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STILLWATER - Members of the Oklahoma State football team met with the media a few days before the Cowboys departure for Arizona to play in the PlayStation Fiesta Bowl. Here is some of what they had to say:
![]() ![]() STILLWATER - Members of the Oklahoma State football team met with the media a few days before the Cowboys departure for Arizona to play in the PlayStation Fiesta Bowl. Here is some of what they had to say:
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![]() A growing number of COVID-19 cases around the country has raised some questions for the 2021 college football bowl season. The College Football Playoff, which is also in charge of the Fiesta Bowl, announced Wednesday postseason policies regarding COVID-19 that could affect Oklahoma State’s Jan. 1 meeting with Notre Dame. Should one of the teams be unable to compete because it has an insufficient number of athletes available, the CFP and the Fiesta Bowl will attempt to identify an alternate date for the game within one week of the scheduled date (Jan. 1). If no date can be found, the game would be ruled a no-contest. This wave of COVID-19 cases has already moved NFL and NBA games. News broke Wednesday that Texas A&M was pulling out of its Gator Bowl matchup with Wake Forest because the Aggies “don’t have enough scholarship players available to field a team.” OSU coach Mike Gundy shared his concern about the new wave of cases Monday. “I’m concerned with what’s happening right now, I’ll be honest with you,” Gundy said. “Very selfishly, we hit a home run with getting through football because we all know that that needs to happen to keep people afloat financially. But I’m a little concerned with what’s going on right now with these numbers that you’re hearing about. I read yesterday 220,000 new cases in one day – that’s a lot. I’m trying to stay away from people. We’re talking to [the players] about it with our staff. There’s a certain percentage now that have already had a shot and already had a booster. We just do the best we can.” Here is a list of other policies the CFP has put in place for the New Year’s Six Bowls:
Oklahoma State and Notre Dame are scheduled to kickoff at noon central time on Jan. 1. The post College Football Playoff Announces COVID-19 Postseason Policies for Fiesta Bowl appeared first on Pistols Firing. ![]() Read this original article at Pistols Firing Blog. ![]() If anything, NC State’s and Oklahoma State’s punishments following the FBI’s sting into college basketball should be flipped, but because of the different avenues the schools took, OSU again drew the short straw. The Independent Accountability Resolution Process (IARP) handed out its first ruling earlier this week, choosing to not give the Wolfpack a postseason ban despite a former assistant coach allegedly setting up a $40,000 payment to former five-star recruit Dennis Smith Jr. Oklahoma State went through the NCAA’s traditional infractions process and was hit with heftier sanctions for employing Lamont Evans, who allegedly paid Jeffrey Carroll $300, which Carroll paid back and served a suspension for. NC State gained a competitive advantage by adding Smith to its roster. He scored 18.1 points a game during his 32 starts with the Wolfpack. Carroll was already on campus when his alleged payment took place, meaning there wasn’t a competitive advantage gained for the Cowboys. It was impossible for OSU to know whether going through the IARP would’ve been better. It is new, and there is no appeals process through it. So whatever punishment you get, you have to live with. During OSU’s new conference following the announcement its appeal had been denied, OSU coach Mike Boynton made a few references in trying to work with the NCAA on the matter before alluding that schools in similar situations shouldn’t cooperate with college sports’ governing body. “So the message is clear — because we had one $300 violation, no failure to monitor, no lack of institutional control, no recruiting violations, no head coach responsibility, no players playing ineligible,” Boynton said. “So if you got some of those things going on, don’t do what we did. What we did was we asked them, that we worked with them through this process.” But, the NCAA might’ve just lost more of its foothold with this IARP ruling. It’s hard to imagine any school, if given the option, is going to choose to go the traditional route with these two precedents set. In no way is it logical OSU is banned from postseason play if NC State is eligible. The IARP is also handling the cases of Kansas, LSU, Arizona, Louisville and Memphis. With this week’s precedent, OSU, a minor offender in the grand scheme of the FBI’s investigation, could end up with the most severe punishment. The post NC State Gets Wrists Slapped, Hindsight Says Pokes Should’ve Gone through the IARP appeared first on Pistols Firing. ![]() Read this original article at Pistols Firing Blog. ![]() ![]() Complete Notes Available Here ![]() Carson Cunningham and Colby Powell discuss OSU’s national relevance in the Fiesta Bowl, Mike Gundy’s recent comments and more. You know what helps the show and helps us make more shows? When you rate us on Apple Podcasts or subscribe to our pod: Apple Podcasts | Google Play | Stitcher | SoundCloud | Overcast As always, we appreciate our sponsor Chris’ University Spirit. The post PFB Podcast Ep. 435: News and Notes Pre-Christmas appeared first on Pistols Firing. ![]() Read this original article at Pistols Firing Blog. ![]() The Daily Bullets are brought to you by Hoboken Coffee: Get 20% off your first order. OSU Bullets• Cowboy running back Dezmon Jackson is in the transfer portal • Mike Gundy had some updates in his latest media availability • Optimism around OSU’s last recruiting class is real – Marshall had a great five thoughts article that sums up the class well:
• Kyle Boone did a travel blog on his trip to Arlington for the title game with his dad – good update on his health in there • Cowboy assistant coach Matt Holliday was recently named to the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame after he excelled with the St. Louis Cardinals for eight years • For the Malcolm Rodriguez fan in your life:
Non-OSU Bullets• Five situations when you can and should be late The post Daily Bullets (Dec. 22): Cowboy Running Back in the Portal appeared first on Pistols Firing. ![]() Read this original article at Pistols Firing Blog. ![]() It looks like the Cowboys’ running back depth took a hit less than two weeks before Oklahoma State’s Fiesta Bowl matchup against Notre Dame. On Tuesday, Matt Zenitz of On3 Sports reported that Cowboy rusher Dezmon Jackson had entered NCAA’s transfer portal.
Jackson was the Cowboys’ fourth-leading rusher this season, taking 48 handoffs for 139 yards and two touchdowns. The former junior college transfer was a touted playmaker when he arrived on campus in 2019, but he has battled injuries throughout his OSU tenure. He missed most of 2019 and six games early this season. In 2020, Jackson was his most productive, trailing only Chuba Hubbard among Cowboy rushers and finished with 547 yards and four touchdowns. He had a career day against Texas Tech last season, rushing for 235 yards and three touchdowns. Jackson joins defensive tackle Jayden Jernigan and offensive tackle Hunter Anthony as Cowboys looking to make use of the portal since OSU’s Big 12 Championship appearance against Baylor. Jaylen Warren, who missed the Big 12 title game, is expected to be available for the Fiesta Bowl on Jan. 2, as are sophomore RB Dominic Richardson and freshman Jaden Nixon. As for next season, there is a possibility LD Brown could return for another season with a medical redshirt to join Richardson and Nixon in the backfield. OSU also signed a pair of four-star running backs last week in Ollie Gordon and CJ Brown. The post Report: Dezmon Jackson Enters NCAA Transfer Portal appeared first on Pistols Firing. ![]() Read this original article at Pistols Firing Blog. ![]() The No. 4 Cowboys hit the last stop on their three-dual road trip this weekend at Utah Valley on Monday, and came out with a dominant 37-0 win. It was the first meeting between the two programs. OSU is 7-0 on the season and 4-0 against Big 12 schools. The dual lost a lot of its flavor without two of Utah Valley’s top stars in Taylor Lamont (125) and Demetrius Romero (165) who are both out with injury. OSU completely dominated the dual from top to bottom, but there were a few intriguing matchups. At 141, Dusty Hone got the start. I don’t believe this to be a lineup shift, but an opportunity for Hone to get a chance to start in front of his home state. There were a few scrambles but no scoring in the first, and Hone started the second on top. He got a full-period ride, then had that flipped on him when Ty Smith got a pretty good ride and erased most of Hone’s riding time. Hone ultimately managed to get a late reversal and ride out to win 3-0. At 174, Kekana Fouret put up a pretty solid fight against Dustin Plott. He pushed the pace and took a lot of shots. He got in on a few, and Plott had to use some tough and stingy defense to avoid being taken down. He eventually put together a few shots and scores and walked away with a 5-1 win, but was pushed a little. The final match of the night was another intriguing one with Luke Surber and Jayden Woodruff. Both are undersized heavyweights wrestling up. Woodruff took a good shot early, but Surber was able to create a scramble to counter and eventually get behind Woodruff and score a takedown. Woodruff got an escape, then Surber started the second on bottom with a 2-1 lead. He hit a granby to get a quick reversal before Woodruff got an escape. Woodruff got in on another shot and Surber created another scramble to score again. In the third, the exact same thing happened again. Woodruff took a shot, Surber created a scramble and scored. Woodruff attempted a late flurry, got a takedown and stall call on Surber to close the score a bit, but Surber held on to win 8-6. You can watch the entire dual on the UVU YouTube page below. Oklahoma State 37, Utah Valley 0 125: Trevor Mastrogiovanni (OSU) DEC Yusief Lillie (Utah Valley), 5-0 | OSU 3, Utah Valley 0 The post OSU Wrestling: Cowboys End Road Trip with 37-0 Win over Utah Valley appeared first on Pistols Firing. ![]() Read this original article at Pistols Firing Blog. ![]() The Daily Bullets are brought to you by Hoboken Coffee: Get 20% off your first order. ScoresWrestling: Pokes 37, Utah Valley 0 OSU Bullets• Fiesta Bowl Prep: • The Cowgirls’ game against North Texas tonight was canceled because of COVID protocols • What a gift for the Pokes playing in the Fiesta Bowl:
• Looking at OSU’s newest recruiting class in context of the old and new Big 12 • The O’Colly did a profile on the quarterback the Pokes are bringing in with the 2022 recruiting class • Rob gets it.
• Cowboy alum and two-time former assistant in Stillwater is now the “OC” at USC – quotations because Lincoln Riley will call plays
Non-OSU Bullets• An annual read for me – why Linus dropped the blanket (faith-based) The post Daily Bullets (Dec. 21): Fiesta Bowl Chatter, No Game for the Cowgirls Tonight appeared first on Pistols Firing. ![]() Read this original article at Pistols Firing Blog. ![]() STILLWATER — The Cowboys are less than two weeks out from a highly anticipated clash with Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl. Mike Gundy met with reporters in the Sherman E. Smith Training Center ahead of his team’s Monday practice. He is a transcript of what he said, with a video on the news conference below. On Malcolm Rodriguez “So the majority of the guys that are playing on defense have a really good feel for what we do. That’s one of the reasons we had success this year. Obviously, Malcolm (Rodriguez) and even Devin (Harper), he didn’t have as many game reps, but he’s been here for a long time. And Jim (Knowles’) system takes a little time. So, every year they’ve continued to get a little better. Jokingly, I had close friends of mine that said, ‘Why don’t you just let Malcolm call the game from the field?’ You know, the old Joe Namath days, but it’s a little more complicated than that, but it certainly helps to have those guys like Malcolm that are playing.” On Devin Harper “Well, again, he’s been here a long time. He gets it, he just couldn’t get on the field last year with Amen (Ogbongbemiga). Obviously Amen was good enough to make an NFL team, so he didn’t get a lot of reps, but he’s really kind of a throwback from, ‘I’m just gonna stay here and keep pushing forward,’ and it worked out well for him this year, being a key contributor. He’s made a lot of plays for us.” On status of running back Jaylen Warren “Jaylen will be fine. I mean, we’re not letting him practice as much as the other guys, but he’s doing fine.” On any young players that have stood out during bowl practices “Well, we’ve practiced — our young guys have scrimmaged between 30 and 40 plays every day in practice, so they’re getting a considerable amount of reps. If you put a pencil to it, by the time we finish bowl practice, the young guys will have got a spring practice, and they’re doing fine. I mean, there’s a number of them out there, they all make mistakes and then they all make some plays, which is what’s going to happen, but they’re getting really quality work.” On how the process of divvying up defensive responsibilities among the coaches has gone “Great. I’ve, I mean, essentially I’ve switched from offense to defense. I haven’t watched offense at all live, and I’ve done defense everyday, and I’m very pleased. I don’t think the players even have noticed [Jim Knowles] not being here the way that we’ve divided up responsibilities and I think they’re practicing very well.” On if he still plans to wait until the team arrives in Arizona to decide who will call defense “That’s correct.” On benefits of having veteran position coaches like Joe Bob Clements and Tim Duffie “Continuity is important, right? I mean, it is for Oklahoma State, let’s put it that way. So, if you look on that side of the ball Joe Bob’s been here 10 or 11 years, [Dan Hammerschmidt] has been here six or seven, (Duffie’s) been here eight or nine, maybe. Greg Richmond is new, he’s been here a few years and just brought him in, so all those guys have been here a while. So it helps. When Jim (Knowles) left, they were able to go in the room and divvy up responsibilities and know what to do.” On who takes over lead coaching for linebackers “Koy (McFarland). He’s been coaching them all year. Yeah, I mean, he coaches them in practice every day and meets with them. Jim (Knowles) doesn’t coach a position. Jim is not a position coach. He’s a walk around coordinator.” On what stands out about Koy McFarland “He’s bright, energetic. Understands the game, has good relationship with players. He just needs — in order to get a start at this level. He just needs age and experience. But, he’s coached them all year long. He met with them last spring. As soon as Shane (Eachus) left, Shane was our [graduate assistant] that coached our linebackers. Jim’s never coached a position. So, the transition from the players wasn’t that big of an issue, because the players met with Koy everyday anyway.” On prospect analyst Jordan Burton “He’s in recruiting, and he’s around and watches, but you know, he’s not on the field coaching. But he’s a former player that’s done really well and as I selfishly stockpiled in, you know, in our organization, he’s one of those guys.” On Notre Dame’s elevation in the last decade “Well, from a distance, obviously I don’t see them much, I don’t cross paths with them much, we don’t go head to head with them in recruiting much at all. I only know what I see, like you guys, when coach Kelly came in, I think that, and this is hearsay, and in our profession, he really built up their athleticism and their roster. As I said a couple of weeks ago, he unfairly and non-justified took some hits by being in the playoffs and getting beat by three touchdowns or four, whatever it was. And he’s continued to get better and better and better. And as I said on Day 1, I have seen several of the top eight teams in the country in detail and they deserve to be fifth in the country and you can only get the fifth in the country if you have good talent. And he’s done a good job there. They have good players.” On challenges of navigating this time of year with the players and keeping them focused “So, they don’t have a lot of free time even to this day. They have training in the mornings. We practice, meet mid-mornings, practice here, afternoon, late afternoon. Then they have responsibilities. Then they get time at night and then go do anything they want. We just don’t have any issues here. The system runs itself. I’ve said it and I’ll say it again. I can walk away for a month and they’d be just fine without me. And, we have good young men that understand responsibility. Not saying they can’t make a mistake. That can happen, okay, but 138 of them, and we don’t really have issues. So, they understand the importance of nutrition, sleep, proper hydration, training, all the things that give them the best chance to play well, they do. We don’t really, we don’t have bed checks. We don’t police them. They police themselves.” On bowl game results being dictated by which team wants to play in the bowl and where his team is at with that “I think that’s fair, and these guys have practiced really well. By the time we get to the middle of next week, we will have had 10 heavy practices, which would be six to seven on a normal bowl cycle. These guys practice hard every day and they go on two and they’re off one, and they go back and they practice hard again. Between the small distraction we had with Coach Knowles and what would be out of school, I don’t really see an issue.” On the bowl practices being beneficial to younger players “They will have had what would be close to an entire spring ball scrimmage total number of reps by the time we get to the middle of next week. They’re getting between 30 and 40 a day. Take that by eight, 250ish, somewhere in that number of reps. In a spring, when you’re talking about scrimmage reps, there’s not any young guys, which would be your threes, that get 250 reps.” On Todd Bradford’s impact on OSU’s recruiting “Todd’s been fantastic. The best hire I ever made was Rob Glass. Now with the transition of the portal, open transfer, potentially NIL, whatever that is, the recruiting position that he holds might be the second-most important position on our staff, that’s just my opinion. He’s been fantastic. He’s a former coach that’s recruited on the road for 30 years, so he understands. And he can evaluate talent. He has his staff that he governs, controls them like he’s the head coach, and he does a great job.” On The Athletic saying OSU hits on as many “diamonds in the rough” as any program: “That’s true. I don’t know that anybody’s had as much success with the (Malcolm) Rodriguezes, the Brock Martins, guys like that that we have. Todd understands that and understands our philosophy of staying within a four-hour drive of Stillwater, is kind of where we want to be. It’s our decision we make. We’ve done it now for 15 years, and he gets it. We give him a plan, and he pushes forward.” On the players policing themselves “Started about two years ago. Well, longer than that, but we still used to have bed checks preseason and bowl season. I stopped it a couple years ago, and then this season I don’t have any bed checks. I just think they’re old enough now that if they want to play here, they take care of themselves. If they don’t, then that’s their business. It’s almost like coaching in the NFL. If you play hard, you get a job. If you don’t, we cut you.” On if he has had discussions about the recent spike in COVID-19 cases “We’re all trying to do the best we can to stay away from each other, as you can tell [points to a crowd of players waiting to take pictures]. I mentioned it to them, I tell my own kids. I don’t get around my own kids because that’s where I got it last time. Kids are … they don’t pay attention to these kinds of things. I’m concerned with what’s happening right now, I’ll be honest with you. Very selfishly, we hit a home run with getting through football because we all know that that needs to happen to keep people afloat financially. But I’m a little concerned with what’s going on right now with these numbers that you’re hearing about. I read yesterday 220,000 new cases in one day – that’s a lot. I’m trying to stay away from people. We’re talking to [the players] about it with our staff. There’s a certain percentage now that have already had a shot and already had a booster. We just do the best we can.” On if there is hesitation for letting them go home for the holiday because of COVID “Yes, but not really. I don’t get many calls from moms anymore. If I tell them that I’m not sending their kid home and then I get to go home, I have a hard time with that.” On Collin Oliver “I’m shocked that he was physically as ready as he was, to be in that box. It’s a tough man’s game down in there. Mentally, I’m even more surprised because he’s never flinched. He should be tired. He practices hard every day. His motor runs. I don’t know that we’ve ever had a freshman perform as well as he did this year. I know we’ve had different positions, but he’s in a different world down there, and he’s not slowed up at all. He’s been really good.” The post The Rundown: Mike Gundy Talks Bowl Prep, COVID Spikes appeared first on Pistols Firing. ![]() Read this original article at Pistols Firing Blog. |
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