Mike Gundy Says OSU Will Spread Out and Play Fast

I have good news if you’re a fan of fast, efficient football and scoring at a clip that Leonardo DiCaprio in his prime can’t even imagine. Oklahoma State is going to spread it out and let it ride in 2017.

This is partly due to the fact that it graduated its two best cowboy backs and partly due to the fact that it is so deep at wide receiver, Chris Lacy might be an afterthought at times.

“We’ll play them all and we’ll play fast,” said Mike Gundy recently. “They give us a luxury that we had in the years that we had (Justin) Blackmon and those guys. We could play them in groups of three or four at a time, let them play four or five plays and then get them out and put another group in.”

Oklahoma State ranked No. 17 in the country in offensive points per drive scored in 2017. It should shoot to finish in the top 10 with Mason Rudolph coming back for his senior year and Justice Hill with a year of Big 12 football under his belt. Also, those WRs.

“There’s a chance that we could play with four wideouts more than we have in recent years because of that,” said Gundy. “But we’re going to try to play fast and use that to our advantage.”

Last year OSU ranked No. 35 in the nation in seconds elapsed per play at 23.5 seconds. That’s not bad, but it’s a far cry from the lightning speed it used to play at it in 2010 and 2011 when it flirted with 20 seconds.

That number should drop to 20 or 21 seconds in 2017 which would rank top 15 in the country. And, more importantly, it will be explosive on the exterior with James Washington, Jalen McCleskey, Marcell Ateman and Co. when it does have the ball.

“He’s full-go,” Gundy said specifically of Ateman. “He’ll fall in the same category as (James) Washington, Mason (Rudolph) and Jarrell Owens. Those guys are proven players. They’ll be full-go, but they won’t be in as much of the team stuff as guys like Tyron Johnson and some of the younger guys.”

Speaking of Johnson, throwing him in the mix with Dillon Stoner and incoming freshman Tylan Wallace will make for a fascinating second string of receivers.

“We think now that both of those guys will start inside and we’ll see how they develop,” Gundy said Wallace and Johnson. “What I had mentioned to the offensive staff is that we need to know what Tyron’s strengths are coming out of the spring and where he can help us most early in the season. He is different because he’s already been in college for a couple of years. His body has changed and he’s developed. We’re going to start out with those guys instead.”