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Spring Retrospective: OSU Still Has Questions at Corner

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To kick off our spring retrospective, we’re going to take a look at the biggest question mark Oklahoma State has on defense currently: Cornerback.

Summary

Spring camp started with the news that Ramon Richards would move to safety to join Tre Flowers which left basically zero experience at the cornerback position. This, interestingly, did not seem to bother Mike Gundy and Glenn Spencer.

So either they know something we don’t know (likely) or corner is just going to be a hot mess all fall (hopefully not!)

“They still make mistakes, but what I like about the young group of corners is that they are long, rangy and they seem like they are going to be physical,” said Gundy during spring camp.

“[That] will help in this league as skilled as the wideouts are on the perimeter. They’re going to take some lumps at some point during the season, but hopefully we can bring them along enough that as we progress we can trust them more in the middle of the season than we could now. We may have to score a few points early though.”

Defensive coordinator Glenn Spencer was a little less effusive in his praise, but he still seemed encouraged by A.J. Green, Madre Harper, Rodarius Williams and Co.

“We’re just trying to analyze them as a whole,” said Spencer. “A couple of them will have a good day, and then a bad day. They’re showing some sparks and then they will give up some things.

“It’s been an up-and-down spring for some of those guys. They’re a lot better now than they were when we started all of this. It helps to be able to go up against our group of wide receivers every day. It makes us all better.”

That’s true. At the beginning of camp, Gundy pointed at something that I think was a little bit of a through line from then until the end of the season. OSU is just … better and more talented than it has been in the past, even in 2011 (Brandon Weeden touched on this when he dropped by for practice a few weeks back).

“I just think we have more depth,” said Gundy of the defense. “I think that we’ve recruited longer and that our culture is in place so we have more depth than we did then.”

Biggest News

The biggest news post-Richards moving to safety was pretty easily the transfer of Adrian Baker (great name, by the way). In the same mold as Lenzy Pipkins, Josh Furman and Michael Hunter, Baker will provide experience and talent right away. OSU could not have asked for a sneakier (or better) final few weeks of spring ball with Baker transferring in to help solidify what seems like will be a young but talented defense and Aaron Cochran filling a crucial role on the offensive line.

“We’ve got to get a couple of corners,” said Gundy. “We need to get a couple of guys that we trust that can play. We’re going to play multiple guys, but at some points we need to get a couple of guys in there in key situations that are fresh that you trust because you’ve got to be able to cover a little bit in this league.”

They got at least one in Baker.

Camp Star

Darius Curry stood out to us. He doesn’t have the most talent, but he might be the guy Gundy and Co. trust the most. And you know how big Gundy is on that.

“Curry has been improved, just from being a veteran,” said Gundy. “But the young players have continued to get better.”

It could be a matter of talent (A.J. Green and Madre Harper) vs. trust (Curry) come Game 1 in the fall.

Projected Two Deep

This is what Kyle Boone thinks, and I would agree. I also love that he worked an “-or-” in there. Very Gundy of him.

Depth Chart Player Class
CB1 Adrian Baker Sr.
CB1 A.J. Green Soph.
CB2 Darius Curry R-Sr.
CB2 Rodarius Williams -or- Madre Harper R-Fr./Soph.
CB3 Bryce Balous R-Soph.
CB3 LaMarcus Morton Fr.
CB3 Malik Kearse Sr.

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