Oklahoma State Should Be Running out of Players on Defense

We all know Oklahoma State and other Big 12 teams give up a lot of points because they face more plays on defense than other teams across the country. For some reason, the CFP committee can’t figure out points per drive, even though a bunch of us working in our parents’ basements can hand the stats to you faster than Baylor would score on Iowa in a bowl game.

The stunning thing to me is how much tension OSU has put on its defense this season (part of that, of course, is the defense’s inability to get off the field). It’s a defense that has already lost Ryan Simmons and Jimmy Bean. It’s a defense that surprisingly hasn’t lost more than that. Oklahoma State has faced 157 more plays on defense than Alabama has. That’s three games worth in the SEC. Two in the Big 12.

Go deeper, though. No team in the AP top 10 leaves its defense on the field as much as Oklahoma State. Look at this.

Now go even further. Oklahoma State has seen 368 plays on defense in the last four weeks. Three of those games were 90+ outings. It’s a wonder Glenn Spencer is even fielding a unit against OU.

#okstate has defended 90+ plays 4 times this year, most in college football. pic.twitter.com/NsYEZZD3Db

— Oklahoma State Stats (@OSUStats) November 23, 2015

And don’t tell me, “well, those SEC games are tougher anyway.”

QUICK REFRESHER: Avg. # of P5 Opp. per conference
Pac-12 (9.92)
Big 12 (9.80)
ACC (9.50)
B1G (9.36)
SEC (8.86)

— Joel Klatt (@joelklatt) November 16, 2015

“Maybe at the end there was some fatigue and we didn’t have any guys to roll in there, but it was just a bad matchup tonight,” said Glenn Spencer on Saturday after the Baylor game. “They have a good team,, and I wasn’t pleased with our execution.”

Now it’s sort of easy to see why Mike Gundy has shifted his scholarship philosophy so much over the past decade.

“I made a decision – I think 4 years ago – that if we’re going to be a contender in this conference, we needed to play more consistent defensively,” said Gundy two weeks ago. “Obviously I have a background in offense and I feel like you can ‘scheme’ more on offense than you can on defense, and we could make up for those lost numbers. It used to be 41-41-3 (offense-defense-special teams); we went 38-44-3 and it’s been consistent that way. It’s allowed us to keep two more defensive linemen and a backer on scholarship.”

It’s been a great move so far, never more so than this year when OSU’s depth and conditioning on defense has shined.