Some mid-week links
Thanks to the Bleacher Report for providing the Pro Draft Guide’s story on the battle between Zac Robinson and Sam Bradford to be the state’s best quarterback.
According to Michigan Web site MLive.com, this year’s Bedlam game is among its 19 potential upsets in college football this season.
Here’s an interesting feature from a Washington paper on a WSU player battling back from injury.
And finally, Newsweek offers a profile on OSU alum and billionaire Boone Pickens.
News and notes from Stillwater
By Scott Wright
A few noteworthy items from the last two days of football workouts in Stillwater:
– Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy spent his 41st birthday doing what he loves — coaching football.
“Two-a-days and a full day of work,” the coach said after Tuesday’s evening practice. “Then dinner and meetings with the players until 9:30, and the staff until about 11. And that wraps it up.”
– A reminder: OSU is inviting all public servants in the state, including military personnel, law enforcement officials and firefighters, to attend practice Friday. The two-hour practice will begin at 5 p.m. in Boone Pickens Stadium, with gates opening at 4:30 p.m.
An occupational identification is all that will be required to for admission for public servants and their families. A meet-and-greet session with the football team will follow. Due to time constraints, the players will not be able to participate in an autograph session.
– Gundy offered further thougths on Saturday’s scrimmage:
On middle linebacker Orie Lemon — “Orie is playing better. Orie is growing up. He’s 250 pounds and he still runs fast. And he’s understanding the laws of physics, where if you hit them harder than they hit you, it’s gonna feel better.”
On the offense — “We moved too slow, which we talked about afterwards. Both quarterbacks played pretty well, actually. They’ve made some mistakes and thrown the ball in coverage a little bit, but for the most part they handled themselves pretty well. Offensively, we had a lot of missed assignments, didn’t play very well.”
On the defense — “The first-team defense played pretty well, did not have very many missed tackles. The second defense and young guys on defense missed quite a few tackles. The No. 1 defense didn’t have a lot of missed assignments, which is good.”
On Donald Booker’s big hit on receiver William Cole — “He’s got a pretty good feel for showing up at the right time. And he hit Will Cole 17 yards deep. That’s a pretty good drop for a ‘backer. It was nice to see the hit, but it was also nice to see Will Cole pop up. He’s come a long way.”
– Lastly, ESPN.com’s Tim Griffin offers a ranking of Big 12 linebackers, a traditionally strong position in the conference. OSU’s Patrick Lavine makes the top 10.
OSU launches POSSE membership drive
FROM OSU ATHLETICS OFFICE
“This is an exciting time to be involved with OSU Athletics,” POSSE Director Jason Penry said. “We have great momentum in our annual fundraising efforts and are grateful for the high level of participation in the POSSE from alumni, parents, fans, staff and friends of OSU.”
(more…)
A little Cougar talk
By Scott Wright
Here’s a blurb from Howie Stalwick of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, which discussed a recent injury to Washington State receiver Jeshua Anderson, who I wrote about in Monday’s OSU football notebook:
WULFF PEEVED: A number of projected starters and key reserves have missed practice with leg injuries – hamstrings are particularly popular – and Wulff has made it clear he has limited sympathy for some of the limping wounded.
“We need to make sure if a guy can practice, even though he’s nicked up, he needs to practice,” Wulff said. “We haven’t grasped that yet, I don’t think.”
Two players with injuries that could sideline them for the Aug. 30 season opener versus Oklahoma State in Seattle are projected starting wide receivers Jeshua Anderson (hernia) and Daniel Blackledge (hamstring).
Anderson is scheduled for surgery today. Wulff said “standard” recovery time from procedures of that type is six weeks.
SIX WEEKS?!?! Paul Wulff must be crazy. Or at least never had hernia surgery. I had mine four months ago this Friday and I still don’t feel like I’m ready to go across the middle against Lucien Antoine. It took me 10 weeks to feel comfortable swinging a golf club again.
Of course, Jeshua Anderson is probably a little tougher than I am. Still, one helmet to the midsection, and I don’t care how tough you are. It’s gonna hurt.
Monday afternoon links
* The Big 12 breaks down this year’s Cowboys.
* Watching Bob Fenimore, one of the Cowboys’ all-time greats.
* More on OSU’s scrimmage and here.
* Going to the no-huddle is a hot topic.
Scrimmage thoughts and a few links
By Scott Wright
There’s part of me that wants to say Brandon Weeden is a sure thing to win the backup quarterback job. He’s got the body, the arm and the talent. Yes, he’s a little behind Alex Cate mentally, because Cate has been running a similar offense the last five years, while Weeden was trying to blow fastballs by minor-league hitters.
But without knowing the intricacies of the offense, it seems easy to point to Weeden as the guy.
There are two things holding me back, however.
One, I don’t know the intricacies of the offense. I don’t know if Weeden is missing reads, throwing to the wrong guy or messing up plays entirely.
Two, the fact that the battle is still going on must mean the coaches see something in Cate that they like. He’s a good short- and mid-range passer. He knows the offense and keeps it organized.
With the amount of time left before the season, I think Gundy would be safe going with the more physically gifted Weeden and trying to let him gain the experience and understanding of the offense. We’ll see how the situation progresses this week.
There’s at least a little concern about the interior of the OSU defense. I think they have a lot of talent, but the biggest questions are up the middle — defensive tackles and middle linebacker.
I think you’ll see a lot of rotation at both spots as Gundy tries to rely on the junior-college transfers to help out, especially DT Swanson Miller and MLB Donald Booker. Lucien Antoine will be a boost to the secondary, too.
Now, for your reading pleasure:
– Interesting to see how the Troy folks feel about OSU having revenge on its mind this season.
– This linebacker from Milledgeville, Ga., committed to Clemson over OSU and a few other schools. To my knowledge, Hawkins wasn’t real high on OSU’s list. But it’s interesting to see how hard the Cowboy coaches are recruiting Georgia. They have at least five offers out to Georgia high school players right now and had four others to players who have committed elsewhere.
– The Bleacher Report tries its hand at projecting the bowls. With a baby on the way in March, I don’t think Shreveport is a good destination for me, my money and my marginal poker skills.
Policies announced for scrimmage
FROM OSU ATHLETICS OFFICE
STILLWATER, Okla. – Fans who plan on attending Saturday’s Oklahoma State football open scrimmage should be advised that gate six on the south side of Boone Pickens Stadium will open at 4:30 p.m. This will be the only point of entry into the stadium. Fans should park in the stadium south lot and should sit in the south stands. The club level and suite level will be closed. Fans should not bring cameras, video cameras or cell phone cameras into the stadium.
Fans are permitted to bring chair-back seats and seat cushions into the stadium for this scrimmage, but will not be allowed to on gamedays during the season. This is a new policy for 2008. Another new policy is that the stadium gates will open 1 1/2 hours before kickoff on gamedays during the season, as opposed to two hours prior to kickoff as in past years.
Fun Q&A with former Cowboy Luke Scott
Former OSU baseball player Luke Scott was recently featured in a Q&A segment on the Web site for the New York Daily News.
And Cowboy fans ought to love the way he looks in the photo, wearing his throwback OSU Baltimore Orioles uniform.
Will Robinson play Saturday?
By Scott Wright
As you saw in today’s OSU football notebook, Mike Gundy is thinking about some different ways to create separation between Brandon Weeden and Alex Cate in their backup QB battle.
He mentioned the possibility of holding Robinson out of Saturday’s scrimmage. But that isn’t all about Weeden and Cate.
“Zac doesn’t really need to prove anything. We know where we’re at with him,” Gundy said. “One thing that Zac does is he fatigues himself, because he goes hard all the time, runs all the time.”
Gundy also talked Thursday about how pleased he has been through the first week of fall camp.
“I really like where we’re at with the team,” he said. “I think we’re in good shape. We don’t have a lot of fat on the team. Guys are coming together. We have good chemistry. Other than (running back Keith) Toston, we’ve stayed healthy. We haven’t had anybody else that has gotten injured since we started.
“We’re in good shape. We just have to keep practicing hard and get ready for the scrimmage Saturday and just let guys go out and play.”
The scrimmage begins at 5 p.m. inside Boone Pickens Stadium and is open to the public.
Cowgirls soccer team opens practice
FROM OSU ATHLETICS OFFICE
STILLWATER, Okla. – The Oklahoma State soccer team opened preseason practice Thursday, with 30 players reporting to head coach Colin Carmichael’s Cowgirl squad.The Cowgirls will have two-a-day practices for nine days before opening the 2008 season with an exhibition match against TCU on Aug. 16 in Stillwater.
OSU opens the regular season Aug. 23 at SMU.
