football has been bad on defense for most of my life time. It would be within the best interest of the program to do whatever it takes to keep this defense going and see where it can take us.
Now the offense, that’s a whole other topic of discussion.
This season, minus last weekend, the defense at Oklahoma state has been solid. The best I’ve seen in years. But the point here is, this doesn’t seem to be just a one year deal. If you look at our depth chart we are starting to really develop talent and depth all across it. We have young players redshirting or contributing and I believe we are recruiting a better quality of athlete on defense.
This current recruiting class defensively is very impressive.
Dline- Aden Kelly and Collin Oliver. Both studs.
LBs-Donovan Stephens and Nick Martin. Both fly to the football and are beasts solid in fundamental tackling.
Safety- Williams is a freak. I really wanted to add Bassa, but Rawls looks equally impressive. This is a heck of a haul for us. Both very impressive takes for us.
Corner- good athletes but this is where we took some risks with Gay and Smith. They could turn out good but i personally would have liked to have seen us take higher rated guys here. Good news is last years class of Black and Muhammad was fantastic and we have a great one committed in the next class if we can hold on. There is another Muhammad coming up also that is a freak.
If you look at guys we are developing or recovering from injury, or sat out this season, or are just young you see promising names like:
DT Collin Clay
DT Jayden Jernigan
DT Xavier Ross
DE Israel Hundley
DE Kody Waltersheid
LB Jeff Roberson
LB Kamryn Farrar
LB LaMont Bishop
LB Na’Drain Dizadare
LB Mason Cobb
DB Korie Black
DB Jabbar Muhammad
S- Nick Session
S-Jordan Reagan
I know not all of those will pan out and be stars, but my point is that we don’t seem to be in a position like we have been in the past. All to often we would have a big graduating class of good defensive players and we would know the next 2 years will suck while we try to develop players for a solid defense again. Or we would lose players and it would take time to develop players at that position again.
We also seem to be doing it all across the board at all positions. We always were missing something. We were lacking at a position group. We might of had a good dline one year, but our LBs weren’t very good. Or we might of had good corners one year, but our safety’s weren’t very good. Like that 2011 defense was pretty solid at every position, but was probably lacking at DT. We seem to now be putting it all together at every position. We seem to be in a position to handle good graduating players or players leaving early and have the next guy up step into that position and we not miss a beat. This point is still to be proven some but it looks promising.
Heck, take a look at our 2022 class. Already 2 very good defensive recruits in Gabe Brown and De’Kelvion Beamon. Brown kind of reminds me of a Seth Jacobs type linebacker and Beamon is going to be a guy we just hope we can hold onto because he is going to be highly recruited. Already has a Texas offer.
My point here is that while it hasn’t been perfect, OSU defense is in a much better position than it’s ever been. Not sure how anyone could deny that? I know last weekend was a struggle against Tech. I know we haven’t come up with a very good plan against Ou, (although this year had more to do with the offense)but all around and building toward the future I feel very confident with Jim Knowles.
We need to keep him here and continue to develop within his system. We seem to have a good thing going on that side of the ball and we need to do what it takes to keep it. OSU football has been bad on defense for most of my life time. It would be within the best interest of the program to do whatever it takes to keep this defense going and see where it can take us.
Now the offense, that’s a whole other topic of discussion.
