Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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www.BLUEANDGOLD.com JANUARY 2022 35 GAME PREVIEW: OKLAHOMA STATE 1. A Workhorse Running Back Like Notre Dame before Kyren Williams turned pro, a running back is the heartbeat of Oklahoma State's offense. Jaylen Warren, a graduate transfer from Utah State, has rushed for 1,134 yards and 11 touch- downs on 237 carries (4.8 yards per rush) this season. Only 13 Football Bowl Subdivision run- ning backs have carried the ball more than he has. Also like Williams, Warren gives defenses fits when they try to wrap him up. He has forced 76 missed tackles this year, per Pro Football Focus, which ranks third among players with at least 150 carries. He averages 3.14 yards after contact per rush, which ranks 41st. (Williams, for comparison, is 11th in missed tackles forced and 15th in yards after contact per carry). Warren did not play in the Big 12 champion- ship game Dec. 4 due to an injury. Without him, Oklahoma State's 26 running back carries aver- aged a measly 1.27 yards. The Cowboys lost to Baylor, 21-16. Notre Dame's run defense will be one of the better units Warren and Oklahoma State face this year. The Irish are allowing 3.69 yards per carry, which is tied for 36th nationally. They have not allowed any of their last four opponents to top 3.7 yards per carry, and two of them failed to rush for 100 yards. 2. Defensive Shift In a majority of Mike Gundy's 17 years as head coach, Oklahoma State's identity has centered around a high-scoring and prolific passing offense. The Cowboys finished 15th or higher in yards per pass attempt six times and points per game seven times from 2010-19. That has come with moderate interest in defense. From 2014-18 — the height of the Big 12's offensive explosion — Oklahoma State ended five seasons ranked 75th or worse in yards per play allowed. This year, though, that has flipped, with Oklahoma State and with the Big 12 overall. Oklahoma State's defense ranks fourth in yards per play (4.41), eighth in scoring (16.8 points per game), first in sacks per game (4.23) and first in tackles for loss per game (8.5). Its offense, meanwhile, is 91st in yards per play (5.4), 80th in yards per pass attempt (7.2) and 66th in pass attempts per game (30.5). "When you watch Big 12 football now, there's a lot of good defense being played," Notre Dame offensive coordinator Tommy Rees said. "A lot of the new way with defensive football has been a 3-3-5 structure you saw from Iowa State in 2019 when we played them in the [Camping World Bowl]. "The conference has been very innovative that way because they've had to stop high-powered offenses. You see a lot of what they've imple- mented in that conference trickle over across college football." Oklahoma State's 2018 hire of Duke's Jim Knowles as defensive coordinator brought steady improvement that led to this season's dominant unit. Knowles, though, will not coach in the bowl game after accepting the same position at Ohio State. The Cowboys' defensive talent is hard to miss, too. All-American linebacker Malcolm Rodriguez has 112 tackles (14.0 for loss). Oklahoma State has three defensive ends with at least 10 tackles for loss (freshman Collin Oliver, redshirt junior Tyler Lacy and redshirt senior Brock Martin). 3. Ups And Downs At Quarterback Spencer Sanders' third year as Oklahoma State's starting quarterback has contained some heavy ebbs and flows. There are highs, such as his 344-yard, two-touchdown day in a 31-20 win over Kansas State Sept. 25. There are also lows. He has five games with either multiple interceptions or a completion rate below 52 percent. Without Warren, Sanders shouldered additional weight in the Big 12 cham- pionship game. He threw four interceptions and zero touchdowns. He was intercepted twice in a rivalry game win over then-No. 10 Oklahoma Nov. 27. All told, he has thrown 16 touchdowns, 12 interceptions and is completing 61.3 percent of his passes. He's a threat as a runner, though, even when he isn't throwing the ball well. Sanders is averaging 4.2 yards per carry this year, has 1,440 career rush yards and 10 rushing touchdowns. — Patrick Engel Gundy didn't pin it all on Sanders. "We didn't protect him very well, and you guys know that when we had these discussions on Mondays or Saturdays after the game, my message is pretty similar; if we protect him well and rush the ball, then he usually plays pretty well, and I think that is consistent with any quarterback," Gundy said. "I don't think it's just Spencer. I think it's high school, college, NFL quarterbacks." Oklahoma State was still in a position to beat Baylor because of its defense, one of the best in the country. Only Wisconsin and Georgia allow fewer yards per game than Oklahoma State (278.4). The Cowboys have more sacks (55) than any other team in the country. Freshman defensive end Collin Oliver leads the way with 11.5. Oklahoma State is toward the top of just about every ma- jor defensive list: No. 1 in tackles for loss (8.69 per game), No. 2 in opponent third down conversion rate (26.1 percent), No. 5 in rushing defense (91.2), No. 8 in scoring defense (16.8) and No. 12 in passing defense (187.2) in a conference that prides itself on the pass. It's been an impressive year for the Oklahoma State defense, but the archi- tect of it will not be with the team in Ari- zona. Defensive coordinator Jim Knowles left for the same position at Ohio State. Gundy said he obviously tried to get Knowles to stay, but Oklahoma State could not match the Buckeyes' offer. It's a big loss for the Cowboys, but they're in a New Year's Six bowl game against Notre Dame for more reasons than just what Knowles has done. Remember: players play. Coaches just coach. There will be elite levels of both going on at State Farm Stadium on the first day of 2022. ✦ Jaylen Warren has rushed for 1,134 yards and has the 14th-most carries of any running back in the country (237). PHOTO COURTESY OKLAHOMA STATE ATHLETICS Three Things To Know About Oklahoma State