Sophomore running back Kendall Hunter rushed for 696 yards last season. He and junior Beau Johnson will have to replace senior Dantrell Savage, who was the Cowboys’ leading rusher with 1,272 yards.
By Jeff Latzke
STILLWATER, Okla. (AP) — Andre Sexton is tired of seeing preseason polls list Oklahoma State in about the same spot every single year, but he also knows the best way to change it.
Instead of being oh-so-close to knocking off their Big 12 South foes, the Cowboys must actually get the job done. When that finally happens, Sexton will be able to return home to his native Texas without getting constant ribbing.
Oklahoma State has come oh-so-close to knocking off Texas in recent years, and last year squandered a 21-point second half lead for a heartbreaking 38-35 loss.
What would it mean if the Cowboys got that breakthrough win?
“You want to prove everybody wrong and you want them to start believing. If we can go out there and do that, then I think everybody’s view of us would change. They’ll stop ranking us in the same spot every year in the Big 12 South — between Baylor and Tech or somebody,” said Sexton, a linebacker.
“Slowly, we can start creeping our way up there but we have to earn everybody’s respect before that can happen.”
The road to respect begins on defense, where the Cowboys didn’t even crack the top 100 in the country last season. They gave up an average of 443 yards and their pass defense ranked 112th out of 119 teams.
“We couldn’t get to the passer and we couldn’t stop the run,” head coach Mike Gundy said. “That’s not a good combination.”
What has been working for Oklahoma State is offense, and plenty of it. The Cowboys ranked seventh in the nation with an average of 486 yards last season while scoring 34.6 points per game. But Gundy knows what has to happen for his team to take the next step.
To win the Big 12, “the teams that have won it in the past have played good defense. We’re aware of that,” Gundy said. “But you also better be able to score in this league because the majority of the teams in this league can score a lot of points.”
It’ll be up to quarterback Zac Robinson — who set a school record for total offense last season — to keep the Cowboys going without top rusher Dantrell Savage and leading receiver Adarius Bowman. Most of the offense is back, but Savage and Bowman combined for 2,548 all-purpose yards last season.
On defense, Gundy is going the junior college route to add experience quickly.
He brought in five junior college transfers, including three linemen, in hopes of bolstering a unit that wore down late in games, most notably in the loss to Texas and a 17-point meltdown against Texas A&M.
Tackles Swanson Miller and Chris Donaldson could be the 300-pound run stuffers the Cowboys have been missing inside, while Jeremiah Price could figure into the mix at defensive end. The Cowboys also must rebuild at linebacker where two starters are gone.
“With the way our offenses are in the conference, everybody’s spread out and you’ve got to play speed with speed,” Sexton said. “We’ve got a lot more speed out there.”
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