Daily Bullets (Sept. 24): Knowles Pummeled in Round 1, No QB Protection

Good morning! Happy Ryder Cup week beat Kansas week. There is much to discuss as it relates to Oklahoma State football, and we will get to it all throughout the week. First, some headlines.

Round 1 to the Big 12

Jim Knowled got pummeled in the first round of his battled with the Big 12.

OSU coach Mike Gundy hired Knowles away from Duke to avoid results like Saturday’s, while Knowles embraced the challenge of college football’s best offensive league. His predecessor, Glenn Spencer, often fittingly described Big 12 games as “four hours of gut-wrenching hell.” Saturday’s loss mercifully lasted only 3 1/2 hours. [NewsOK]

In the same way head coaches should get seasons to prove themselves, coordinators should get several games. Knowles has had two nothings, a great performance against Boise and a bad one against Tech. I think OSU will be fine, but with their current offensive issues they might need to be more than that.

No Protection

Gundy keeps talking about not being able to rush the football, but the real issue thus far is pass protection.

Through four games, OSU has allowed 11 sacks and 31 tackles for loss — numbers that both rank outside the top 100 in FBS. The sacks are bad enough. Oklahoma State is on pace to allow 36 in a 13-game season (including a bowl), its most since 2014. [Tulsa World]

I think this is where Gundy kind of gets a pass on Corndog. You could put Aaron Rodgers back there, but he would be terrible if the offensive line was terrible. We can argue about Dru Brown and Spencer Sanders until Gundy’s cows come home, but not much will change unless the big fellas up front get right.

OSU and NCAA Notes

Good look at OSU’s third down issues from Mark Cooper … Love this Berry Tramel interview of Viktor Hovland … Tramel has OSU No. 5 in his Big 12 power rankings … Rudolph says he’s the Steelers’ QB of the future … I’m probably jaded, but coaches in waiting never seem like a good idea …

Yes it was.

There are 1000 things that went wrong for OSU on Saturday, but this play was pretty impossible to stop. DIME. https://t.co/ddxKdikMt6

— Adam Lunt (@AdamLunt817) September 24, 2018

A bright spot!

? https://t.co/chmWRdmYfp

— AJ Green (@AjGofor6) September 23, 2018

This was great (and also quite sad).

https://www.instagram.com/p/BoCPJBwDadk

What You Missed on PFB

• We did our weekend roundup once again.

More Stuff I’m Reading (and writing)

• Today is the best day (concur)
• I wrote a thing about Tiger Woods and hope