On New Year’s Day, No. 9 Oklahoma State will take on No. 5 Notre Dame in the PlayStation Fiesta Bowl. It will be the first meeting between the two programs but neither is a stranger to the bowl game in the desert.

Oklahoma State won the 1974 Fiesta Bowl over BYU and the 2012 rendition over Stanford. Notre Dame is 1-4 in the same bowl, beating West Virginia in 1989 and then dropping four straight in 1995, 2001, 2006 and 2016.

But when things kick off on noon central time Saturday, the past won’t matter. On Friday, the Pistols Firing staff convened to discuss our predictions for the NY6 bowl.

---

Marshall Scott

Score Prediction: Oklahoma State 24, Notre Dame 21

Thoughts: I honestly have no clue how this one plays out because I don’t know how to judge Notre Dame. But in the end, I’ll give OSU the edge because the Irish are without leading rusher Kyren Williams and All-American safety Kyle Hamilton. Plus, Gundy always seems to have a few tricks up his sleeves in bowl games.

Kyle Cox

Score Prediction: Oklahoma State 35, Notre Dame 28

Thoughts: The return of Jaylen Warren should prove huge not only to Spencer Sanders and the offense, but the ability to chew up clock and control the ground game will give OSU’s defense some much-needed support. Then you just pin your ears back and make Jack Coan try to beat you. The departure of Jim Knowles is concerning to me more long-term than it is on Saturday. His system, staff and, most importantly, veteran talent is still in tact.

The post Fiesta Bowl Picks, Predictions: Laying Out Our Predictions for OSU-Notre Dame appeared first on Pistols Firing.

---

Read this original article at Pistols Firing Blog.

SCOTTSDALE, Arizona — Oklahoma State and Notre Dame will meet for the first time Saturday.

One team has a deep and storied history while the other has had a good chunk of it’s success in the past 20 years, so it’ll be a bit of a battle of old school vs. new school. Here is how to watch the game and some stats to get you up to date.

Viewing Info

Time: Noon CT Saturday
Location: State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona
Watch: ESPN (Bob Wischusen, Dan Orlovsky and Kris Budden)

Team Stats

	Oklahoma State	Notre Dame
Record	11-2	11-1
Points Per Game	30.6	35.2
Points Allowed Per Game	16.8	18.2
Total Offense	402.9	415.8
Rushing Offense	181.8	152.2
Passing Offense	221.2	263.6
Total Defense	278.4	339.1
Rushing Defense	91.2	127.1
Passing Defense	187.2	212

Team Leaders

Passing:
OSU — Spencer Sanders — 209-for-341 (61%)/2,468 yards/16 touchdowns/12 interceptions
Notre Dame — Jack Coan — 215-for-318 (68%)/2,641 yards/20 touchdowns/6 interceptions

Rushing:
OSU — Jaylen Warren — 237 carries/1,134 yards/11 touchdowns
Notre Dame — Tyler Buchner — 46 carries/336 yards/3 touchdowns

Receiving:
OSU — Tay Martin — 70 catches/942 yards/7 touchdowns
Notre Dame — Michael Mayer — 64 catches/768 yards/5 touchdowns

Tackling:
OSU — Malcolm Rodriguez — 118 total tackles/68 solo tackles/15 tackles for loss
Notre Dame — JD Bertrand — 92 total tackles/55 solo tackles/5 tackles for loss

Sacks:
OSU — Collin Oliver — 11.5 sacks
Notre Dame— Isaiah Foskey — 10 sacks

The post Game Preview: TV Info, Statistical Leaders between OSU and Notre Dame appeared first on Pistols Firing.

---

Read this original article at Pistols Firing Blog.

SCOTTSDALE, Arizona — The media sessions are done, and all that’s left is the football.

Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy met with reporters over Zoom for the final time ahead of Saturday’s Fiesta Bowl against Notre Dame in a joint news conference with ND coach Marcus Freeman. Here is everything Gundy said.

Opening Statement

“Well, we’re very excited and thrilled to be in the PlayStation Fiesta Bowl. Congratulations to Coach [Marcus] Freeman and Notre Dame. They’ve had a terrific season. We’ve had a great week, as always, being in the Scottsdale area. We have great weather, great accommodations. The (Fiesta Bowl Committee) Yellow Coats have been fantastic, the people in the community. Our players, our fans, families have had a great week. As to be expected, we’re very excited about playing in the game. What a great matchup, two teams that have worked hard to get to this point. So been going at it since the first of August, and going to get a chance to play one more game tomorrow. And very excited. Looking forward to the game.”

On who will call defensive plays and what went into that decision

“Well, we’ll have a couple guys calling plays for us. We’ll do it on first and 10 and then third downs, passing situations. After watching it for the last three weeks, we’ve had a number of guys in the room that I was comfortable with. So we’re going to use a couple of guys at different times in the game based on the situations. You have Dan Hammerschmidt, you have Tim Duffie, and you have Joe Bob Clements. Those guys will be able to mix up the play calling based on the situation.”

On what he does to prepare so well for bowl games

“Well, I’m a firm believer that players win games. Coaches can lay out a blueprint and give them an opportunity, but players have to be able to go out and compete and play and win games. Particularly in bowls, just my experience doing it for a number of years, some teams are excited to play in bowl games and maybe some teams aren’t.

“We’ve been very fortunate that we have a great culture at Oklahoma State. We have young men that really like to play football. I think that’s an advantage, particularly in today’s society, that these guys really enjoy playing football.

“And our bowl preparation has been great. Once we finish the regular season and we give them a week off, and then we start bowl preparation, we go at it pretty good. And then they make a decision as a team how hard they want to practice, what they want to put into it, what their commitment level is. And we’ve been very fortunate over a number of years to have really quality young men that look forward to playing in bowl games. We feel like that we owe a lot to the PlayStation Fiesta Bowl. We feel like we owe a lot to our fans. People that support us throughout the year. And when you play a great Notre Dame team, we feel like we’re obligated to give them our best game.”

On how OSU’s offensive has played this season

“We played good at times. There were games that we didn’t play as well, and it was based on turnovers. It’s not a complicated game, right? Move forward. Don’t take negative-loss plays. Take care of the football, don’t turn it over. Be good in special teams. Defense, don’t give up big plays. So it’s not a complicated game — for us, anyway. At times when we didn’t play as well offensively is when we turned the football over.”

On how three defensive playcallers will work

“So you have first and 10, second and 10-base plays in a game. And then you have third and five plus would be more of a passing situation traditional. And the defensive coaches have done what everybody else in the country does. They have breakdowns and numbers based on that. And that gives them an opportunity to make play calls based on the situation that we think we’re in defensively, compared to what Notre Dame has done offensively. They’re playing with two quarterbacks. Guys are a little different style-wise, but both have been successful. Depending on the situation, certain guys make plays. Particularly third and five plus would be different than first and second down in normal.”

On if he initially thought it would be one guy calling defensive plays when Jim Knowles first left

“Well, I felt comfortable with the coaches in our defensive room. As you know, you followed us for a long time. Most of the guys on my staff have been with me a number of years. So for that reason, they have a pretty good idea of what’s going on. Obviously, we rely on our coordinators, just like everybody else in the country. But in most cases, you’re going to have coaches in each room that are capable of calling offense, defense, could be special teams, based on being in there for a number of years. So once Jim decided to leave, then I had to go to work and watch and see and get a feel in meetings and different things, practice, to get an idea of where we were at as a staff. And I became comfortable with several guys being able to help calling the game.”

On what made Clements, Duffie and Hammerschmidt stand out

“Just my feeling that some guys have a better feel for what goes on up front. Some guys have a better feel for what goes on in the back-end. But the three of them have a good feel for the entire defense. So to localize their specialty gives us the best chance, in my opinion, in this football game, and not put it all on one guy’s shoulders. So they can study and come up with a plan based on what they see and what they feel going into this game gives us the best opportunity, in my opinion.”

On if he had a sit-down meeting with the staff when he made his decision

“Well, I didn’t necessarily sit down with everybody. I just had communication with them throughout the week on what my plans were. And they were comfortable and fine with the situation and looking forward to being able to call plays in the game. That’s the fun part of it. Some guys don’t ever get a chance to be a coordinator. They don’t ever get to sit down on play station and call plays. Now that they’re coordinators, they get a chance to call some plays in the game, so that’s a pretty cool situation.”

On something he admires about Notre Dame’s team

“Teams that have had this much success and get to bowls like the PlayStation Fiesta Bowl is you have to compete against teams that play really hard. And so Notre Dame plays hard. The guys look like they like to play football. They run to the football. They compete. They fight for extra yards. Their quarterbacks aren’t scared to make plays with their legs at times. And again, I go back to, it’s not really a complicated game. And teams that have players that are willing to compete, run to the football, fight for extra yards, care about the guy next to them. And that’s what you have to do when you play in games like this. And that’s what I see from Notre Dame.”

On a COVID update within the team and how Jaylen Warren is doing off his ankle injury

“We’re doing really good with COVID. We had a few cases before we left. Since we’ve gotten here, we’ve only had one case. We’re in great shape. Our guys have done a good job. And Jaylen Warren has practiced and is doing fine. I feel like that he’s healthy for the first time in, gosh, since the TCU (Texas Christian University) game, really. He’s back and feels pretty good, and excited about him being able to play. As coaches, we always want our players that put forth the effort over a year to compete and finish the season full speed; to give him a chance to go out there and play and have some fun. And he’s doing really well this week.”

On how many guys will be out because of COVID and an update on Blaine Green

“We’re in good shape with COVID. We’ve been very fortunate. As I said, our medical staff has been good. Our players have committed themselves to staying healthy. So we’re in great shape.

“Blaine won’t play in the game tomorrow. We just don’t feel like that he’s in a position to play. So we’ll set him and let him get some offseason work, get him ready to go for spring ball.”

On the importance of this game against such a nationally recognized opponent

“Well, we have all the respect in the world for Notre Dame. It’s the first time we’ve come across them. I said this in the press conference the day that the game was announced. My mom is from Flint, Michigan. She was born and raised up there. She was born and went to Catholic school. So I had a little bit of “Go Blue” and the Notre Dame fight song pushed on me as a young kid growing up in Oklahoma.

“So I’m very aware of it. We’re extremely excited. I mentioned a few weeks ago that myself and our athletic director then, Coach [Mike] Holder, we tried to schedule a home-and-home with Notre Dame and found out they were scheduled way, way, way in advance, so it wasn’t possible.

“But one thing that is important to us in our culture is, it doesn’t make a difference who we play. It doesn’t make a difference where we play. We have a responsibility. So we get the same question a lot in preseason. Sometimes we might play somebody of an opponent that people think might not be up to playing Oklahoma State. And how do you get your team ready? It’s the same process. We have a responsibility to prepare, to practice, to work hard, to get ready to play. It doesn’t make a difference who it is.

“And so is this a great opportunity and a big game for everybody on the field and all of our players and everybody from Oklahoma State? Sure it is. And we prepare the same way each week. I hope that we do. That’s my responsibility to make sure our players understand that side of it.”

On OSU offensive line coach Charlie Dickey growing up in Scottsdale and getting to practice at his former high school this week

“It’s been a really neat situation. I gave him a hard time earlier in the week because we knew that this was his home and he played here, very tradition-rich high school. We were leaving to go to practice the other day, and my youngest son, my 17-year-old, was going to drive over and meet us over there so he could work out in the weight room. And we were walking out to get ready to get on the bus. And I said, ‘Hey, Coach Dickey,’ I said, ‘Do you know how to spell the high school that we’re practicing at today?’ And he said, ‘Well, you know that’s my school, right?’ I said, ‘No, I didn’t know that was your school. I just need to know if you know how to spell it so he can put it in his GPS so he can get over there.’

“I was giving him a hard time about it. And he spit it out real fast on how to spell it. He said, ‘Coach, that’s my high school.’ So anyway, I kind of let him get on the bus and didn’t say anything about it ’til later.

“But it’s been really neat. We’ve got several connections out here. It’s interesting. We have quite a few people that have some ties out here in this area, and it’s been fun for them to come back and be here a week.”

The post The Rundown: What Mike Gundy Said Entering Saturday’s Fiesta Bowl appeared first on Pistols Firing.

---

Read this original article at Pistols Firing Blog.

SCOTTSDALE, Arizona — Mike Gundy will use a trio of defensive playcallers in the Fiesta Bowl following Jim Knowles departure to Columbus.

Oklahoma State’s coach announced Friday that defensive line coach Joe Bob Clements, corners coach Tim Duffie and safeties coach Dan Hammerschmidt would combine to call plays against Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl, which is scheduled to kickoff at noon central time Saturday.

“We’ll do it on 1st-and-10 and then third downs, passing situations,” Gundy said. “After watching it for the last three weeks, we’ve had a number of guys in the room that I was comfortable with. So we’re going to use a couple of guys at different times in the game based on the situations.”

The change was forced after Knowles, a finalist for the Broyles Award given to the best assistant coach in college football, left the program after the Big 12 Championship for the same title at Ohio State.

Duffie and Clements are the longest tenured defensive assistants on Gundy’s staff, joining the program ahead of the 2013 season. Hammerschmidt joined the program in 2015.

Clements, who spoke with the media this week when the Cowboys were required to have a defensive coach speak, joined the college coaching ranks in 1999 with his alma mater, Kansas State. He was a student assistant with the Wildcats for two seasons before being a graduate assistant for two more. He started coaching the K-State defensive ends in 2003. In 2006, Clements took over as the defensive line coach at San Diego State before coaching the Kansas defensive line in 2008. He returned to his alma mater in 2009 where he stayed until he left for his current gig in Stillwater.

A Texas Tech graduate, Duffie started his coaching career as a graduate assistant at UTEP in 2000. He took a fellowship with the Detroit Lions in 2001 before returning to the college game to coach UTEP’s safeties and linebackers from 2002-07. He has also spent time coaching secondary players at Colorado State (2008-11) and Wake Forest (2012). When he first got to Oklahoma State, he coached safeties before transitioning to corners in 2015. Some of his prominent recent pupils include Tre Flowers, Justin Gilbert, Michael Hunter, Ashton Lampkin, Kevin Peterson, AJ Green and Rodarius Williams.

Hammerschmidt graduated from Colorado State in 1985. He was a student assistant with the Rams in 1986 and a graduate assistant at TCU in 1987. Hammerschmidt spent the middle point of his coaching career actually coaching on the offensive side of the ball. After defensive (and special teams) stints at Duke and VMI, he returned to his alma mater to coach receivers in 1996. In 2001, he was promoted to be the Rams’ co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. He went on to have offensive stints at Rice, Wyoming, Colorado State (again), the Houston Texas and the University of Houston before joining Gundy’s staff.

It remains to be seen how three defensive playcallers will work, but Gundy seemed content with his decision.

“Well, I felt comfortable with the coaches in our defensive room,” Gundy said. “Most of the guys on my staff have been with me a number of years. So for that reason, they have a pretty good idea of what’s going on. Obviously, we rely on our coordinators, just like everybody else in the country. But in most cases, you’re going to have coaches in each room that are capable of calling offense, defense, could be special teams, based on being in there for a number of years.

“So once Jim decided to leave, then I had to go to work and watch and see and get a feel in meetings and different things, practice, to get an idea of where we were at as a staff. And I became comfortable with several guys being able to help calling the game.”

The post Clements, Duffie, Hammerschmidt to Combine for Fiesta Bowl Playcalling appeared first on Pistols Firing.

---

Read this original article at Pistols Firing Blog.

Before we stick a fork in 2021 and get ready for Oklahoma State’s Fiesta Bowl against Notre Dame, let’s take some time to look back. I’ve already listed my picks for the top storylines from the past year. Now here is a list that shows which subjects were most important to you, our readers.

Here are the 10 most-viewed articles from Pistols Firing in 2021.

1. Super Powers: What Four 16-Team Conferences Could Look Like

We were just sitting around, lazy, in the doldrums of July when a leaked report was confirmed and Oklahoma and Texas dropped an A-bomb on the rest of college sports.

What followed was our biggest summer ever at Pistols Firing, because of course. It was a whirlwind and will continue to provide us with storylines when it comes to Oklahoma State and its conference for time to come.

Here I posited — before the foursome the Big 12 added — that the Red River Retreat could serve as the first step toward the age of Super Conferences, and what they might look like. It still could, by the way.

2. A Reckoning in College Football Mike Gundy Was Way Ahead of

Kyle Boone is so good here. He wrote about how the transfer market has changed college football and how antiquated the per-class scholarship limit has become.

But the changing landscape necessitates changing legislation. Twenty-five-man caps in this environment completely swims against the spirit of the legislation to begin with. The sport has changed so much in the last two years it’s nearly inapplicable.

3. Three Early Potential Candidates for OSU’s Vacant Defensive Coordinator Spot

This post made it into the Top 3 in less than a month. Within minutes of writing about Jim Knowles’ departure to Ohio State, our fearless leader Marshall Scott, was thinking through possible replacements Mike Gundy should add to his list of DC candidates.

4. Kirk Herbstreit is Right About Conference Realignment

Herbie had some harsh words for Big 12 defectors Oklahoma and Texas, but he was pointing them more at the direction of the sport itself.

What’s becoming abundantly clear, and I hate to say this because I’ve always tried to fight it, is people are trying to stay at the top. They’re trying to compete with the SEC, and it’s all about money. It’s no longer about tradition. It’s no longer about the things that I think college football have always kind of tried to stand itself on top of and really look at and appreciate rivalries and tradition and things of that nature.”

5. Big Ten Reportedly Only Interested in AAU Schools, Which Would Exclude OSU

It seems like a decade ago now, but in mid-to-late July, every 12 hours brought a new narrative. Remember that day when the biggest question, Does OSU go to the Pac-12 or the Big Ten?

Marshall did a great job of what we always aim to do. He took a report/notion/narrative, thought through it from an OSU perspective and laid out a fully formed idea and some quality content. How about a map lay of a potential 16-team Big Ten that included OSU and Kansas?

6. Bowlsby Now Alleges AAC after All Eight Remaining Big 12 Schools, Per Report

The Big 12’s commissioner pulled few punches during the weeks that followed OU-Texit. Bowlsby put forth that the AAC was trying to absorb the remaining eight Big 12 teams after OU-Texit. He had also alleged that ESPN was in cahoots with the two schools to effectively absolve the conference.

Again, it was a wild summer.

7. Oklahoma State Players React to Ohio State Hiring Jim Knowles

There were mixed emotions among the players when news broke that Jim Knowles was headed to Columbus. Brock Martin had already petitioned for a blank check for his DC. OSU couldn’t offer one, and tOSU was able to secure his services.

There was some shock, some disappointment. But, overall, Knowles’ pupils seemed genuinely happy for their coach. Business details and defensive stats aside, that says a lot about the impact he had on his players.

8. Mike Gundy Opens Up on OU, Texas Leaving Big 12 and OSU’s Place in Realignment

Gundy opened up to ESPN’s Marty Smith on conference realignment, specifically what it will mean for OSU and the future of the Big 12. Go back and check that out. It still holds up.

But I’m going to go with the softball Smith tossed him about Cade going first overall and the very Gundy way he described OSU’s first ever No. 1 pick, “he plays pretty good.”

“It’s awesome. When we play well here in football, our enrollment goes up. When Coach Sutton was here and we were going to the Final Four, our enrollment was up. People like winners. People like success. With Cade being here and being in the position he’s in, it only takes [the OSU logo] and brands us and markets us even more. I don’t know him really well, but I hear fantastic things about him as a person, that he’s humble. I watched some games of his on TV, and he plays pretty good.”

9. Could the Pac-12 Pull Together a Super Conference That Includes OSU?

More on conference realignment. Just want to point out again what a great job Marshall did and does turning tweets or talking points into fully formed and relevant posts. Selfishly, I am so glad OSU is going to be playing in the Pacific Coast timeslot.

If the SEC were to take another Big 12 school, OSU seems like the logical third choice, so if super conference’s are the way of the future, the Pac-12 would be smart to grab the Pokes.

10. Big 12 Has Reportedly Formed a Subgroup to Explore Expansion

So that’s seven of the 10 most-viewed articles involving conference realignment. It makes sense. It was not only the biggest storyline of the year for OSU athletics, it was the biggest in all of college sports.

The post PFB Year in Review: The Top 10 Most-Viewed Posts of 2021 appeared first on Pistols Firing.

---

Read this original article at Pistols Firing Blog.

As we stand on the precipice of a new year, it’s a fitting time to reflect on 2021. This trip around the sun represented several challenges for all of us and was more polarizing than the last, a disturbing trend. But as far as OSU athletics is concerned, there were both historic highs and lows.

In my mind, these are the top seven Oklahoma State storylines of 2021, in no particular order.

A No. 1 Overall Pick

Despite the cloud of an FBI investigation overshadowing Oklahoma State’s men’s hoops program (more on that below), Cade Cunningham, the top prospect in the nation, made OSU fans’ year in 2020 by sticking with the Cowboys. Then in 2021, he made history as the program’s first No. 1 overall NBA Draft pick.

In his only college season, Cade led the Cowboys to their first NCAA Tournament win in six years. He treated OSU fans with plenty of big plays, games and memories. It’s a shame that he was never able to lace ’em up in front of a packed house at Gallagher-Iba Arena.

Cade has been tearing it up in his rookie season with the Detroit Pistons, despite missing time due to an injury and now having entered COVID protocols. In 25 games, he’s averaging 15.3 points, 5.2 assists, 6.2 rebounds and 1.4 steals and is in contention for Rookie of the Year, which would also be an OSU first.

The NCAA Appeal

That cloud I mentioned? It finally took a torrential downpour on top of Mike Boynton and OSU Hoops.

The NCAA rejected Oklahoma State’s appeal, upholding all sanctions, including a postseason ban handed the program for the wrong-doings of former assistant Lamont Evans. No NCAA Tournament. No NIT. No Big 12 Tournament.

It’s a harsh penalty to lay on a group of players and staff, especially since none of whom were in their current position when these infractions occurred.

To further undermine the bureaucracy — and further underline its absurdity — other schools like NC State, which were found guilty of stronger crimes, were dealt much weaker sanctions. Is it a conspiracy against one lone school in the plains? No, it’s just a byproduct of a broken system, especially when those in power of a self-governing organization have no incentive to fix it.

Another WCWS Run

Let’s lighten things up a bit, shall we?

The Cowgirls made their second consecutive Women’s’ College World Series (since there wasn’t a tournament in 2020) and beat OU. That’s one heck of a storyline.

The Cowgirls finished their 2021 season 48-12 overall record and went 15-3, good for second in the league and OSU’s best conference record of the Big 12 era. Kenny Gajewski’s teams have gotten better every season, and there’s no reason to think that won’t continue in 2022.

AJ Ferrari Wins a Natty

The confident Cowboy freshman showed up in Stillwater with plenty of fanfare, and then he earned all of it.

From the moment he stepped on campus, AJ Ferrari grabbed every microphone and commanded every camera lens. And then he tore off his t-shirt and practiced flexing at the opposing bench.

Maybe that’s not your style. But with the freshman season he had, he can afford to be trend setter.

Ferrari won an NCAA individual title as a true freshman, going 20-1 while also earning a Big 12 Championship and a bid to the US Olympic trials. I’ll let a better man than me sum it up. Here’s OSU head coach John Smith on his pupil after Ferrari won the NCAA title: “He talks a big game, and he shows a big game.”

Ferrari’s still flexing at opponents. So far in the 2021-22 season, he is 7-0 and ranked No. 1 at 197 pounds.

Mike Gundy’s Best Year Coaching

To my knowledge, Kyle Boone was the first one beating this drum, but I quickly joined the band and so should you. This has been Mike Gundy’s best job as a head coach.

The Cowboys finished No. 1 in the league in the regular season and made their first Big 12 Championship ever. They’ve tied a program record with 12 wins and could set the record on Saturday. They narrowly missed out on what would have been their first conference title in a decade and were this close to having more than a puncher’s chance at inclusion in the College Football Playoff. And they did all of that without being ranked in the preseason AP Top 25.

Football is a game of inches. Most years you could point to a half-dozen or more plays of a yard or two that would have made the difference between a team reaching its goals and falling short. This year for the Cowboys, it was just one play, and not much more than one inch. And it was all that kept them from making history.

A coach’s job is to put his players in the position to win. Was it always perfect? No. But Gundy did his job and did it in a way he’s never done before.

If OSU scores late against Baylor and leapfrogs Cincinnati for a Final Four spot, does Gundy earn another Coach of the Year award instead of Luke Fickell. I think so.

Bedlam Wins Mean More

OSU has made a consistent habit of dominating OU in athletics in recent history, but this year it meant more.

This summer, Oklahoma State closed out the 2020-21 year with another Phillips 66 Bedlam Series win, the school’s seventh in the last eight years. But the 23-12 margin (across all athletics) represented the biggest OSU win in series history.

And that tally was recorded months before Collin Oliver army-crawled to Caleb Williams and then wrapped up his ankle to seal Mike Gundy’s third football win over the Sooners.

SEC-ya later.

Big 12 Realignment

Speaking of that, there is not one sports storyline that had more impact on OSU than the OU-Texit® that rocked the world of college sports, as well as the ensuring moves that reshaped it.

The Big 12’s bell cows announced their intentions to mosey off toward the greener pastures of the Southeast this summer. That left the rest of the league scrambling, especially Oklahoma State. Every couple of days a new storyline surfaced and led the news. Would Big 12’s top schools get poached by other league? Would there be a Big 12 at all?

But, in short order, the conference came up with a plan to add BYU, Cincinnati, Houston and UCF. How well those moves will play out for the strength of the league remains to be seen, but it looks like Bob Bowlsby & Co. did the best they could and solidified the league’s future.

That foursome represents some household names when it comes to the revenue sports. Cincy is in the Final Four this year in football. Houston was in the Final Four in men’s hoops. And three of the four schools made the final CFP rankings with Cincy and BYU out-ranking Oklahoma. That’s not to mentioned Texas wasn’t even bowl eligible.

As for OU and Texas, they will be missed in terms of rivalry capital (and actual capital). But as far as OSU is concerned, if this was the final edition of the lopsided Bedlam football game played in Stillwater, at least the Cowboys got the last laugh.

The post Top 7 Oklahoma State Storylines of 2021 appeared first on Pistols Firing.

---

Read this original article at Pistols Firing Blog.

The PlayStation Fiesta Bowl will showcase two Top 10 teams with two Top 10 scoring defenses, but the deciding factor on New Year’s Day will likely come down to which quarterback outplays the other. There’s a reason it’s considered the most important position on the field.

In this pairing of passers, the juxtaposition in styles is stark with one QB’s strength being the other’s limitation — and vice versa.

Oklahoma State’s Spencer Sanders and Notre Dame’s Jack Coan operate on opposite ends of the quarterback spectrum, but the recipe for success for each this season has been the same. Manage the game, don’t try to do too much and lean on your defense. But on Saturday, it wouldn’t hurt for each to try to mimic the other just a little bit.

Before we get into that, let’s take a look at the numbers.

QB2B	Sanders	Coan
Att.	341	318
Comp.	209	215
Pct.	61.3%	67.6%
Yds	2,460	2,641
Yds/Att	7.2	8.3
TD	16	20
INT	12	6
Rating	130.3	154.4
Total QBR	64.3 (56th)	70.3 (34th)
Rushing Yds	539	-96
Rushing TDs	6	2

Sanders is a dynamic dual-threat playmaker with all the ability you could hope for. He’s got a cannon for an arm and the wheels to run away from first-level defenders. He’s also got a propensity to force the issue, which can lead to an excess of turnovers. His head coach nicknamed him the Tasmanian Devil for a reason. But you live with the bad in hopes that the good will outweigh it. It mostly has this season.

Coan, the former Wisconsin starter, is much more predictable, your prototypical game-manager. He won’t wow you with any one of his physical traits, but he rarely presses. He’s only thrown multiple picks one time in 32 career outings — and that two-INT game was three years ago. He may not win you many games, but he’s unlikely to lose you many either.

In Sanders’ last outing he threw a career-high four interceptions. Depending on who you go to for stats, Coan is indicted for either five or six all season.

Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman talked about some of his QB’s intangibles.

“He’s got that natural, just leadership, quarterback moxie about him that you like,” Freeman said. “That’s the one thing that I notice about Jack being around him, especially on the defensive side of the field, it’s just that he had that leadership capabilities that you look for in a quarterback and he makes good decisions. …

“That doesn’t mean he’s perfect, but if you have somebody that’s going to make [good decisions], a lot of times that means you’re going to take care of the football.”

But good decisions are harder to make when you’ve got big, fast men crashing the pocket and trying to put you on the turf. Oklahoma State leads the nation in sacks at 4.2 per game and Notre Dame ranks 103rd allowing 2.8. To make things even harder for Coan, he’ll be without backfield mate and Fighting Irish leading rusher Kyren Williams, who opted out of the bowl game.

Coan poses little threat to outrun Malcolm Rodriguez, but he’s able to move around a bit in the pocket. If he can extend a play or two — and make even more downfield — it would go a long toward Notre Dame’s cause. And depending on how well Sanders plays, it might be a requirement. But that’s not his strength.

Sanders was able to string together a five-game stretch in the middle of the season in which he threw nine touchdowns to just one interception. Leaning on his run game and an elite-level defense, Sanders was allowed to be a game-manager with a card up his sleeve. He just had to make enough of his signature eye-popping plays to keep a defense honest or, occasionally, break its back.

But after losing his starting center Danny Godlevske in mid-November, Sanders turned in a TD-to-INT ratio of 1:6 over his last two games in a win over Oklahoma and a loss to Baylor in the Big 12 Championship. In the latter, he was without starting running back Jaylen Warren. The Cowboys offense was one-dimensional, predictable. Sanders was put in the position to try to do too much. That’s his weakness.

But despite setting a Big 12 Championship record in picks, when OSU needed Sanders to move the ball down the field for a chance to win, he showed up. He led a long, would-be, game-winning drive. OSU had first-and-goal from the 2-yard line. The Cowboys couldn’t punch it in. Now their in the Fiesta Bowl instead of the Cotton Bowl. It stings, but it could be worse.

The good news for the Cowboys is that, unlike ND, OSU will have its RB1. Warren is back and says he’s 100 percent. And Sanders still has his veteran defense to lean on.

When I look at the way these two teams match up based upon who’s projected to see the field, I think it’s more likely that Sanders is allowed to go back to playing the role of a game-manager with a card up his sleeve and that Coan is the one who might have to try to do too much. And that bodes well for Sanders and OSU.

The post Fiesta Bowl: Spencer Sanders, Jack Coan Represent Opposite Ends of the QB Spectrum appeared first on Pistols Firing.

---

Read this original article at Pistols Firing Blog.

SCOTTSDALE, Arizona — Beni Tonga moved to the United States when he was 15, and he was perplexed with a particular American delicacy — salad.

Tonga, now a player development specialist for the Oklahoma State football team, had just moved to Utah from Tonga, an island country in the Pacific Ocean, and it was the first time he had seen anyone eat the greeny dish.

“That was a bit of a culture shock,” Tonga told PFB. “If you can imagine that, moving when you’re in high school and everybody looks different, everybody talks different, eat weird things. Salad, that’s the first time I saw people eating salad, ‘What is this? People like to eat leaves?'”

It was in high school when Tonga started playing football, a game that would grow to become how he made a living. Tonga was good enough to play at Snow College, a junior college in Ephraim, Utah. From there he finished his academics at Arizona State before returning to Snow to coach.

In 2013, Snow had a prospect the Cowboys were interested in: Ofa Hautau. Hautau was a First Team NJCAA All-American as a defensive tackle after recording 41 total tackles, five sacks and 11 tackles for loss as the Badgers went 11-1.

Hautau signed with OSU that February over offers from Utah, Oregon State, Hawaii and Utah State.

There is the old saying if you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, but if you teach him to fish you feed him for a lifetime. Mike Gundy landed a 290-pound fish in Hautau, but a few months later, he hired a fisherman in Tonga.

Tonga left Snow, where he was the running backs coach, for his position in Oklahoma State. Gundy said he hired Tonga as a way to open a gateway for Polynesian players to come Stillwater. Nearing on a decade later, and that gateway is as healthy as ever.

“Beni is an illustration of hard work and loyalty to our culture,” Gundy said. “When we hired Beni, I didn’t know Beni, he came very highly regarded. We hired him for administrative work but also as a way to communicate and build relationships with his heritage, Polynesians. There are a lot of those types of players that have played at this level on the other level and do really well, and we didn’t have a good way to communicate with them. At times, there could be language barriers, so they can be first generation or second generation back and maybe their guardians, parents, aunts, uncles, very traditional families, they might live with a bunch of people, might not even be their parents, and could be a language barrier with the Tongan language.

“He was a source of communication for us with that heritage of player has been tremendous. We actually have a Polynesian wall of honor in our office, where all their pictures are up there. I think now since he’s been here, there’s 12 or 14 that have come through here, and for the majority of them he’s been the communicator with them and their family so they could understand our culture and their culture and help us during communication in recruiting.”

Poly Cowboy Culture

Stereotypically speaking, most would imagine someone from Stillwater, Oklahoma to wear cowboy boots, a cowboy hat and a big belt buckle. Most would imagine a Polynesian to wear some sort of grass skirt and a lei. But Tonga said the cultures are actually fairly similar.

Tonga said the small-town vibes of Stillwater can actually act as a positive when pitching to Polynesian families.

“When they get to Stillwater, it has just that small-town feel like in Tonga,” Tonga said. “This is more like a village to the Polynesian people rather than a big city. So, it’s very comfortable when the parents get here. They’re like, ‘Oh yeah this is small. It’s not like the big city.’ Kind of like when I moved from Tonga [to Salt Lake City], I was shocked.”

There are five players on OSU’s 2021 roster with Polynesian heritage: Jaylen Warren, Sione Asi, Nathan Latu, Samuela Tuihalamaka and Mason Cobb. They join a lineage of Polynesian players that have joined since Tonga’s arrival that also includes guys like Hautau, Vili Leveni and Sione Finefeuiaki.

“All those guys are good, good character kids,” Tonga said. “They’re disciplined, they’re tough, they have a lot of care when it comes to football. They care about football, they care about representing their families, representing the Polynesian community and also representing their team.”

Tonga said the Poly players are a tight-knit group at OSU. He said they hang out 24/7, but it isn’t an exclusive club. Tonga said when Cobb’s parents come to town, they barbecue enough to feed a whole dorm.

Tonga, the country, is more than 6,000 miles from Stillwater. Samoa is a little closer, but still about 6,000 miles away. But as Polynesian people are moving to the United States, OSU is building a reputation as a place where Polynesian players can go and have success.

After Hautau picked OSU in 2013, Sione Palelei, a running back from Louisiana, flipped his commitment from LSU to OSU in 2014 with the Polynesian connection playing a big part in his decision.

“The best way to market is by word of mouth, especially in the Polynesian community,” Tonga said. “They feel like, ‘OK, that’s another place that we can go to.’ Now it feels a lot more familiar than, like a foreign place.

“We’re still migrating I guess, migrating from the Polynesian islands to the States, and we started out west and now we’re migrating toward the Midwest. But it feels more and more like home, and the more these guys are out here, the more guys we bring in, of course their families will come watch games and now we might be going out there to play BYU, that’s gonna open up more doors for those kids who are exploring out this way.”

A Running Back from Snow

Tonga and Warren are both Polynesian and both played running back at Snow, but Tonga said that’s where the comparisons stop.

“He’s faster,” Tonga said laughing. “He’s much tougher, and he’s a better football player.”

When asked what his best Beni Tonga story was, Warren brought up something the two apparently also don’t have in common.

“He was seeing what kind of girls I liked,” Warren said. “And there was a girl who was a little taller than me. I was like, ‘Nah, I wouldn’t go for a girl taller than me.’ He was like, ‘Why not?’ I made a joke. I want to be the man in the relationship. And later, we go to his house, and his wife is taller than him. So I’m, like, ‘Oh, shoot.’ I was like, dang. It was just going through my mind, I wonder how he felt when I said that. But it’s all love.”

In his short time with the Cowboys, Warren might already be the most recognizable player with Polynesian decent to join the program since Tonga arrived — it certainly helps that he plays a skill position.

Most of the guys Tonga has helped bring in have played at or around the line of scrimmage. Asi and Tuihalamaka are defensive tackles, Latu is a defensive end and Cobb is a linebacker.

“Skill players, they’re few and far between,” Tonga said with a laugh. “Most of the time, they make they’re living up front.”

Tonga said if you tell Warren to run through a door, he’ll do it without asking any questions. He’s gone from an unknown part of the Cowboys’ 2021 recruiting class to a season saver, rushing for 1,134 yards and 11 touchdowns. It’s the 25th time in program history a Cowboy rusher has surpassed 1,000 yards in a season.

Warren saved the Pokes in Boise with his 218-yard, two-touchdown performance in a game OSU won 21-20. Two games later he ran for 125 yards and another two scores in a 21-14 victory against Baylor. He ran for 193 yards in the Cowboys’ comeback win against Texas in Austin.

That all came from a kid who took the Tonga gateway to Stillwater.

“When he went on the portal, I know all his people,” Tonga said. “It’s crazy because the Polynesian community, it’s a small community. If I don’t know you, I’ll know somebody that knows your whole family. Like you tell me the last name, I can tell you if he’s Tongan, Samoan. If you tell me the last name of anybody that’s Tongan, I’ll tell you exactly where they’re from in Tonga. That’s how small it is, so when he went in the portal, we evaluated him, knew we wanted him. We wanted to just make sure that we were given an opportunity for him to come here, and he was like, ‘Yeah, I’m all in.’

“So I reached out to his people, and I know his uncle real well. Me and him were good friends growing up so. Then obviously from Snow College, I reached out to everybody there, and everybody said the same thing. Everywhere he’s been he’s a guy that wants to do everything right. He’ll give you everything he’s got.”

The post Beni Tonga’s Gateway for Polynesian Players to Go to OSU Is as Strong as Ever appeared first on Pistols Firing.

---

Read this original article at Pistols Firing Blog.

The Daily Bullets are brought to you by Hoboken Coffee: Get 20% off your first order. 

---

OSU Bullets

• My goodness did Jaylen Warren leave a mark in his one year in Stillwater – this interview with Warren and the TW shows how enjoyable the guy is off the field too

• Catch the latest PFB pod with Fiesta Bowl picks and a recent PFB pod to preview tomorrow’s Fiesta Bowl

• There’s something poetic about OSU ending up in the desert at the Fiesta Bowl again after coming up just short of competing for a national title. It’s hard to get past just how close the Pokes were though:

Still, those two defeats (against Iowa State and Baylor) were particularly frustrating. All kinds of teams lose by a point or two. Few lose by an inch or two, much less twice. 

You can make the argument that the Cowboys are as close to unbeaten as any team in America, other than Cincinnati, which did indeed win them all. 

[NewsOK]

• Kasey Dunn looks ahead to 2022 and points out a schematic change that will ideally take place –

“If we can get to the point where we can spread it out a little bit more, take the pressure off the front, deal the football out to some skill kids and let them run in space, I think that is the key right now,”

[TulsaWorld]

• What makes promos like this for students so compelling is how much fun it would be to spend time with Mike Boynton and Co.:

Hey students… We know it’s the holiday break. But we need you back next week.

How about an extra incentive #NewEra I #GoPokes pic.twitter.com/vv2fxeydCC

— OSU Cowboy Basketball (@OSUMBB) December 30, 2021

• Dax Hill may or may not be available during the Wolverine’s CFP game:

Jim Harbaugh calls Daxton Hill a “game-time decision.” pic.twitter.com/vBrWwSJqCY

— TheWolverine.com (@TheWolverineOn3) December 30, 2021

---

Non-OSU Bullets

• Solid thoughts in “100 simple truths”
• Loved these New Year’s resolutions from Kevin DeYoung (faith-based)

Laughed so hard at this:

Starbucks Husbands pic.twitter.com/d1MWafM7hX

— Trey Kennedy (@TreyNKennedy) December 30, 2021

The post Daily Bullets (Dec. 31): Previewing the Fiesta Bowl appeared first on Pistols Firing.

---

Read this original article at Pistols Firing Blog.

Carson Cunningham and Colby Powell are joined by KJRH’s Cayden McFarland, a lifelong Notre Dame fan, and give their picks for the Fiesta Bowl.

You know what helps the show and helps us make more shows? When you rate us on Apple Podcasts or subscribe to our pod: Apple Podcasts | Google Play | Stitcher | SoundCloud | Overcast

As always, we appreciate our sponsor Chris’ University Spirit.

The post PFB Podcast Ep. 437: Cayden McFarland, Fiesta Bowl Picks appeared first on Pistols Firing.

---

Read this original article at Pistols Firing Blog.