Mike Gundy Heaps Praise on Knowles, Yurcich for Game-Winning Adjustments against WVU

Mike Gundy hasn’t pulled many punches when assessing his staff after games this year. Some of his postgame comments have gone right up to the edge of calling out either of this coordinators, especially first-year DC Jim Knowles.

When the Cowboys coughed one up in Waco and suffered a 35-31 to a Bears team it out-played and out-possessed before finally succumbing to its own penalties and bad decisions, he didn’t mince words.

“We have to do a better job of coaching it,” Gundy said.  “The general rule is:  The players will show you how well you’re coaching them and what you’re working on on Saturdays, so that’s what I take out of this.”

It’s a familiar mantra that has unfortunately become commonplace during this up-and-down 6-5 season.

But after the Cowboys’ second top 10 win, a game that represented its second-biggest comeback of all time and a 4-1 turnover deficit overcome, Gundy was quick to give credit where he saw credit due.

“I thought our coaches made tremendous adjustments at halftime, maybe as good as I’ve been around in a long, long time,” Gundy said.

“I’ve always said — I’ll be honest with you about whether we get out-coached, out-played, gave it away or whatever, but our coaches made tremendous adjustments at halftime — gave our players a chance. They bought in.”

After averaging just 1.6 points per drive in the first half, Oklahoma State’s offense scored 5.2 points per drive in the final two frames (minus the muffed punt possession that wasn’t really a possession at all) including three straight TD drives to end the game.

According to Gundy, the key (other than slowing down that first-half turnover machine) was simplifying things based on West Virginia DC Tony Gibson showing some “mixed coverages.”

“We went to four wide (receivers),” said Gundy. “We got rid of what we were doing, revamped it, went to four wides, ran six or seven base plays and then we’ll roll with it and play fast.”

Mike Yurcich’s changes put the ball in the hands of his playmakers on the outside and opened things up for Chuba Hubbard to have another big outing.

In the first half, Chuba gained just 45 yards on a 3.5 per-carry average. In the second, he exploded for 86 yards, averaging 5.7. Four of his five catches, including his lone score, also occurred after intermission. OSU also played quickly in the second frame. Of its 89 total plays on offense, 51 came after halftime.

“Mike has the ability to call ’em fast because that’s part of our system, and it’s not easy to do,” added Gundy. “I’ve lived in that world. Trying to call plays fast and if you call them too fast, you get the wrong plays. You only get four downs to get 10 yards. There’s a lot of pressure on him as a play caller to call plays fast but make sure they’re the ones that give you a chance to work. Mike did a great job.”

“They spread us out, we had too many guys blow some and miss tackles,” said Gibson. “It was an ugly second half. I thought the first half we came in and played well, created turnovers and created momentum a little bit.”

After getting torched a bit in the first two quarters, Knowles’ defense had one of its best second halves all year. The Mountaineers amassed 329 yards and 6.2 yards per play in the first half, but were held scoreless gaining just 71 on 5.1 yards per play in the third quarter.

“Some of the adjustments to their motions and things they were doing with their backs out of the backfield,” said Knowles, “we had made some mistakes in the first half in them and they were costly. They challenged us and did some things that we didn’t do a good job against in the first half. So we had to draw some things up and fix it.”

The Cowboys owned the possession battle in the that third, game-swinging period, holding the ball for 9:15 of 15 minutes. A big reason for that was its ability to limit what, up until halftime, had been a stout rushing offense.

After WVU chewed through 162 yards of Lewis Field turf on the ground, to the tune of 6 yards per carry in quarters 1 and 2, the Cowboys made a prolific offense one-dimensional. The Mountaineers averaged just 1.7 yards on the ground in the second half.

“Defensively, [we] made some adjustments a little bit in the running game at halftime, we were able to squeeze the run better, force them into some throws,” said Gundy. “They made some throws but we were in coverage, they made good throws, made good catches. Our guys were right there. I’m ok with that.”

Things haven’t always been rosy during Knowles’ baptism by fire in the Big 12. Some prognostications (like mine) that said this aggressive new scheme might take the league by storm were, if nothing else, unfounded.

But it’s important to at least remember that this is Year 1 for Knowles and he inherited a very young secondary, not to mention the fact that Bill Belichick’s defense would probably get torched against Texas Tech and OU. Add in his aggressive style and it’s no wonder the Cowboys rank in the 100s in opponent long plays given up.

But the ability to make those adjustments and relay them effectively to your players is probably at least as important as your scheming to start with, if not more. And it’s a good sign moving forward.

“They were great,” Knowles said of his players. “We are doing everything we can to train them to compete every play, one play at a time, for the whole entire game and you saw that tonight. They didn’t go down ever. Second half came out, we made some adjustments and we fought. We just kept fighting.”

We know what OSU has in Mike Yurcich, a good offensive coordinator (despite how the below comment section will read) who consistently has the Cowboys among the best in the nation.

But the jury’s still out on Knowles’ viability in Stillwater or the Big 12. His group has taken its lumps, been good for stretches, but (most recently) dug in against a top 10 offense long enough for OSU’s offense to secure an upset win. Gundy even ceded control on the game’s final play and let, as he would say, his coaches coach.

“Jim made good calls late,” said Gundy. “On the last play, they were going to play zone, and he said, ‘Forget it let’s blitz ’em.’ I didn’t want to say anything, but that’s under my breath what I wanted to do. That quarterback is too savvy. If he stands around back there, I worried. He made a great call and came after him and pressured him and pushed him out of the pocket.”

It delivered the game-winning deflection and provided some hope for the future that what we saw Saturday night is the start of something better than what we’ve seen and not just an aberration.