I had mentioned earlier that OSU will be without their DC in the Holiday bowl. The ducks offense is extremely difficult to prepare for and when I read articles like this I am more encouraged about the OVER.
OSU coaches hold group effort
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9
BY Scott Wright
Published: December 14, 2008
STILLWATER
— The
Oklahoma State defense is moving ahead without its leader, but Tim Beckman’s departure to become the head coach at
Toledo hasn’t hindered the
Cowboys yet.
OU head coach Bob Stoops, left, and OSU head coach Mike Gundy talk before the game during the first half of the college football game between the University of Oklahoma Sooners (OU) and Oklahoma State University Cowboys (OSU) at Boone Pickens Stadium on Saturday, Nov. 29, 2008, in Stillwater, Okla. STAFF PHOTO BY NATE BILLINGS
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It’s just making everyone work a little harder.
Beckman was joined by graduate assistant
Alex Golesh at Toledo, leaving the Cowboys with a shrinking group of defensive coaches, including only three who are actually on staff, along with a couple grad assistants.
"Everything’s the same — practice and structure, it’s all the same,” head coach
Mike Gundy said. "We have to make up for two guys not being there. We pulled the guys off the road from recruiting the last few days so they could get structured.”
Plans in two key areas had to be resolved: how the defense would be managed and who would coach linebackers, the position previously handled by Beckman.
Defensive line coach
Glenn Spencer has taken over the linebackers, and the game plan and scheming for
Oregon in the Dec. 30
Holiday Bowl will be a group effort involving Spencer, safeties coach and special teams coordinator
Joe DeForest and cornerbacks coach
Jason Jones.
Assistant strength coach and former OSU defensive lineman
Greg Richmond has stepped in to help out in practice.
"We’re a couple men short, but we’ve got good coaches in that room that have picked up the slack,” DeForest said. "The system’s in place. We just have to do a good job of continuing to do what we’ve done all year.”
And junior linebacker
Andre Sexton says the players are helping shoulder some of the load.
"The players, as leaders, have got to step up and keep things going in practice, because we don’t have those two extra coaches to get on you,” he said.