Some 2018 New Year’s Resolutions for Oklahoma State Coaches and Players

It’s that time of year again. For us to lie to ourselves and pretend like we’ll be eating raw almonds and walnuts and drinking smoothies made only of kale and cashew butter during Christmas 2018 when we all know we’ll be banging egg nog and inhaling chex mix just like every other year.

But New Year’s resolutions (or goals) are fun. It gives us a momentary glimpse of our Best Self and allows us to dream about a future rife with flat stomachs and outrageous accomplishments.

What’s even more fun than making New Year’s resolutions for yourself, though, is making them for other people. My brother did this over Christmas. He handed out New Year’s resolutions to members of our family like they were candy canes. It was equal parts enlightening and infuriating (as you might suspect). I wanted to copy the exercise, though, for OSU players, coaches and administrators for 2018.

Here are some resolutions for your favorite Cowboys to keep (or not) over the next 12 months.

Mike Gundy: Blow out the recruiting budget

I don’t know what it is, but double it. Triple it. I don’t care. You can’t make it too high. Read this on Kirby Smart and come back and tell me OSU couldn’t be recruiting better. This is the black mark on the Gundy era (well this and the 2-11 record against OU). To become title contenders — true title contenders — Oklahoma State must get into the top 15 or 20 in recruiting. They’re so close to becoming a Tier 1 contender, and in a lot of ways they’ve achieved the more difficult task (implementing a long-term infrastructure), now they just need the dudes to run the machine.

Justice Hill: Hit 2K and get to NYC

Is it crazy to think that Justice Hill could be a Heisman (excuse me, Hei5man) contender in 2018? Maybe. But maybe not. Stanford’s Bryce Love was a finalist this season, and his numbers were impressive and better than Hill’s, but give No. 5 something to shoot for.

Love in 2017: 263 carries | 2,118 yards | 8.1 YPC | 19 TD
Hill in 2017: 268 carries | 1,467 yards | 5.5 YPC | 15 TD

There are three ways to become a Heisman finalist. Be the best player on the best team in the country (the Derrick Henry, if you will). Be the best quarterback in the country (by far) on a top five team (the Baker). Be an electrifying talent on a team that overachieves, primarily because of you. Justice’s path is the third one.

Can he raise his YPC by 2.5 with Big 12 teams keying in on him next year? We’ll see. If it gets crazy early, I wouldn’t be opposed to seeing Hill returning kicks and punts at some point in 2018 (it’s not like it could be any worse).

Mike Yurcich: Get Tyron the Rock

If — and it’s a Bryant Reeves-sized if — Spencer Sanders can figure it out at all, OSU can still be pretty good on offense next year. In 2012, Todd Monken led three different QBs (including a true freshman) to a top 11 offense. Something in that range for OSU would be pretty impressive and would mean a “down year” could turn into a 9-3 season.

Goal No. 1 for Yurcich (and whoever is playing QB) should be to find No. 13. Sanders should have a poster of Johnson above his bed and be throwing footballs at it every night. Feed that man. Clearly Yurcich knows how (and when) to get Dillon Stoner, Justice Hill and Jalen McCleskey the football, but OSU’s offensive success in 2018 could hinge on how much Tyron can blow up the field.

Mike Boynton: Land a Big Daddy™ class

Why is every important person at OSU named “Mike”? Boynton’s New Year’s resolution is to land a top 20 recruiting class. OSU is currently ranked behind Rice with Yor Anei and Duncan Demuth as their only commits, but that can change in a hurry in hoops. Boynton has shown (and I think will show) an ability to coach on-court basketball this year, but the real harbinger for his future (and all coaches’ futures) is the propensity to land talent.

A bet was made on Boynton last year, and a large portion of that bet hinged on him being able to land whales (legally). He told us last year that he’s obsessed with recruiting, and now he needs to make a splash in his first few years in Stillwater.

Mike Holder: Lay the foundation for Gundy’s toys

Another Mike! After Bedlam 2017, Gundy talked about the new toys he wanted. A jumbotron, a football-only academic center and so on. Holder has done a good job producing the rest of it. His last hurrah might be laying the foundation between boosters and Gundy’s program for the last few of these before Chad Weiberg takes over.

Spencer Sanders: Do less

Sanders is going to start at some point in 2018, if not the first game. The thing he has to realize to earn Gundy’s trust is that he doesn’t need to be heroic. He doesn’t need to throw three touchdowns on every pass. He doesn’t need to win the game on every drive. He simply needs to make wise choices, enjoy his weapons and stay mostly out of the way until he earns the trust of Mike & Mike like Rudolph finally did in, like, Game 31 of his career.

Jeffrey Carroll: Keep shooting 3s

Carroll is taking nearly 6 threes a game this year and making just 31 percent of them. That’s not good. But unlike other guards at OSU who have worn a number in the 30s, Carroll is actually a good 3-point shooter. He made 33 percent as a sophomore and 44 percent as a junior. His without-Jawun reality is probably somewhere in the middle of that, which means he needs to keep pulling from deep. They’ll fall eventually. I hope.

Mike Gundy (Part 2): Hire a legit special teams coach

Starting next Tuesday, January 9, NCAA teams can hire a 10th assistant. If that coach is not either 1. A special teams-only coach or 2. An elite recruiter then OSU has failed.

Glenn Spencer: Go back to Bill Young tape

Remember when everyone wanted Bill Young fired? Now do you remember when every single one of his defenses has been better than Spencer’s last four? From reading backwards on him, it seems like Young kept things simpler than Spencer does. The irony there is that OSU probably has better athletes now than it did in 2009 and 2010. Whatever the case, Spencer (if he’s retained) needs to change something and figure out how to get that defensive PPD under 2.0 for OSU to win championships.

Note on this chart: It doesn’t include the Virginia Tech game, but VT scored 21 points on 11 drives so that likely won’t change things too much.