Wendell Gregory Will Have Options After the Season, but All His Focus Remains on OSU’s Final Three Games

STILLWATER — With the bye week behind the Cowboys, only three games separate them from the end of an incredibly long season.

For fans, that end heralds the beginning of a new era. For players with eligibility remaining, especially those with a desirable skill set such as edge rusher Wendell Gregory, they will likely find themselves littered with choices of where to begin their next era.

“The season is not over with, (I’m) just keeping the main thing, the main thing,” Gregory said when asked how he plans to navigate what could be a busy December recruiting period. “In my playbook, with these guys every day. I’m not really worried about after the season. That will come whenever it comes, but right now I’m worried about the season, I’m worried about Kansas State Saturday.”

Last week, Gregory was named as one of 14 semifinalists for the Shaun Alexander Freshman of the Year Award. Fans probably didn’t need it, but that honor should serve as a clear reminder that Gregory will be a hot commodity once the transfer portal opens for business.

The timing of when the team announces a new football coach could prove critical if the Cowboys hope to have a chance at retaining Gregory and others.

“I’m going balls to the wall these last three games,” Gregory said. “As everybody saw, I got Shaun Alexander semifinalist, to be one of those guys, so these last three mean a lot. I got a lot of things I want to accomplish, and that is for sure one.”

Gregory has often looked the part on the tape, but his production doesn’t always show up in the box score. He’s fourth on the defense with a Pro Football Focus grade of 72.3, and all three Cowboys ahead of him have played less than half the snaps.

Gregory put himself on the map early with a three-sack performance in the season-opening win over UT-Martin. He hasn’t gotten home to a quarterback since, though he does lead the Cowboys in total pressures (sacks, hits and hurries) with 27 this season. Jaleel Johnson sits in second place with 12, while Malik Charles sits in third with 10.

You start getting chipped, and you start getting tight ends chipping out, backs chipping out on you, things like that, and you’re getting double-teamed a lot, and then you get frustrated,” interim Doug Meacham said when asked about Gregory. “Then you run into a little bit of a wall there. You’re taking on two guys primarily. Then there’s the thought of moving him around on the least pass protective-type guy. You can take away an edge rusher in today’s game with the chipping and the double-teaming with the tight ends, and the backs. … If you’ve got one D-end that’s a dominant rusher, you can kinda eliminate those guys a little bit, or slow them down. I think that’s what’s happened to him a little bit.”

This week’s challenge could be even harder. Kansas State quarterback Avery Johnson ranks 43rd in the nation with 162 rushing yards on scramble plays. Johnson averages 8.5 yards per scramble, which makes him more effective than 28 of those 42 quarterbacks with more scrambling yards.

“Contain rushes, landmark rushes, not running past the quarterback on third downs, staying mobile,” Gregory said of best practices against a guy like Johnson. “He can obviously move around, scramble.”

Gregory said avoiding getting too far upfield, which allows mobile quarterbacks to break contain with their legs, is more of a mental challenge than a physical one.

Just another chance for the edge rusher to prove how much he’s mastered this season, though one of the biggest things Gregory will take away from this fall is what he learned about himself.

“I learned that I can defeat adversity,” Gregory said. “I mean, nothing is worse than losing games, obviously.  … Our record isn’t what we want it to be, but as we keep going I just, I feel like I’m bought in. Some people might be checked out mentally, but I am checked in until we play Iowa State on Nov. 29.”