Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Big 12 Spring Football Review: Oklahoma State

Mike Gundy is leading the OSU football team through their second spring camp as the head coach in Stillwater. The Cowboys return 13 starters from last year’s squad with eight of those on offense.

The big question for the Cowboys is who is going to lead the offense? OSU is returning their leading rusher, Mike Hamilton, and receiver D’Juan Woods. Al Pena was the team’s leading passer last season but isn’t guaranteed the starting in the upcoming season. Pena will battle Bobby Reid and freshman Alex Cate for the starting job and the position isn’t expected to be awarded until the fall.

The offense has a lot of work to do before they hit the fall. In addition to trying to find a quarterback OSU is implementing new plays to the playbook and trying to cut down on the turnovers and penalties that killed a number of drives last season.

“We have to do a better job of pre-snap penalties and eliminate the turnovers,” said Gundy adding “There are going to be mistakes by the younger quarterbacks, but the veteran guys need to start limiting those turnovers.”

Defensive end Victor DeGrate highlights the five seniors returning on defense. DeGrate led the team in tackles for loss last season with 11 for minus 46 yards. In Saturday’s scrimmage he recorded three sacks and forced two fumbles.

Other names on the Cowboys defense who are making noise this spring are Jacob Lacey in the secondary and Marque Fountain along the line.

2006 OSU Football Schedule
Sat, Sep 02 Missouri State Boone Pickens Stadium
Sat, Sep 09 Arkansas State at Little Rock, Ark.
Sat, Sep 16 Florida Atlantic Boone Pickens Stadium
Sat, Sep 23 Houston at Houston, Texas
Sat, Oct 07 Kansas State at Manhattan, Kan.
Sat, Oct 14 Kansas at Lawrence, Kan.
Sat, Oct 21 Texas A&M (Homecoming) Boone Pickens Stadium
Sat, Oct 28 Nebraska Boone Pickens Stadium
Sat, Nov 04 Texas at Austin, Texas
Sat, Nov 11 Baylor Boone Pickens Stadium
Sat, Nov 18 Texas Tech at Lubbock, Texas
Sat, Nov 25 Oklahoma (Senior Day) Boone Pickens Stadium