On the eve of their team’s second game of the season Saturday in San Antonio, Oklahoma State fans are still talking up the Cowboy defense.
Let that one sink in for a minute.
Orange Nation isn’t crowing about Mike Gundy’s point-a-minute offense after OSU’s victory over Mississippi State last week in Houston. Instead, Gundy says the offense is only “average,” and doesn’t seem to mind that defense is the talk of the town.
“No question, and deservedly so,” Gundy said on Monday. “It’s interesting the response I get from text messaging family or friends. My general response was, ‘It’s OK to win on defense once in awhile.’ When you don’t play as well, everybody talks about ‘You can’t win in the long run because you’re not performing on defense.’ Then when you play well, everybody talks about, ‘Well, how come the offense wasn’t doing any good?’ I guess that’s just the way it is.”
These are new days indeed for OSU football.
“I’m proud of ’em for that day,” defensive coordinator Glenn Spencer said. “What we practiced, they practiced it, they executed it. They executed the game plan for the most part. I’m pleased with that. But it’s put to bed now. It really is. I know everybody wants to reflect on that game, and that’s your job, but in their mind, and we told them this (Sunday), it’s one game and it’s over. All it’s gonna take is one game next week and everybody’s not gonna be patting ’em on the back any more.”
It was probably a good thing that school was out Monday for Labor Day. Instead of listening to their classmates and fans tell them how great they played, they got a full day of Spencer and his aides reminding them of Mississippi State’s early offensive success.
“It didn’t take long in that film room to get their attention with those first couple drives,” Spencer said, “or for them to see what a fine line it is between being successful and not being successful and how clear it was.”
But getting an OSU defense to stay grounded isn’t that hard, Spencer said. Not only were there too many big plays allowed at Reliant Stadium, but shaky defensive performances have loomed over the program for a decade. One game at a time, Spencer warns, regardless of external praise.
“I can’t live in that world where I listen to that. Because I realize you’re one game away from those same people talking about how bad we are. I’ve been on both ends of that. All that matters is the next one.
“I’m always uncomfortable,” Spencer said. “I’m always the eternal pessimist that you don’t have everything covered. I’m always anxious about what’s gonna happen when you get on the field, and I don’t think that’s ever gonna change. Even though you feel like you’ve practiced well and prepared well, it’s just the next game. I’ll be uptight the next game. I’ll be anxious the next game and hoping they go out and perform well. It’s like no matter how well you think you are going into the game, I’ve been around long enough to know there’s good and bad gonna happen on any given play, and that’s kind of what I’m concerned about, that next play and that next game.”
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