We had a great season and it was a blast. Just had a lot of fun watching this team play football. Probably the funnest for me since 2011 and it wasn’t just because we won but it was how we won.
The final play yesterday is hard to rewatch. So many should have would have could have moments on that last possession.
Anyway, here are my thoughts:
-Need OLINE help: our oline got dominated yesterday. We simply need better oline play. They were very Jekyll and Hyde this season. They had moments where they looked good(not great) and moments like yesterday where you simply wonder what the heck they are doing and why they get pushed back so often.
We need to get better here as we get pushed around to much. Sills included. Love the guy(and his tough mentality) but he is inconsistent. I know that won’t be popular opinion but our oline play just seems soft at times. It’s lacking talent. We need a few nfl guys on this line.
I like the Juco we have coming in but we need to perhaps look to the portal here for immediate help. Juco’s rarely make an impact their first year so it’s hard to say we can count on him. #67 needs to slide inside and not be a tackle but in order for us to do that we really need Miterko and Etienne to step up and play like their size and recruitment. Both highly recruited guys and both so far have been guys we can’t count on. We are going to lose arguably our two best olineman. Need a talent upgrade here and we need to have guys with a mean streak that refuse to get pushed around.
-Did Spencer improve this season? Yes, without a doubt, but he turned the ball over way to much in big environments. He had a nice stretch before the ou game where it looked like he was turning the corner. But when we play in a big setting or a big team he turns it over. Against ou and Baylor alone this season he threw 9 of his 12 picks. You simply can’t do that in big games. Great that he only had 3 Interceptions against the rest of the teams we played but when you play the big boys you have to be better. Qb’s are going to turn the ball over throughout the course of a season because of how often they touch the ball no doubt, but 3-4 in one game is inexcusable. I told myself yesterday before the game started no way SS throws 3 INTs against these guys again and what does he do? Throws freakin 4. Unreal. He has to clean that up. Can we get a season where he keeps the INT’s in single digits?
-Dunn’s play calling doesn’t help issues. Like Spencer and the oline he is very inconsistent. Seeing a trend here for the offense? Fact is that his play calling got us down in a position to win the game but he couldn’t make a call from the freakin 1 yard line. We had 5 trips in the red zone and managed 1 td yesterday. That’s inexcusable. I know he is only in his second year of calling plays but you simply have to be better. Todd Monken he is not nor does he have to be, but be consistent and stop resting on the fact that the defense will bail you out. Yes we have a good defense it would be awesome if our offense was more aggressive and consistent and we could dominate teams.
-Have to pay JK and make him a top 10 DC in college football. If OSU is serious about winning and serious about being a big time college football town as Gundy said you don’t lose the best thing you have going. We did prove to him that we can play for a championship and I think we proved that we can get to the playoff. It sounds like he likes Stillwater and being at OSU. Now go pay the man. You have to hope he doesn’t grow into a rut and his tendencies get figured out in the big 12 so always changing things up will be needed but his players love playing for him and he quite simply has given us a defense we can win big with. Other programs get this and guys stay for 6-8 years or longer. I’d like to lock him up for another 5-10 years at least and see if we can’t use this year as a starting point to start making some strong runs. I think we have some major talent waiting in the wings and I have a feeling recruiting is going to get easier with what we have shown and what we did. Perhaps we won’t lose those big time LB’s anymore because of what was seen and because dare I say we get a recruiting bump from being in the big 12 and an NY6.
Finally, I leave this with somewhat of a negative thought. It burns to think that in the past 10 years we have 1 big 12 championship and Baylor has 3. That just doesn’t sit well.
The final play yesterday is hard to rewatch. So many should have would have could have moments on that last possession.
Anyway, here are my thoughts:
-Need OLINE help: our oline got dominated yesterday. We simply need better oline play. They were very Jekyll and Hyde this season. They had moments where they looked good(not great) and moments like yesterday where you simply wonder what the heck they are doing and why they get pushed back so often.
We need to get better here as we get pushed around to much. Sills included. Love the guy(and his tough mentality) but he is inconsistent. I know that won’t be popular opinion but our oline play just seems soft at times. It’s lacking talent. We need a few nfl guys on this line.
I like the Juco we have coming in but we need to perhaps look to the portal here for immediate help. Juco’s rarely make an impact their first year so it’s hard to say we can count on him. #67 needs to slide inside and not be a tackle but in order for us to do that we really need Miterko and Etienne to step up and play like their size and recruitment. Both highly recruited guys and both so far have been guys we can’t count on. We are going to lose arguably our two best olineman. Need a talent upgrade here and we need to have guys with a mean streak that refuse to get pushed around.
-Did Spencer improve this season? Yes, without a doubt, but he turned the ball over way to much in big environments. He had a nice stretch before the ou game where it looked like he was turning the corner. But when we play in a big setting or a big team he turns it over. Against ou and Baylor alone this season he threw 9 of his 12 picks. You simply can’t do that in big games. Great that he only had 3 Interceptions against the rest of the teams we played but when you play the big boys you have to be better. Qb’s are going to turn the ball over throughout the course of a season because of how often they touch the ball no doubt, but 3-4 in one game is inexcusable. I told myself yesterday before the game started no way SS throws 3 INTs against these guys again and what does he do? Throws freakin 4. Unreal. He has to clean that up. Can we get a season where he keeps the INT’s in single digits?
-Dunn’s play calling doesn’t help issues. Like Spencer and the oline he is very inconsistent. Seeing a trend here for the offense? Fact is that his play calling got us down in a position to win the game but he couldn’t make a call from the freakin 1 yard line. We had 5 trips in the red zone and managed 1 td yesterday. That’s inexcusable. I know he is only in his second year of calling plays but you simply have to be better. Todd Monken he is not nor does he have to be, but be consistent and stop resting on the fact that the defense will bail you out. Yes we have a good defense it would be awesome if our offense was more aggressive and consistent and we could dominate teams.
-Have to pay JK and make him a top 10 DC in college football. If OSU is serious about winning and serious about being a big time college football town as Gundy said you don’t lose the best thing you have going. We did prove to him that we can play for a championship and I think we proved that we can get to the playoff. It sounds like he likes Stillwater and being at OSU. Now go pay the man. You have to hope he doesn’t grow into a rut and his tendencies get figured out in the big 12 so always changing things up will be needed but his players love playing for him and he quite simply has given us a defense we can win big with. Other programs get this and guys stay for 6-8 years or longer. I’d like to lock him up for another 5-10 years at least and see if we can’t use this year as a starting point to start making some strong runs. I think we have some major talent waiting in the wings and I have a feeling recruiting is going to get easier with what we have shown and what we did. Perhaps we won’t lose those big time LB’s anymore because of what was seen and because dare I say we get a recruiting bump from being in the big 12 and an NY6.
Finally, I leave this with somewhat of a negative thought. It burns to think that in the past 10 years we have 1 big 12 championship and Baylor has 3. That just doesn’t sit well.
