Oklahoma State football: Is scout team quarterback a secret weapon?

Several of the walls in the west end zone of Boone Pickens Stadium are currently covered with “FatHeads” (life-size wall graphics) of Cowboys in the NFL. Gundy said the plan is to reduce the size of those by about 50 percent to make room for photos of former walk-ons — to remind current OSU players that not everybody has their school paid for, and that hard work can eventually pay off.

“It's surprising how many guys we've had that have contributed and done it for free,” Gundy said.

IN OPENER, GUNDY WOULD RATHER HAVE PLAYERS UNDERWORKED

The overwhelming question following Oklahoma State's 84-0 throttling of Savannah State was if the Cowboy starters and backups got enough work to adequately prepare for their first road game at Arizona on Saturday night.

Several first-teamers only played 10-20 snaps. Before the second quarter began, the score was already 35-0, and the competition level was so low that any additional reps likely wouldn't have been all that beneficial, anyway.

Gundy said Monday that he wished the players in the two-deep would have gotten more quality reps. But for a defense that was on the field 1,089 plays last season and an offense that tallied 989 snaps, Gundy preferred those players to be underworked in their season opener — especially when the field temperature at kickoff was 127 degrees.

“As a coach, you want to get your players enough work to where you feel like they've advanced in different areas and gotten prepared for the next week,” Gundy said. “But you don't want to get them too much work to where they stress their bodies, they stress their legs or could, at times, been vulnerable to some sort of an injury.

“We would have liked to have had more work. It didn't work out that way. But if we had to choose, I would rather have that than have them play 85 or 90 plays in 100-degree weather.”