Mike Gundy’s Making No Effort to Quell Buzz Around Tyron Johnson

Tyron Johnson has turned into one of the most buzzworthy players at OSU in quite some time. There hasn’t been this type of hype around a Cowboy transfer since Tyreek Hill. Actually, Tyreek may not have gained this type of cult status before he played his first snap.

The buzz around Johnson can be partially attributed to the former LSU Tiger’s required year in waiting. But during that year, he dazzled some of Oklahoma State’s most savvy veterans in practice.

Departed senior (and leader of all Gundy tacklers), Jordan Sterns recounted stories of shock and awe from practices during his own senior year, pointing out the competitiveness, freaky athleticism and playmaking ability of the sophomore. That’s right, the kid has three years of eligibility left.

Sterns even thinks Johnson could add enough to the Cowboys already stellar offense to push them to new heights.

“The receiving corps next year is going to be scary,” said Sterns on the PFB podcast. “I won’t be surprised if they take it to the next level and go ahead and take it to the playoff next year.”

So much for tempered expectations, right?

Mike Gundy is not one to give himself over to grandiose hyperbole. But even he couldn’t help but spill out some juicy blogging fodder.

“One thing that I have mentioned to our staff and the team is that so far, whenever the lights come on and we keep score, he makes plays. In most team sports, there’s something to be said about that.”

All I caught was, “He makes plays”.

Gundy went on about Johnson and even gave a glimpse of what we can expect to see next weekend in the spring game or (more importantly) this fall.

“If he continues on with that and does it throughout August practice,” said Gundy “if he takes care of business like he should — he’s learning to adapt to our culture — then, he’s going to get to play a lot.

“In specifics, he seems to be very shifty at this point and he seems to be very durable and has the ability to break tackles.”

Okay, “shifty”, “breaks tackles” and “makes plays”. I’m sold. When is September?

Fellow Louisianan and bonafide playmaker Jalen McCleskey has seen Tyron every day in practice and has watched him progress during his year in Stillwater.

“He has been doing really well,” said McCleskey. “He has been getting the plays down so instead of just worrying about what he has to do on each play, he can just play now because he knows what he needs to do. So he has just been showing what he can do on the field.”

He. Can. Just. Play.