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Daily Bullets

Daily Bullets (August 1): Jim Knowles’ Immediate Fix

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7 years ago

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August is here and OSU, among others, will play in a college football game this month. Gosh, that’s fun to think about.

Bullets Rundown

• Jim Knowles’ immediate fix
• Tyron Johnson making an impression
• Will Gleeson lean on Jelani?

OSU Bullets

• The defense is the question mark it’s reasonable to keep coming back to – and Jim Knowles has a strong feeling there’s something he can change to improve its performance. 

One of the major causes for concern last season was all the penalties the defense accrued. I know that this is a team stat, but the Pokes ranked 96 in the country as they averaged 6.8 penalties per game last season and 97 in the country with 97 total penalties.

“We need to do a better job of knowing exactly what to do,” said coach Knowles. “There were mistakes made that I need to own, certainly, and that we need to get better at. We need to do a better job of pushing our players to play the game more disciplined. Too many penalties, you know the jumping offsides, the facemasks, you know some of the targeting fouls and things that happened, those are all in our control. We can control that. So, we can become a better team just by fixing that before we even get into talking about personnel or scheme or anything. [TulsaWorld]

I would have to think that playing aggressively tends to lead to more penalties – jumping offsides, facemasking, etc. You’d have to think Knowles is counting on players being able to do that under control a bit more after a year in the system… we all hope he’s right.

• Tyron Johnson is making a solid impression on the Houston Texans’ head coach in training camp.

“Good speed, hard worker, out here every day,” coach Bill O’Brien said of the 6-1 wideout Monday at Methodist Training Center. “You can see why he was a productive guy at State.”

What has helped Johnson adjust to the speed of the NFL, at least what he has been exposed to thus far, is his ability to stay on the practice field. [TexansWire]

• One angle that I’m curious about with Sean Gleeson’s playcalling is how much he leans on an undervalued asset in the Cowboy offense – cowboy back Jelani Woods.

It has been proven through the years that Oklahoma State on offense has more production and success overall when they get more production out of the cowboy backs. The team wins more games when the cowboys backs have solid production.

The hope is that Woods at a very atheltic 6-7 and 265 pounds can punish some defenders in mismatches that are helped by the running game and the slanted coverage on Tylan Wallace. [GoPokes]

The Cowboys have made habit (or so it seems) of really bringing out the Cowboy Back late in the season for some big plays – it’d be interesting to see it being a focal point.

It could be more of a question with the quarterback and his rapport with the position more than the playcalling too.

• Great article on James Washington in the Washington Post as he goes into his second year and adjusts to the NFL

• I love this innovation – you can buy tickets but they’re not guaranteed to be in the same seats.

Now – I like knowing the folks I sit around but it’s a fun experience to see other angles.

• The development of Yor Anei and the emergence of Isaac Likekele were the gems of Boynton’s first true recruiting class – both look to be solid Big 12 players.

Non-OSU Bullets

• NFL veteran talks about what’s required to make it as a late-round draft pick

• Fascinating look at the future of streaming/cable viewing in sports and how the model is currently setup (and changing)

• Liked these tips for cutting your “digital dependency”

Bit of a first-world problem but an actor reflecting on losing their anonymity is interesting.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPDPNPiLXuw&w=727&h=409]

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