Why This August Will Be a Busy One for Cowboy Football

FRISCO, Texas — Good luck to anyone trying to predict Oklahoma State’s two-deep this time of year because even the Cowboys’ head coach isn’t exactly sure who the main contributors will be this fall.

“Whenever I used to go on vacation in July, I had a really good idea of who our two-deep was going to be,” Mike Gundy said at Big 12 Media Days. “In most cases, who the quarterback was going to be. I’m going to try to go on vacation in a week or so, and I’m not sure that I know who will be the starters in eight of the 22 spots.”

Of course, there are legitimate reasons for Gundy to have more question marks than ever before. When OSU opens fall camp, that same roster will include 35 players who weren’t there in the spring.

“And 18 of those are portal transfers that need to be playing in the first game or we shouldn’t have took them,” Gundy said.

Add in an ongoing two-man quarterback battle that the Cowboy’s head coach already believes could spill over into the first game, and you have perhaps the busiest August of the Gundy era.

“Coaches understand that it’s going to have to happen faster in August this year than it ever has before, so we can get established, create some identity,” Gundy said. “Hopefully, develop some team chemistry, and get ready to play in the first game.”

That means changing the way the Cowboys practice.

“We have to put them in more of a game situation to see what we can get out of them earlier than what we would in a traditional year,” Gundy said.

Although the new coaches have their work cut out for them this fall, Gundy said it’s not all negative. 

“The players understand it’s in a competitive world now,” he said. “So money’s involved. Players are getting paid. Players that produce and get results, in whatever it is that we’re looking for, are going to get paid more next year. So there’s a competitive nature that’s maybe not been there as much in the past because money motivates people.”