By Kevin Lonnquist
Publisher
It is what you would call the rubber match between No. 16 Baylor and No. 9 Oklahoma State at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at McLane Stadium (FOX).
The Cowboys won in Stillwater Oct. 2, 2021, 24-14. Baylor won the epic Big 12 Championship game at AT&T Stadium, Dec. 4, 21-16.
However, this could be a preview of a repeat for the Big 12 championship Dec. 3. Time will tell as the fortunes will be unveiled from now until Thanksgiving weekend.
A look at the Cowboys who open their Big 12 season this weekend. This is also Oklahoma State’s first road game as the Cowboys played their first three games at home.
Opponent:
Head Coach: Mike Gundy (152-69, 18th season)
2022 Record: 3-0 d. Central Michigan, 58-44, d. Arizona State, 34-17, d. UAPB, 63-7
Record vs. Baylor: Oklahoma State leads, 22-19
Returning Starters: 7 offense, 5 defense
Key Returners: QB Spencer Sanders, RB Dominic Richardson, DE Collin Oliver, DE Trace Ford, DB Jason Taylor
Common Denominator: Gundy was an assistant at Baylor in 1996. The 2021 Big 12 championship game will go down as one of the best played in conference history.
Offensive Formation: One-back
Defensive Formation: 4-3
About Oklahoma State on Offense: It’s been a great start for QB Spencer Sanders. He’s thrown for better than 900 yards along with 10 touchdowns against just one INT. Sanders has also been efficient at 65 percent. Receiver Braydon Johnson has typically been the No. 2 in this offense. But he moved up to No.1 and is a vertical threat at 21 yards per catch and three scores. Brennan Presly is the No. 2 averaging just shy of 14 yards per grab. There are three other receivers with eight or more receptions. Dominic Richardson’s 215 yards are a little deceptive because he didn’t play full games against Central Michigan and UAPB. The better assessment is what he did against Arizona State when he rushed for 131 yards and three TDs. Oklahoma State is averaging 511 yards of offense.
About Oklahoma State on Defense: The Cowboys get defensive lineman Trace Ford back this week. That makes a big difference. He has a good bookend defensive end in Tyler Lacy who is emerging this season. Some of these defensive numbers for the Cowboys are a bit hmmm. They have the best third down defense (23 percent) and have collected just two turnovers. Actually, OSU is -1 in the turnover ratio. A bit surprising given the schedule it has faced. However, the Cowboys have started well the sack department with 10. They were good there last year. Mason Cobb and Xavier Benson are two linebackers to watch. The duo is among the top four tacklers. This unit is allowing 376 yards per game. The red flag is how much it surrendered to CMU in the opener. The caveat was the starters were pulled when the Cowboys built a 51-15 lead. We’ll see more about what this unit is and isn’t Saturday.
About Oklahoma State on Special Teams: Tanner Brown is the primary place-kicker and is returning from last year when he was 17-21 in FGs (2-4 from 40-49 last year). He’s been needed only twice on FGs so far and converted including one from 40+. Tom Hutton is averaging 43 yards per punt and has placed seven of his 15 inside the opponents 20. That’s flipping the field. Presley has been a solid punt returner at nearly 10 yards a return. That means he has the ability to break one. Ford returned a blocked punt for a score against UAPB. Jaden Nixon is returning 26 yards per kick return. Korie Black returned a blocked field goal for a score against UAPB.
Bottom Line: Perhaps Oklahoma State vs. Baylor could be the new alpha rivalry in the Big 12. We saw two solid games in 2021. These two appear to be positioning themselves as the new flagship programs of the reformed Big 12. The Cowboys are good as we all know. They should be in the middle of the Big 12 championship race.
Mike Gundy Presser
Gundy met with the Oklahoma State media earlier this week to discuss the game. These are all questions specific to Baylor.
ON THE DIFFERENCES IN THIS BAYLOR TEAM AND THE ONE OKLAHOMA STATE PLAYED IN THE BIG 12 TITLE GAME:
"A lot of similarities. Their concepts are the same. Not a lot of personnel changes, other than the safety [Jalen Pitre] that was a really, really good player that's not there anymore and a couple skill kids on offense. But, they look essentially the same scheme-wise. Quarterback is back now, obviously got more experience than when we saw him, but same group."
ON BAYLOR PLAYING SLOW ON OFFENSE AND OKLAHOMA STATE PLAYING UP-TEMPO:
"Well, it's just two different philosophies. I guess you could say a defensive head coach and offensive head coach, maybe. They'll run the clock down and play with some tight ends and fullbacks, and they're going to run the midzone play. They're gonna run boots and nakeds off of it, trying to get the ball out flat. They're gonna max protect and throw it down the field, and we spread out more and play at a much faster tempo. Some of the things are similar, but for the most part, the philosophies and how we get there are different."
ON HOW MUCH THEY KNOW ABOUT BAYLOR QUARTERBACK BLAKE SHAPEN COMPARED TO LAST YEAR:
"Their concept offensively, from an outside looking in, is the same as it was in the championship game. So, you're gonna control the passing game. I mean, he might complete 14 passes in the game, and it may only be for 75 yards, but three or four of them might be converting third downs. So I don't really see a lot of difference, and it looks like they programmed him in that direction until they play-action, max-protect and try to throw it over your head."
ON BAYLOR DEFENSIVE TACKLE SIAKI IKA:
"Well, he's an issue. He's a problem. He should be playing on Sundays right now. We definitely have to know where he's at on the field because whenever he comes off the ball and goes straight that direction [in the backfield], whoever's in front of him is going that direction [in the backfield]. So we have to be smart in how we handle him, but he's a good player."
ON THE MESSAGE TO OKLAHOMA STATE'S OFFENSIVE LINE WHEN BLOCKING IKA:
"Block him. I told them a Sunday ago, look, we all know that they have a good team. We'll start with that. They have good team. They're well coached. They play hard. And they have a good team. But when you're dealing with a guy like that, you have to treat like everybody else. You just have to have some concepts with your coaches to give the players to help them at times. You don't want to single him up a lot. You want some help on him. And really that's what we told them, 'We'll give you guys help sometimes, but sometimes you're gonna have to hold your own.' He's gonna make some plays. You're not going to stop him from making plays, but we need to make our share of plays against him."
ON WHAT SIAKI IKA DOES SO WELL:
"He pushes everything back into the backfield. He's low center of gravity, obviously. I'm guessing he's very strong, and his power comes from [his legs]. So, he dumps everything back in the backfield, which creates a problem for an offense. The simple part of it is offenses are trying to move forward and backs making cuts beyond the line of scrimmage. And when offensive line is running in space, you know, they're not getting anywhere and backs are making cuts behind the line, it's not as good a play. So, it sounds really simple, and to a certain extent it is, but he does a good job of just carrying people back in the backfield. And when they double team him, he'll swallow two people to kind of sit down and eat up space. It's very similar to what they do in the NFL, those big guys. You see those giant guys on the field. They're just eating up gaps. He does a good job of that."
ON WHETHER HE FEELS THE OFFENSIVE LINE IS IN A BETTER POSITION NOW THAN IT WAS IN THE BIG 12 CHAMPIONSHIP:
"Sure, we have guys that are more experienced that are in there. We're fairly healthy up front, which is good. We were beat up a little bit at that time. [Ika] started to come on kind of the middle year, toward the end year last year is when he started to come into his own. We caught him down there, and he was playing pretty good. Ole Miss got a dose of it in the bowl game. And so he's continued on with that. So, I feel good about our guys. We can't go beyond he's a good football player. We know he's there. But we play other good football players, right? We played guys from Notre Dame that were long and tall and created issues for us and throughout the league. So, we're not I'm not afraid to give him credit for who he is and what he gets accomplished, but I expect our guys to block him."
ON OKLAHOMA STATE'S DEFENSIVE LINE GOING AGAINST BAYLOR'S OFFENSIVE LINE:
"It's a good matchup. I go back to what I said. In my opinion, they stay in their box on what they're trying to get accomplished on offense. They have good players. Baylor's always had good player. They sit right in the middle of 300 Division-I offers a year within a four-hour drive. It's a good location to get good players. And they've developed them, and they know what they want to get accomplished. One thing to watch is the matchup between those two groups that you just mentioned because they're both pretty good groups and should be interesting to watch and see how it plays out throughout the game."
ON WHETHER SPENCER SANDERS IS PLAYING BETTER THAN HE THOUGHT HE WOULD BE:
"He's playing pretty good. When we protect him a little bit and rush the ball some, he's a pretty good football player. He's got good skill. He understands what we're trying to accomplish. We've talked about this a number of times, but he's had a lot of experience now. Things come to him much easier than they did a couple of years ago."
ON WHETHER HE TRUSTS SANDERS MORE THAN HE'S TRUSTED A QUARTERBACK:
"We let him do whatever he wants to do. He goes at it, has fun. He still does some things. He's a risk-taker. He'll run more, takes more hits than he should. He'll throw into coverage some, but it's kind of the way it is. We have a lot of confidence in him allow him to go out and make his plays."
ON OKLAHOMA STATE'S RECEIVERS VS. BAYLOR'S SECONDARY:
"They're gonna stay back, in my opinion. Their safeties are gonna play at 12, 14 yards. I would guess they're gonna stay back. His personality from what I've learned over the last few years is he's not, like we all are, but their defense is set up to not give up big plays. We're gonna force you to rush the ball and be a successful intermediate passing team. We understand that. It's no secret. So, I would say those guys are probably going to be back there pretty far in trying to defend downfield throws."
ON HOW BAYLOR WAS ABLE TO FORCE TURNOVERS AGAINST OKLAHOMA STATE LAST SEASON:
"I think it was four, I went back and looked at that, four of the seven [Spencer Sanders interceptions against Baylor], I think four of them he was being hit when he let go of the ball. And then one he threw off his back foot on a crossing route, overthrew a guy and hit the safety in the stomach. So, we certainly want to be more protective with the ball against them. And I'm not really concerned about it based on the number of turnovers that he had. He was being hit when he threw the ball."
ON IF SPENCER SANDERS WILL PRESS TOO MUCH BECAUSE OF WHAT HAPPENED AGAINST BAYLOR LAST SEASON:
"Spencer is highly intelligent and he knows. He knows (if) he gets hit, the ball goes a different direction. He can't control it. He's not gonna tell you guys that because he's not going to push the blame on anybody else. But just because of what you said about him when you described him, when he watches it, he knows. I'm not concerned at all about it, because I think he realizes what took place."
ON HAVING TRACE FORD BACK:
"Trace has been great, I'm thrilled for him. He's was very hesitant a year ago and somewhat hesitant six months ago, and then even at least a small amount hesitant even a month ago. He's gotten better every day in practice, and then you guys can see him in games. He's starting to look like himself. His attitude has been fantastic. His work ethic has been fantastic.
Publisher
It is what you would call the rubber match between No. 16 Baylor and No. 9 Oklahoma State at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at McLane Stadium (FOX).
The Cowboys won in Stillwater Oct. 2, 2021, 24-14. Baylor won the epic Big 12 Championship game at AT&T Stadium, Dec. 4, 21-16.
However, this could be a preview of a repeat for the Big 12 championship Dec. 3. Time will tell as the fortunes will be unveiled from now until Thanksgiving weekend.
A look at the Cowboys who open their Big 12 season this weekend. This is also Oklahoma State’s first road game as the Cowboys played their first three games at home.
Opponent:
Head Coach: Mike Gundy (152-69, 18th season)
2022 Record: 3-0 d. Central Michigan, 58-44, d. Arizona State, 34-17, d. UAPB, 63-7
Record vs. Baylor: Oklahoma State leads, 22-19
Returning Starters: 7 offense, 5 defense
Key Returners: QB Spencer Sanders, RB Dominic Richardson, DE Collin Oliver, DE Trace Ford, DB Jason Taylor
Common Denominator: Gundy was an assistant at Baylor in 1996. The 2021 Big 12 championship game will go down as one of the best played in conference history.
Offensive Formation: One-back
Defensive Formation: 4-3
About Oklahoma State on Offense: It’s been a great start for QB Spencer Sanders. He’s thrown for better than 900 yards along with 10 touchdowns against just one INT. Sanders has also been efficient at 65 percent. Receiver Braydon Johnson has typically been the No. 2 in this offense. But he moved up to No.1 and is a vertical threat at 21 yards per catch and three scores. Brennan Presly is the No. 2 averaging just shy of 14 yards per grab. There are three other receivers with eight or more receptions. Dominic Richardson’s 215 yards are a little deceptive because he didn’t play full games against Central Michigan and UAPB. The better assessment is what he did against Arizona State when he rushed for 131 yards and three TDs. Oklahoma State is averaging 511 yards of offense.
About Oklahoma State on Defense: The Cowboys get defensive lineman Trace Ford back this week. That makes a big difference. He has a good bookend defensive end in Tyler Lacy who is emerging this season. Some of these defensive numbers for the Cowboys are a bit hmmm. They have the best third down defense (23 percent) and have collected just two turnovers. Actually, OSU is -1 in the turnover ratio. A bit surprising given the schedule it has faced. However, the Cowboys have started well the sack department with 10. They were good there last year. Mason Cobb and Xavier Benson are two linebackers to watch. The duo is among the top four tacklers. This unit is allowing 376 yards per game. The red flag is how much it surrendered to CMU in the opener. The caveat was the starters were pulled when the Cowboys built a 51-15 lead. We’ll see more about what this unit is and isn’t Saturday.
About Oklahoma State on Special Teams: Tanner Brown is the primary place-kicker and is returning from last year when he was 17-21 in FGs (2-4 from 40-49 last year). He’s been needed only twice on FGs so far and converted including one from 40+. Tom Hutton is averaging 43 yards per punt and has placed seven of his 15 inside the opponents 20. That’s flipping the field. Presley has been a solid punt returner at nearly 10 yards a return. That means he has the ability to break one. Ford returned a blocked punt for a score against UAPB. Jaden Nixon is returning 26 yards per kick return. Korie Black returned a blocked field goal for a score against UAPB.
Bottom Line: Perhaps Oklahoma State vs. Baylor could be the new alpha rivalry in the Big 12. We saw two solid games in 2021. These two appear to be positioning themselves as the new flagship programs of the reformed Big 12. The Cowboys are good as we all know. They should be in the middle of the Big 12 championship race.
Mike Gundy Presser
Gundy met with the Oklahoma State media earlier this week to discuss the game. These are all questions specific to Baylor.
ON THE DIFFERENCES IN THIS BAYLOR TEAM AND THE ONE OKLAHOMA STATE PLAYED IN THE BIG 12 TITLE GAME:
"A lot of similarities. Their concepts are the same. Not a lot of personnel changes, other than the safety [Jalen Pitre] that was a really, really good player that's not there anymore and a couple skill kids on offense. But, they look essentially the same scheme-wise. Quarterback is back now, obviously got more experience than when we saw him, but same group."
ON BAYLOR PLAYING SLOW ON OFFENSE AND OKLAHOMA STATE PLAYING UP-TEMPO:
"Well, it's just two different philosophies. I guess you could say a defensive head coach and offensive head coach, maybe. They'll run the clock down and play with some tight ends and fullbacks, and they're going to run the midzone play. They're gonna run boots and nakeds off of it, trying to get the ball out flat. They're gonna max protect and throw it down the field, and we spread out more and play at a much faster tempo. Some of the things are similar, but for the most part, the philosophies and how we get there are different."
ON HOW MUCH THEY KNOW ABOUT BAYLOR QUARTERBACK BLAKE SHAPEN COMPARED TO LAST YEAR:
"Their concept offensively, from an outside looking in, is the same as it was in the championship game. So, you're gonna control the passing game. I mean, he might complete 14 passes in the game, and it may only be for 75 yards, but three or four of them might be converting third downs. So I don't really see a lot of difference, and it looks like they programmed him in that direction until they play-action, max-protect and try to throw it over your head."
ON BAYLOR DEFENSIVE TACKLE SIAKI IKA:
"Well, he's an issue. He's a problem. He should be playing on Sundays right now. We definitely have to know where he's at on the field because whenever he comes off the ball and goes straight that direction [in the backfield], whoever's in front of him is going that direction [in the backfield]. So we have to be smart in how we handle him, but he's a good player."
ON THE MESSAGE TO OKLAHOMA STATE'S OFFENSIVE LINE WHEN BLOCKING IKA:
"Block him. I told them a Sunday ago, look, we all know that they have a good team. We'll start with that. They have good team. They're well coached. They play hard. And they have a good team. But when you're dealing with a guy like that, you have to treat like everybody else. You just have to have some concepts with your coaches to give the players to help them at times. You don't want to single him up a lot. You want some help on him. And really that's what we told them, 'We'll give you guys help sometimes, but sometimes you're gonna have to hold your own.' He's gonna make some plays. You're not going to stop him from making plays, but we need to make our share of plays against him."
ON WHAT SIAKI IKA DOES SO WELL:
"He pushes everything back into the backfield. He's low center of gravity, obviously. I'm guessing he's very strong, and his power comes from [his legs]. So, he dumps everything back in the backfield, which creates a problem for an offense. The simple part of it is offenses are trying to move forward and backs making cuts beyond the line of scrimmage. And when offensive line is running in space, you know, they're not getting anywhere and backs are making cuts behind the line, it's not as good a play. So, it sounds really simple, and to a certain extent it is, but he does a good job of just carrying people back in the backfield. And when they double team him, he'll swallow two people to kind of sit down and eat up space. It's very similar to what they do in the NFL, those big guys. You see those giant guys on the field. They're just eating up gaps. He does a good job of that."
ON WHETHER HE FEELS THE OFFENSIVE LINE IS IN A BETTER POSITION NOW THAN IT WAS IN THE BIG 12 CHAMPIONSHIP:
"Sure, we have guys that are more experienced that are in there. We're fairly healthy up front, which is good. We were beat up a little bit at that time. [Ika] started to come on kind of the middle year, toward the end year last year is when he started to come into his own. We caught him down there, and he was playing pretty good. Ole Miss got a dose of it in the bowl game. And so he's continued on with that. So, I feel good about our guys. We can't go beyond he's a good football player. We know he's there. But we play other good football players, right? We played guys from Notre Dame that were long and tall and created issues for us and throughout the league. So, we're not I'm not afraid to give him credit for who he is and what he gets accomplished, but I expect our guys to block him."
ON OKLAHOMA STATE'S DEFENSIVE LINE GOING AGAINST BAYLOR'S OFFENSIVE LINE:
"It's a good matchup. I go back to what I said. In my opinion, they stay in their box on what they're trying to get accomplished on offense. They have good players. Baylor's always had good player. They sit right in the middle of 300 Division-I offers a year within a four-hour drive. It's a good location to get good players. And they've developed them, and they know what they want to get accomplished. One thing to watch is the matchup between those two groups that you just mentioned because they're both pretty good groups and should be interesting to watch and see how it plays out throughout the game."
ON WHETHER SPENCER SANDERS IS PLAYING BETTER THAN HE THOUGHT HE WOULD BE:
"He's playing pretty good. When we protect him a little bit and rush the ball some, he's a pretty good football player. He's got good skill. He understands what we're trying to accomplish. We've talked about this a number of times, but he's had a lot of experience now. Things come to him much easier than they did a couple of years ago."
ON WHETHER HE TRUSTS SANDERS MORE THAN HE'S TRUSTED A QUARTERBACK:
"We let him do whatever he wants to do. He goes at it, has fun. He still does some things. He's a risk-taker. He'll run more, takes more hits than he should. He'll throw into coverage some, but it's kind of the way it is. We have a lot of confidence in him allow him to go out and make his plays."
ON OKLAHOMA STATE'S RECEIVERS VS. BAYLOR'S SECONDARY:
"They're gonna stay back, in my opinion. Their safeties are gonna play at 12, 14 yards. I would guess they're gonna stay back. His personality from what I've learned over the last few years is he's not, like we all are, but their defense is set up to not give up big plays. We're gonna force you to rush the ball and be a successful intermediate passing team. We understand that. It's no secret. So, I would say those guys are probably going to be back there pretty far in trying to defend downfield throws."
ON HOW BAYLOR WAS ABLE TO FORCE TURNOVERS AGAINST OKLAHOMA STATE LAST SEASON:
"I think it was four, I went back and looked at that, four of the seven [Spencer Sanders interceptions against Baylor], I think four of them he was being hit when he let go of the ball. And then one he threw off his back foot on a crossing route, overthrew a guy and hit the safety in the stomach. So, we certainly want to be more protective with the ball against them. And I'm not really concerned about it based on the number of turnovers that he had. He was being hit when he threw the ball."
ON IF SPENCER SANDERS WILL PRESS TOO MUCH BECAUSE OF WHAT HAPPENED AGAINST BAYLOR LAST SEASON:
"Spencer is highly intelligent and he knows. He knows (if) he gets hit, the ball goes a different direction. He can't control it. He's not gonna tell you guys that because he's not going to push the blame on anybody else. But just because of what you said about him when you described him, when he watches it, he knows. I'm not concerned at all about it, because I think he realizes what took place."
ON HAVING TRACE FORD BACK:
"Trace has been great, I'm thrilled for him. He's was very hesitant a year ago and somewhat hesitant six months ago, and then even at least a small amount hesitant even a month ago. He's gotten better every day in practice, and then you guys can see him in games. He's starting to look like himself. His attitude has been fantastic. His work ethic has been fantastic.
