‘He’s Doing Fine’: Gundy Discusses Defensive Coordinator Bryan Nardo

STILLWATER — Bryan Nardo’s defense has been drawing the ire of many Cowboy fans in recent weeks.

The Oklahoma State defense’s performance against Baylor this past Saturday was the most recent example. Baylor went into the game averaging 152.1 rushing yards a game. The Bears ran for 343 against the Pokes at nine yards a carry. Gundy on Monday started by discussing the Cowboys’ poor tackling, and when he was asked about Nardo, he pointed to the myriad injuries the Cowboys have suffered on the defensive side of the ball this season. They lost Collin Oliver during the Arkansas game on Sept. 7 then lost Nick Martin against Kansas State on Sept. 28.

“Here’s my job, I also have to look at what’s going on,” Gundy said. “Guys, you gotta call it like it is. When Collin Oliver went down and Nick Martin went down, that made it extremely difficult for us to look like we were last year in the last six games of the year. Now, Obi (Ezeigbo) has come in and been awesome. But Collin Oliver was special when it came to getting to the quarterback. Nick Martin had 150 tackles last year, and Jeff Roberson is playing his butt off. Like, you guys watched him. Did you see him running, making plays? It’s awesome. He’s still doing some things that doesn’t put him at the level of Nick Martin yet, which we cannot expect. So that’s me just telling you the facts of the way it is.

“(Nardo is) doing fine, and I have to evaluate all things, not just look at results. I have to look at why the results are the way they are, then make a decision.”

Nardo is in his second season with the Cowboys after making the jump up from Division-II Gannon. In his first year in Stillwater, the Cowboys were 10th in the Big 12 in scoring defense (including the Big 12 title game), giving up 28.6 points a game. The Cowboys ranked 14th (last) in the conference in total defense, giving up 441.8 yards a game. This season, the Cowboys rank 15th in the Big 12 in scoring defense and 16th in total defense.

Unfortunately for the Cowboys, the performance against Baylor has become commonplace over recent weeks. In five Big 12 games this season, teams have rushed for 1,536 yards on Oklahoma State at 6.8 yards a carry. OSU hasn’t held a single Big 12 team under 249 rushing yards.

Gundy opened his Monday news conference by saying the Cowboys missed 21 tackles against the Bears, which led to 258 extra yards for Baylor. He said another 78 yards were credited to scrambles from Baylor quarterback Sawyer Robertson inside the B gaps. Gundy went as far as to say his team didn’t play hard on defense, something he hopes to address entering Saturday’s homecoming game against Arizona State.

“Our scheme concepts in (the Baylor) game were just fine,” Gundy said. “We weren’t out of place. We were in place. We didn’t get them down. They hit us on a wheel route. They outran a backer on a wheel route. That happens, but we’d like for that not to happen. But the scheme concepts, where we were, we had several time blitzes that were good that got him down, pushed him out of the pocket. All that was fine.”