Sean Gleeson and Charlie Dickey Bringing Toughness to OSU’s Offense

At Big 12 Media Days, Mike Gundy admitted that his football team wasn’t very tough last year. In fact, discipline and toughness were two buzz words echoed by Gundy throughout media day activities and then again by his staff during Monday’s media golf outing.

The Cowboys showed a lack of mental toughness, for sure, but coaches like first-year offensive coordinator Sean Gleeson see a need to ramp up the physicality on the field as well — two things which really tie into each other.

“The three things that our guys are going to be nauseous hearing from me every single day is that we want to be fast, physical and hungry,” said Gleeson. “I think you’ll see that as it relates to the no-huddle, in the way that we compete.

“There’s going to be some physicality — some East Coast physicality — to what we’re doing. The motivational stuff — having hunger — is really important to me in this game.”

With all the speed and finesse that OSU’s best offenses were known for, it’s easy to forget just how tough some of those O-lines were under Joe Wickline. OSU needs to get back to that type of approach in its front and it appears (hopefully) that it may have the guy for the job in Charlie Dickey.

The longtime Kansas State offensive line coach is known for churning out hard-nosed, physical O-lines. And his approach will be something he said he learned from Bill Snyder.

“There’s a lot of similarities between these two programs and maybe the personalities are different, but the first day I got here, the first day, our first staff meeting, Coach Gundy talked about us being a more tougher, more physical, more disciplined football team,” said Dickey.

“That’s all Coach Snyder ever talked about. Those are the things he would talk about — being the toughest, most disciplined team out there. It was like hearing the same thing. That’s what we’re stressing, and that’s what we want to be. That’s what we’re trying to be this year at Oklahoma State.”

“I just want us to get better every day,” continued Dickey. “My goal is for us to be tougher and to be more physical and to be more disciplined and really focus on those attributes. I know if we do, that will carry over to us being successful on the field.”

Gleeson was asked a similar question about shoring up deficiencies in the trenches and he was confident in Dickey and the group.

“Well they’re in Charlie Dickey’s hands so we’re gonna be in good shape,”said Gleeson. “Some of the motivation that I have for this whole year for guys in that group like Marcus Keyes, for instance, and Johnny Wilson. They’ve been around here for a long time.

“People wanna talk about a two-year plan, a three-year plan. I’ve got like a 30-second plan. The reason for that is that I want to make sure that those guys get my best cause they deserve it. I think that beyond us kind of rallying around that group, Marcus and Johnny, and putting our best foot forward for those guys, I think there’s a tremendous amount of growth so far in that group and I would expect under Charlie’s tutelage them to do a wonderful job.”

The confidence is mutual between Dickey, the veteran of 32 FBS seasons, and his young OC who is entering his first.

“It’s been great with Sean,” said Dickey. “Sean, he’s got a vision. He knows what he wants, and he’s very passionate. He’s very intense, very detailed. He knows exactly where he wants this offense to go. I’m really excited. I’m really excited to get a chance to work with him, and the whole offensive staff has been awesome.”