How Oklahoma State football is seeking ways to get Brennan Presley involved in offense
Scott WrightThe Oklahoman
STILLWATER — With Oklahoma State facing second-and-10 from the Kansas State 11-yard line early in the fourth quarter, Cowboy receiver Brennan Presley aligned in a bunch of three receivers to the right of the formation.
Going in motion to his left, he looped around quarterback Alan Bowman and headed back to the right. When Bowman got the snap, he faked a handoff to running back Ollie Gordon going up the middle, then turned his back to the line of scrimmage.
Presley had yet again changed direction, and Bowman handed him the ball going left.
The play gained 3 yards and two plays later, OSU kicked a field goal for a 14-point lead in what eventually became a 29-21 win over K-State last Friday night at Boone Pickens Stadium.
Presley’s carry was a seemingly insignificant play on one of five OSU possessions that stalled in the red zone and led to a field goal attempt.
But the real story is what Presley did before the snap — not just on that play, but on 25 of the 64 he was in for. That’s how many times the 5-foot-8, 185-pound slot receiver was on the move before the snap.
Many were traditional pre-snap motion. Seven of the 25 were the loop motion in which he circles around the quarterback. On a few, he motioned to one side of the formation, only to return toward his initial position.
And the reasons for all the pre-snap movement varied, too. In some cases, it was to reposition him for the play, like the second-and-10 handoff or the double-pass trick play in which he threw back to Bowman. Basically, an effort to get one of their most dangerous players more involved.
Other times, his movement was to lure the defense into tipping its coverage, and several times it was simply what coaches call eye candy — decoy movement to distract defenders from what’s really going on.
As Kansas prepared for its trip to Boone Pickens Stadium this week, set for a 2:30 p.m. Saturday kickoff against the resurgent Pokes, the Jayhawks certainly had to devote some additional practice time to preparing for all of Presley’s pre-snap movement.
“We haven’t done that a lot,” OSU coach Mike Gundy said of the extensive use of motion with Presley. “We base our offense on different things, not necessarily that style. But we have to find ways to bring him in and get him more involved, and that’s an easy way to do it.
“He needs to touch the ball more. If we can make him a moving target using different things with him, that helps us incorporate his ability in the game.”
Presley said all the added running wasn’t difficult last Friday night. The practices leading up to the game, however, were a different story.
“Last Monday and Tuesday, I remember those days being extremely tough,” Presley said earlier this week. “All the motions and the stuff getting into the routes and stuff like that, the Monday and Tuesday practices were extremely hard. But once you get to the game, I’ve done it so much, it felt natural.”
Presley was a heavy focus of the offensive plan in the first couple of games, but defenses have keyed on him more in recent weeks. Nothing extreme, but enough to notice.
Still, the motion provided OSU with simpler ways to get the ball to him. In all, he was targeted nine times in the passing game, catching four for 40 yards, and a couple of his targets were throwaways by Bowman. Presley had two rushing attempts, threw a pass and returned a kickoff 31 yards.
For Bowman, using Presley in motion gives him more information to understand what the defense is doing.
“He can take a 5-yard pass 90, so I think anybody we play is gonna have at least two sets of eyes on him every play,” Bowman said. “But we’ll do things to get him out in space and get him the ball. And I think now that we’re running together, me and him can connect a little bit more.”
With the added focus on Presley, plus the emergence of the run game led by Gordon, the need for outside receivers like Jaden Bray and Rashod Owens to increase their impact is significant.
They were successful last Friday, combining for nine catches and 152 yards.
Owens, who played slot receiver with Presley earlier in his career, is happy to be on the outside after watching how much the slot receiver has been asked to run lately.
“Last week in practices, he did motion almost every play,” Owens said. “I was like, that can’t be me. I’ll need a sub or something. It’s just what we do, though. If you’re playing receiver, you’re gonna run.”
While the primary goal is getting the ball to Presley more often so he can use his talent to be productive, he also knows his value can impact the game even when he doesn’t touch the ball.
“Some things I see defenses doing differently, whether they move out (a linebacker) more or they rotate a lot more on motions or something like that,” he said. “But I can’t go into a game thinking I’m gonna get guarded differently.
“If they do change it up and somebody else gets open, and somebody else has a crease or something like that, then it’s great for the team.”
