STILLWATER — The problem with spring football is if one unit is having success, it's natural to ask what's wrong with the other unit.
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Since the buzz all spring was the defense's noticeable improvement, is there concern part of the defense's progress was due to a hit-and-miss offense?
No.
Coach Mike Gundy and the staff believe the offense will be just fine. It would be a mistake to read too much into the offense's performance because of two extenuating circumstances.
First, quarterback Zac Robinson's unique running skills on the zone read option are rarely used during spring practices. On Saturdays that play sets up the entire offense.
Secondly, tight end Brandon Pettigrew didn't participate all spring due to a splint on his right ring finger. That's a much bigger variable than you might think.
"He's probably our best player on offense, a potential No. 1 (draft pick),” said co-offensive coordinator Gunter Brewer. "Not having him in there is a huge difference in a one-back, tight end oriented offense. You put that piece of the puzzle in there and it changes a lot of things.”
Robinson agrees.
"In my opinion Pettigrew is the glue that sticks the whole offense together,” Robinson said. "He does so many things. On option plays, he blocks things up. On pass plays he either sucks up a couple guys to him or gets open.
"Missing him hurt us. We'll be fine when we get him back. This offense should reload and be just like it was last year.”
Credit the defense. Tim Beckman's crew is much improved. But it was unusual to watch an offense that ranked seventh in the nation struggle much of the spring.
"(Dantrell) Savage and (Adarius) Bowman aren't easy to replace just like that,” Gundy said. "And Pettigrew didn't play. I think the offense will be just fine. I actually prefer it would end this way. The defense played pretty good the last few weeks.
"Some things we were looking for was to get pressure on the quarterback and to slow people down. In the (spring) game I didn't see a lot of guys miss tackles or receivers running wide open. For the most part our defense (played well). It hasn't been that way around here.”
But for fans accustomed to 30 to 40 points a game, a 9-7 final score in the spring game was shocking.
"I thought there would be two or three touchdowns on both sides,” Gundy said. "Part of it was due to a lack of experience at the wideout spot. We have some good young players who haven't played a lot. It limited some of the big-play opportunities…
"I was a little surprised (by the low score) but I'm OK with it. I'm confident when we get going offensively we'll be able to move the football. And I liked the improvement I saw on defense.”
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Gosh Roy, that article is full of facts. Man, you should trust what Reid and his mommy say about OSU and Gundy. Really. HAHA, what a moron. At least I don't PRETEND to know all about OU football. Loser.
I do wish we could resurrect Pete (Frank Eaton) and send him to Ardmore to shoot a certain OU bandwagon fan. I bet most OU alumni would chip in and by bullets. He is a joke, but he is not funny!
I’VE READ ENOUGH of the bickering!!!! It is time for a comment on the Orange/White scrimmage. That OSU defense did look like a solid unit. There were several JUCO transfers and redshirt Frosh that seemed to step up to tackle and hit. Pursuit by the D-Ends and the pressure from the D-Tackle positions looked good. Swanson Miller only got one statistic tackle, but it seems like he really wreaked havoc in the middle. Not only Miller, but several defensive linemen seemed to stop things up in the middle better than even Ryan McBean and Larry Brown did in years past. The speed of the defense overall was impressive. R. Jones looked great! There was a RS freshman who got ten tackles. Wow! If anyone else has a comment on the scrimmage, I believe old ARDMORE must have gone to the toilet to smoke a joint. Let’s talk OSU while he is recharging his batteries.
Roy, see you here back in the fall and look forward to the time when OSU will surpass the 5 win total so you can no longer write these stupid comments. And they will surpass it pretty early in the year.
Strange that G of Shawnee would mention that OU stole their pep song from Yale. My wife and I were on a cruise off South America and our table mates one night were people who had graduated from Yale. They knew about OSU's football team and admitted that Yale didn't have much of one. The discourse continued until one of the Yale people griped about a certain shool in Oklahoma stealing their fight song. Said they might have a good football team, but otherwise thought of them as a bunch of thieves. Little did they know that Sooners represent thieves because they cheated in the land rush.
To put it simply...Aaron is right. The AD and the coaches no longer pull the strings in Stillwater. OSU has let TBP in and gave him more control than they should have. Now they're in too deep. It's like the NCAA and how they've given too much control to the television stations.
Hey, itmustsucktobeyou: OSU actually OWNS the trademark on the Pistol Pete logo, and it is NMSU and Wyoming that are infringing. The original was inadvertently included in the catalog of the company that made the various PP products for Okla A&M. OSU asked both infringers to desist, but stopped short of taking any legal action. Wyoming actually did stop using it, and chose a Cowboy on a bucking bronc instead. As someone else has mentioned, the logo itself is an caricature of Frank "Pistol Pete" Eaton, who was an early 20th century lawman who settled in Perkins in his later years and often lectured on early Oklahoma at OAMC and later OSU. He died in 1957, the same year of the name change to OSU. I think he was 97 yo when he passed away. He is a cherished symbol of OAMC/OSU. The OAMC pep club asked him for his permission to use his image as their mascot and he has been the mascot since then. For years he appeared in the homecoming parade as grand marshal. I saw him lecture a couple of times in 1956 as an OAMC freshman. He always brought his actual pistol from his lawman days, and it had 7 notches on it. (I think most of them must have been Sooners!). Once in the Student Union it actually went off and shot a hole in the ceiling! After that they always had someone double check to see that it was unloaded!
Gundy knows he isn't in control anyway. With that egotist T-Bone on the trigger he knows the wrong loss or choice of words could mean his job. T-Bone has them walking on egg shells.
You hillbillies crack me up with you control issues. I don't tell you how to act, I just tell you what I think. Try controlling your children so my tax dollars don't have to pay for their WIC and all that other welfare BS. Let me guess God told you to save me by blogging. Anyone who says God told them anything is schytzophrenic. You bible belt hillbillies need to be quarantined.
Amen Kathy. It would be hard to believe that some of the people on here who act like children would say the same things in public with a group of people face to face. The internet gives them a sense of security and brings out the kind of people they really are, petty, childish, and rude. There really is no call for it, and it truly is rediculous. Immature comment should simply not be responded to, if at all possible. Childish comments should stay out of grown folks' conversation.
In order to justify OU's new mascot, a dog, Danny (or itmustsucktobeosu) has to make himself feel better by attempting to do research about other programs that use some form of a cowboy. Pistol Pete is great for OSU because he is actually Frank Eaton, who was a sheriff I believe in an Oklahoma county. Thank you Danny, for making yourself feel better and look stupid at the same time. Come back and discuss, it will be good.
Why dont you big whining babies grow up and appreciate the Great colleges we do have in our Great Stateof Oklahoma .And who gives a flying flip about who has what kind of a mascot, It's all so trival to be argueing over a mascot,so for those of you that has nothing else to do but get on here and write abunch of "B.S." Grow up and find something more intereting to do with your life.... Like make a diffrence that counts!!
The reason Arron and danny/itmustsucktobeyou come over to these artilce is becasue no one on teh OU articles will give them teh time of day. THey think they are idiots.
Funny how this is an article about our Spring game and see no mention of Pistol Pete anywhere in the article. What on earth is your reasoning for posting that comment itmustsucktobeosu, ardmore? With all the degrading crap I have seen you post, you must have hit a desperate point if you couldn't find anything else in this article to reference. I'm just glad my OU friends aren't as trivial as you; oh yeah, they have class!
itmustsucktobeosu, ardmore Must be trying to get over the fact that OU can't even come up with its own fight song. Had to steal it note for note from Yale-Boola Boola !!!!
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