Three Things We Learned From the Tulsa Game

Oklahoma State is 1-0 after taking care of a retooling Tulsa squad. What a blowout win at home against the Golden Hurricane actually proves remains to be seen but we definitely learned some things about this year’s Cowboy squad.

Mike Gundy isn’t afraid to show his hand

Heading into Thursday night my biggest question was whether or not OSU would start fast and try to bury a lesser team. Tulsa won 10 games last year and blew out Central Michigan in its bowl game, but Philip Montgomery is breaking in a new quarterback and still finding out which receivers he can trust. Would we see a rusty or timid Oklahoma State? Was Gundy going to “go vanilla” and save his good stuff for Pitt?

No, the Cowboys came out just as you’d expect the No. 10 team in the country to and fared better than most of their top-10 counterparts. Teams likes Ohio State, Washington, USC and Wisconsin had to knock off the rust but OSU came out of the tunnel humming like a well-oiled machine. And it didn’t go full vanilla either. Gundy didn’t hand out laminated sheets from the playbook but he wasn’t ashamed to show what he has. He basically said, “We’re really good. We’re going to run you over (and past) you and there’s nothing you can do about it.” That’s the sentiment I wanted to see from Oklahoma State and its coaches and I was pleasantly surprised.

OSU has some dudes… at tailback

We knew the receivers were great. We knew Tyron Johnson’s first target would be a 44-yard score. Well, pretty much. But we did not know anything about OSU’s running backs not named Justice Hill. True freshman J.D. King carried the ball six times and gained 95 yards. Redshirt freshman LD Brown got 92 in five tries. Each had a score.

During Mike Gundy’s tenure, a freshman has rushed for 100 yards just 14 times. Five of those were last season by Justice Hill and each of his came as the starter. King and Brown were each one play away from that happening twice during the season opener, both in a reserve role. Each broke loose for runs of 71 and 73 yards, respectively.

Each backup also showed out with his own unique skill set. King, the bulldozer who can run over Division I athletes at just 18 years old. And Brown, whose break-neck speed and wiggle can be deadly in space. We’ve yet to see world-class speedster Chuba Hubbard who gave us our latest classic Gundy moment and Ja’Ron Wilson who is the biggest back of the group and has shown potential in practice.

Mike Gundy summed it up pretty well.

“(Running back is) going to be a special position for us over the next three or four years.”

This defense has real speed

Heading into fall camp we knew that the Cowboys had some athletes. Thursday night taught us just how fast OSU is on defense. The middle of the field resembled a kamikaze run from Oklahoma State’s head hunters. Tre Flowers was all over the place. The same with linebackers Kevin Henry, Kenneth Edison-McGruder and Justin Phillips. Ramon Richards looked as comfortable as he’s been since taking snaps for Brackenridge High School.

All in all, Oklahoma State recorded 85 total tackles to Tulsa’s 60. But the eye test told the real story. The Cowboys have some dudes that are fast and like contact. Is this defense perfect? No. It gave up five of six third-and-longs to end the game. But it might be perfect for the Big 12. Here’s what we know after Week 1 (combined with how it finished last year). It’s opportunistic. It’s good at guarding the red zone and it’s good at limiting points.