Mike Gundy’s Biggest Concern On Defense Cannot Be Solved

Mike Gundy has two areas of concern heading into 2016, and unfortunately they’re where conferences are won and lost — on the offensive and defensive lines. The offensive line woes are fairly obvious. Oklahoma State was No. 114 in yards per carry at 3.58 last year. Just behind rushing powerhouses Vanderbilt, Middle Tennessee and Tulsa.

The defensive line problems are less so. Oklahoma State returns an all-conference tackle in Vincent Taylor and what would appear to be good replacements for Emmanuel Ogbah and Jimmy Bean at the end positions. But Gundy has some concerns (and he should).

“I feel good about our defense,” said Gundy on Monday at Big 12 media days. “We have depth. Joe Bob Clements has done a tremendous job of recruiting defensive linemen for us. The one area that is a concern is Emmanuel Ogbah because he was a great player for us last year. We have young players at the defensive end position who don’t have as much experience and are hopefully six or eight games away from getting to what a Jimmy Bean level of player was.”

Pause. Gundy is basically conceding that he can’t replace Ogbah (Ogbaw, whatever) which seems obvious but is important because Oklahoma State won a lot of close games last year because of No. 38. Oklahoma State was No. 21 in the country last year in adjusted sack rate and No. 3 in the country in sack rate on passing downs. Those are big time numbers for a Big 12 team.

“We’re in a turnover year, again, where the quarterback play is going to be so good in this league that if you turn the ball over a couple times, you may end up scoring 31 points and lose the game,” added Gundy accentuating the point. “The other team may score 40 and that’s what can happen in this league. So defensively we try to do the best we can to limit big plays, continue to force turnovers and put the ball back in the offense’s hands.”

Ogbah did that on repeat last year. And Ogbah is not walking through that door. But Jimmy Bean redux might be. Bean had 25 tackles and 5.5 sacks in just eight games last year for the Pokes.

“Jimmy Bean was a really, really good football player for us last year,” said Gundy in talking about Jordan Brailford, Jarrell Owens and Tralund Webber who will step into the DE spots. “Ogbah is an unfair comparison because essentially you’re talking a guy who was picked in the first round. I know he was second round first pick, but there wasn’t 32 picks. If there were 32 picks he would have been first.”

Love Gundy’s math explanation there.

“It’s unfair to compare them early on, but as the season progresses, with Jarrell and Jordan and a couple of the other guys, I’m hoping that they will develop into becoming good college football players,” said Gundy. “They’re young enough that they can develop into being really good college football players if they desire to, with hard work and effort. But there is not any question and I go back to what I said earlier in the quarterback play in this league you better get some pressure on those guys or they’re going to score a lot of points.”

This is true.

Oklahoma State ranked No. 14 in the country in points per game last season but 5th in the Big 12 behind Baylor, Texas Tech, OU and TCU. You can see why Gundy puts so much emphasis on disruption — maybe even more so than on a successful offensive line.

As Steve Kerr once told Bill Simmons pre-Warriors gig, “it’s all about getting stops.” And while you can’t replace Emmanuel Ogbah, you might be able to get to Jimmy Bean. Hopefully that will be enough to get stops this year in the Big 12. Otherwise, we could be in for a longer year than we think.