Gordon Earns Second Straight Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week Honor

STILLWATER — At some point in the early part of this season, Mike Gundy said Ollie Gordon came to the coaches and essentially called his shot.

Gordon earned Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week honors for the second consecutive week after his spectacular performance in Oklahoma State’s 48-34 win in Morgantown. Gordon rushed for 282 yards and four touchdowns on 29 carries against West Virginia. That comes after he totaled just 19 carries in the Cowboys’ nonconference schedule.

Gundy shared a story at his media luncheon Monday of Gordon respectfully asking to be fed.

“Early in the season when he wasn’t getting as many carries and we weren’t very successful rushing the ball, he didn’t go the other direction,” Gundy said. “He didn’t pout. He didn’t come in. He didn’t complain.

“He just came to us and said, ‘Look, if y’all will give me the ball, we’ll do a lot better running the ball.’ And he didn’t even mean that disrespectful to Jaden (Nixon) and Elijah (Collins). He just said, ‘If you’ll give me the ball, I’ll kind of put it on my back.'”

Put it on his back, Gordon has.

Gordon leads the Big 12 with 707 rushing yards and six rushing touchdowns in conference games. His yardage total is 155 yards ahead of Texas’ Jonathan Brooks in second place.

According to Pro Football Focus, Gordon ran for 194 yards after contact against the Mountaineers. He has ran for 538 yards after contact this season, according to PFF, which ranks fourth nationally, and Gordon’s 4.6 yards after contact per attempt ranks second nationally among players with at least 100 carries behind Bowling Green’s Terion Stewart.

Gordon ranks 11th nationally in runs of 10+ yards with 23, ranking second in the Big 12 in the stat behind TCU’s Emani Bailey. Bailey has had 30 more rushing attempts than Gordon this season.

OSU’s superstar tailback will have perhaps his biggest test of the season this upcoming weekend with Cincinnati coming to town. Despite the Bearcats’ 2-5 record, Cincy is second in the conference in rush defense, allowing just 100.7 rushing yards a game and 3.2 yards a carry.

“His durability has been impressive,” Gundy said. “In the last few games, he’s become a little bit elusive, which I don’t think any of us thought that was a part of his package. We thought he was more of the Keith Toston, pound, bounce off guys, move forward. His vision in this last game to make cuts prior to when it needed to happen was really good. So I think he’s starting to develop.”

Gordon becomes the the first player to win the Big 12’s Offensive Player of the Week award in back-to-back weekends this season. He joins Oklahoma quarterback Dillon Gabriel as the only two-time recipient of the award this year.

Big 12 Weekly Awards Oct. 23

Offense: Ollie Gordon II, OSU, RB, So.
Defense: Eddie Heckard, BYU, CB, Sr.
Newcomer: Nic Anderson, OU, WR, Fr.
Special Teams: Isaiah Hankins, BU, K, So.