Wait, Why is Oklahoma State Redshirting Sophomores

When the 2015 Oklahoma State depth chart came out, there were some noticeable omissions. Boone went over a few of those earlier this week and brought up a name I hadn’t heard since he single-handedly tried to set OU’s offense back 15 years last December.

Justin Phillips.

Phillips had 10 of his 18 tackles last season in that Bedlam game, and yet he’s nowhere to be found on the depth chart. And he was even projected as a potential starter in the spring.

So he’s either going to be special teams only again (which is mostly what he was last year until Bedlam) or the more interesting option (which Boone suggested). A redshirt. Wait, redshirting sophomores?

Mike Gundy said it was an option earlier in August.

“It’s us being honest with them and that they didn’t really get that year to develop,” said Gundy about the potential of redshirting a non-first year guy. Now that OSU is deeper, he has that leeway.

“What you’ll do is put that young player who doesn’t redshirt his freshman year, he loses that extra time in the weight room because during the season he’s trying to get ready to play in the game and so he can’t devote himself to four to five days of a heavy workload.

“His physical workload is limited based on getting ready to play on Saturday, and there’s a point where that can almost become a necessity for a college football player to get that extra workload during their time. It doesn’t always happen that way, but it’s beneficial. So we’re just honest and if a player said ‘I want to play’, then we’re going to play him because ultimately it’s their career, but we offer our opinion on what we think is best.”

If Gundy can convince guys like Phillips that it would be beneficial to them in the long run, OSU is going to be in a good spot for the next few years (especially on defense). This also continues to soothe the pain of last year.