Glenn Spencer on Question Marks for the Season: ‘I’ve Got So Many’

Starting next Monday and Tuesday, optimism will reign throughout the college football world. Everyone will be primed for a 10-2 (or better) season, and specifically in Stillwater we will somehow write off those last three games last season. It’s what we do as fans, and it’s part of what makes the sport so fun. Anything can happen until it doesn’t.

Glenn Spencer, though? Glenn Spencer doesn’t deal in optimism. No, he only worries.

“I’ve got so many [question marks], but that’s just me,” said Spencer on Thursday. “I could sit here and talk about all of the good. The issues are youth at end, a couple of new faces in the back end that are going to play for us, and we’ve got a good transfer coming in that I have to find out if he can help out.”

Spencer is of course talking about one of the great names in recent OSU history: Lenzy Pipkins.

“The big thing also is some guys coming off some offseason surgery: Ashton Lampkin, Jordan Burton and Vili Leveni. Those are three good players that are going to be OK. Everything says they’re working toward it, but none of them are going to be 100 percent once camp starts.”

I outlined one of Mike Gundy’s (and thus Glenn Spencer’s) biggest problems coming into the new season last week: defensive ends. Spencer addressed the youth at that position as well on Wednesday.

“You know, that started in January, so it’s a process,” said Spencer doing his best Tiger Woods impression. “Until the new group gets out there and starts performing and we start keeping score, you never know.

“I was very pleased in the spring with how those young defensive ends are coming along, but like I said, they haven’t proven anything yet. We’ve improved in the Mike linebacker with Chad (Whitener) and Justin Phillips to replace Ryan Simmons, and then a couple of corners to replace Kevin Peterson.

“People also don’t mention Seth Jacobs, who would have been a fifth-year guy, and might have been a preseason All-Big 12 guy. He graduated and left, so that one hurt. All over the field, I’m talking about guys that won a lot of games around here. It’s a process.”

It is certainly a process. Oklahoma State’s defense was pretty overrated last year despite a gaudy record through the first 10 games. This chart shows how poor OSU was in giving up points per drive. The worst defense since 2008 in that statistic (regular season only … not that the bowl was any better).

Will that change this year with presumably worse players at the defensive end positions? You can see why Glenn Spencer has questions.