According to Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy, the challenge for Saturday’s game at Tulsa isn’t necessarily what schemes the Golden Hurricane might concoct on offense or defense.
It’s how his 13th-ranked team can bounce back after needing double overtime last week to record a 39-31 win over Arkansas.
“College football is a one-game season,” Gundy said. “It started (Sunday) and then Tulsa ends Saturday after the game. You have to recondition physically and mentally. You have to hydrate, eat food, sleep, study. You have to do the same things to maximize yourself each week.
“If you’re not mature enough to understand that, then you’re going to struggle.”
Gundy is hopeful his team’s sixth- and seventh-year seniors have the maturity to not look past an instate rival that would love nothing more than to hand it a stinging loss prior to next week’s Big 12 Conference opener with Utah.
One thing the Cowboys (2-0) want to improve is a running game that was supposed to be a strength but has instead failed to produce as much as some felt it would. Ollie Gordon II, considered a Heisman Trophy candidate prior to the season, managed only 49 yards on 17 carries last week, although he did score the winning touchdown on a 12-yard run.
“At the end of the day, you gotta think about the team,” Gordon said. “It’s not a ‘you’ sport, it’s a ‘we’ sport. Just keeping it in my mind at all times, I feel like that’s what got us through it.”
Gordon has 175 yards on 45 carries for a 3.9-yard average. He figures to get his share of work early in an attempt to establish the running game on the road.
Tulsa (1-1) also could have entered this game with a clean sheet but instead coughed up a 10-point halftime lead last week in a 28-24 loss at Arkansas State. The result spoiled a big game by Kamdyn Benjamin, who caught six passes for 131 yards and a touchdown.
“We left some points on the board,” Golden Hurricane coach Kevin Wilson said. “Third quarter, we got our butt kicked. We struggled to block in the second half. Some mistakes got us, some poor play-calling. We got to come home and see what we got.”
What Tulsa has had so far is a lot of offense. It has averaged 43 points in two games, sporting the kind of balance characteristic of Wilson’s offenses as a coordinator at Oklahoma and the head coach at Indiana. Benjamin is on pace for more than 1,000 receiving yards and quarterback Kirk Francis is averaging an impressive 12.8 yards per completion.
A bigger concern is the defense and special teams. The Golden Hurricane had trouble getting off the field last week, giving up 8 of 17 conversions on third downs, and permitted a 77-yard punt return score during Arkansas State’s 21-point third quarter.
Oklahoma State owns a 44-27-5 lead in the all-time series, including a 28-23 win three years ago when the teams last met in Tulsa.
