‘It Comes Down to Mental Approach’: What It’s Going to Take for OSU to Get Its Run Game Going

STILLWATER — Ollie Gordon had five rushing touchdowns against BYU last season, but through six games in 2024 the reigning Doak Walker winner has just four.

Gordon was a man on a mission during that rainy game against the Cougars last season, running for 166 yards on a season-high 34 carries to put his team into the Big 12 title game. Somewhere between then and now, OSU has lost its mojo when it comes to rushing the football.

The Cowboys rank 124th nationally (out of 133) in rushing offense this season, averaging just 91.2 yards a game. The only Power Four teams behind OSU in that stat are Colorado, UCLA and Florida State. Gordon, meanwhile, is the Big 12’s 10th-leading rusher a season removed from leading the nation in rushing. It’s all rather peculiar.

“We as an offensive line gotta block better, for sure,” said starting left tackle Dalton Cooper. “Our double teams, we’re not moving people off the ball like we should. I’ll be honest, West Virginia, I played not a very good game — not good at all. Just getting our double teams going, not coming off too fast on linebackers, letting them sit and let the backs see the holes because we’re just kinda mushing it and it’s a two-yard gain. If we just get our double teams going, fire off the ball, have good pad level and low-hat reads, we’ll be good.”

In that game against West Virginia that Cooper mentioned, the Cowboys mustered just 36 rushing yards to the Mountaineers’ 389. Gordon finished with 50 rushing yards (OSU got dinged because of two sacks). To this point in the season, Gordon hasn’t had a 100-yard game against an FBS opponent, as the only time he’s eclipsed the century mark came against FCS squad South Dakota State. In five games against FBS opponents, Gordon has ran 73 times for 258 yards (3.5 yards a carry) and one touchdown.

A well-timed bye week last season played a part in helping the Cowboys turn around a 2-2 start. The Cowboys fell to Iowa State 34-27 last season in a game where glimmers of something started to shine through for OSU. Then they had an open week before hosting Kansas State, a game that started a five-game winning streak for OSU. In that five-game stretch, Gordon ran for 995 yards and 10 touchdowns.

Cooper said this open week has also felt productive.

“I feel like we just went  to work,” Cooper said. “Every day it was just get taped, walk out here, watch a little bit of film and just come out here and just get to work. No one’s looking down. No one’s pointing fingers or anything. It’s just like, ‘Alright, let’s get to work.’ Enthusiasm, energy has been here. It’s been the same. We just haven’t had the ball kick our way. We just gotta keep chugging along and we’ll be good.”

In sounds as if Cooper and the Cowboy O-line theoretically know what needs to be down to get OSU’s rushing game going, but now it’s about turning that theory into reality.

“It comes down to mental approach,” Cooper said. “We know what we can do, we just have to do it. I felt like last year, like Ollie just played out of his mind, so we were kinda like, ‘Oh, he’s gonna do that again.’ But we were kinda helping him a little bit. We just have to get back to how we were. Like, fire off the ball, let him make one cut, make another guy miss and just haul ass down the field.”