Daily Bullets (Mar. 25): Gundy’s Secret Sauce, Justice to the Big Apple?

I’m still reeling from that Duke-UCF game yesterday – Zion to the rack for an and-one down by the three with seconds to go was all-time.  

Bullets Rundown

• Gundy’s secret sauce
• Justice to the Big Apple
• Dickey’s defining quality

Scores

• BB: Cowboys 8, K-State 4
• SB: Cowgirls 9, Baylor 1
• WT: Cowgirls 6, West Virginia 1

OSU Bullets

• This analysis on both Cowboy Football’s success and their outlook for 2019 were incredibly encouraging.

The Cowboys have stayed near the top of the Big 12 under Gundy because they’ve continued to evolve from year to year to find new tactics and practices to give them advantages in a league where they don’t have many in the recruiting sphere.

They’ve been quietly positioning their team over the last two years to evolve from the two-back run game and play-action attack with Mason Rudolph to a TE-inclusive scheme that can create more horizontal stress before running downhill and then still mixing in screens and play-action bombs to receivers down the field.  [Football Study Hall]

1. It’s hard to disagree with that first point. You can point at culture but that’s nothing if you’re five years behind all the trends. I’ll settle for the old “Pickens, Gundy, and Holder are all to blame for OSU’s football success” argument – it’s both culture and tactical mastery that differentiate the Pokes.
2. Gundy and Co. started by adding the Cowboy Back to capitalize on the caliber of talent (Blake Jarwin, Zac Veatch, and Co.) and are now leaning into it with the development of Jelani Woods and the signing of Grayson Boomer.

An earlier comment pointed to Gundy’s capability to find new voices – Jim Knowles from Duke, Mike Yurcich from Shippensberg, Jason McEndoo from Montana, and now Sean Gleeson from Princeton. This surely has been material in the Pokes being ahead of the curve.

• Pure fan speculation here but I liked this spot for Justice Hill – the New York Jets.

Despite his smaller frame, he has enough strength to bounce off defenders as well as protect his quarterback. He has the ceiling of an every down back, but a team may want to pair Justice Hill with a proven veteran before he can fully take over the lion’s share of the carries. The Jets have a need at the position, Eli McGuire is not a long-term solution, so to see Hill in Green & White next year, he would be a nice complement to Le’Veon Bell. [JetNation]

Getting to learn from Le’Veon Bell would be a premium for a rookie but getting to attack defenses after he’s pummeled them for an afternoon would make for a nice fit as well.

• Mike Gundy wanted two things from his new offensive line coach and he was able to confirm from Charlie Dickey’s old offensive coordinator that wouldn’t be a problem.

In addition to a coach who would build strong relationships with his players, Gundy wanted physicality and toughness.

Dimel asked what Gundy had thought about the toughness of K-State offensive lines over the last decade.

“That pretty much ended the conversation right there,” Dimel said with a laugh.

“Charlie will bring that to the table, and give Mike what he wants there.” [NewsOK]

I wouldn’t say that this was a point of contention with Josh Henson but it was a quality that marked Joe Wickline’s units – just plain nastiness. I’ve heard talking head and Cowboy alum Sam Mayes speak to this and it appears he wasn’t far off.

• This nugget from Seth helps explain the infamous one-point snub for the Daton Fix-headgear grab from the weekend.

These refs don’t like when a coach tries to point out that they were wrong and don’t want to admit it. That’s a systematic problem. There should be review officials that are not involved in the match that review these calls and challenges. Especially in big matches like the NCAA finals. [PFB]

I know as much about wrestling as my 19-month-old does but this is getting the short end of the stick.

I'm pretty confident @CowboyWrestling subtly and purposely trolled everyone with their highlight video that had the headgear pull lined up next to John Smith staring directly into the camera. #okstate pic.twitter.com/cmGWwl1p0i

— Seth Duckworth (@Seth_Duckworth) March 24, 2019

•  I think this statistic could be the biggest reason to believe Spencer Sanders will be successful this year.

Oklahoma State's Tylan Wallace led all FBS wide receivers with 23 contested catches this season. https://t.co/bimOLyH176

— PFF Draft (@PFF_College) March 25, 2019

• Tramel had me ready to google Charles Chips and find the thickest shake in Tulsa after this travel blog.

Non-OSU Bullets

• AoM talking establishing family patterns was really good – it’s so easy to drift toward convenience, I appreciated the thoughts.

• Building out a faith-based view of #blessed

• Godin on taking perspective with obstacles was good.

Couldn’t agree more with some of SVP’s comments here – this book gives a lot of context on where he goes with some remarks (prepare the child for the path, not the path for the child).

"Stop being offended by things that don't concern you."@notthefakeSVP shared his thoughts on the conversation around Tom Izzo yelling at one of his players. pic.twitter.com/OavnFa3zKB

— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) March 24, 2019