‘He Makes a Lot of People Miss’: Brent Venables Gives Glowing Preview of Ollie Gordon Entering Bedlam

With his team coming off its first loss of the year, Brent Venables now has to prepare for the nation’s leading rusher.

Ollie Gordon might’ve came out of nowhere to some when he ran for 136 against Kansas State. Just like he might’ve surprised Kansas with his 168 rushing yards and 116 receiving yards. But the secret was definitely out before he put 282 rushing yards and four touchdowns on West Virginia in Morgantown. Then he romped one of the Big 12’s best run defenses to the tune of 271 rushing yards.

All that is to say, it’s obvious who is at the top of opposing teams’ scouting reports when they face Oklahoma State at this point.

“Ollie Gordon has just been fantastic,” Venables said. “He’s got power. He’s got speed. He’s patient. He’s got great quickness — lateral quickness. Man, he’s explosive. He can run right through you and can run right by you.”

Gordon leads the nation in rushing with 1,087 yards. He also ranks first in yards per carry among players with at least 100 carries. He is tied for ninth nationally with 10 rushing touchdowns.

His less traditional stats are also highly impressive.

Gordon forced 13 missed tackles against the Bearcats last week, according to PFF, which is the most any ball carrier forced in the country in Week 9. On the season, PFF has Gordon at 659 yards after contact — the most in the country. Gordon’s yards after contact alone would rank 42nd nationally in rushing.

“Ollie, he’s just so powerful,” Venables said. “He’s got a nice spin move and does a good job in pass protection. He mows down a lot of people in pass pro, as well. His patience for a big guy is something that’s a little different. He’s not just power. He’s got speed. In the hole, he can make you miss. He makes a lot of people miss. He breaks a lot of tackles, but he makes a lot of people miss — just excellent feet.”

The attention Gordon draws has also seemingly opened up more for the rest of OSU’s offense.

OSU averaged 221.8 pass yards a game in its first four games. Alan Bowman has averaged 267.5 yards a game in the Pokes’ past four. Some of that probably has to do with OSU abandoning its three-man quarterback rotation, but with Cincinnati loading the box to try to stop Gordon, Leon Johnson III went from redshirt candidate to a 149-yard performance thanks in large part to one-on-one coverage on the outside.

How Gordon is playing puts opposing schemes in an interesting spot. How many resources do you have to use to try to stop him? Is that too many to the point to where it opens things up elsewhere? These are all questions that Venables and the OU staff will need to find the answers to this week.

“They’re getting a lot of one-on-one coverage because of the necessity to try to stop Gordon, and everybody has had the whole team down there and hadn’t had a whole lot of luck,” Venables said. “Hence leading the country in rushing. They’ve played against people that are putting all the bodies there to stop him.

“… If we don’t tackle better than we did last week, Gordon’s gonna pull away from the pack when it comes to college football in rushing.”