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Dec. 22—Coach Mike Gundy overheard some Oklahoma State football staff members discussing the Texas Bowl matchup with Texas A&M, and he didn’t like what they were saying.
“I heard somebody down the hallway say that this defense looks like Texas did, so I turned around and went the other way,” Gundy said two days after the Big 12 Championship Game. “I didn’t want to hear it.”
He reiterated the Aggies’ defensive prowess at his Wednesday press conference.
“The team we’re playing is very, very, very talented and very physical,” Gundy said. “The last two games, we’ve played the No. 1 ranked defense in the Big 12, and now we’re playing the No. 1 ranked defense in the SEC.”
True … sort of.
Texas A&M leads Georgia by 0.2 yards per game as the SEC’s best total defense. It’s also No. 1 in first downs allowed, rushing defense, sacks and tackles for loss.
But those stats belong to A&M’s logo.
They aren’t indicative of a team with a new defensive play caller and an interim head coach, nor a team that lost defensive lineman Walter Nolen — the No. 1 player in the transfer portal — as well as five other defensive starters who appeared in a combined 154 games for the Aggies.
The A&M defense that will line up against OSU on Wednesday isn’t No. 1 in the SEC.
And offensively, the Aggies are fundamentally different without former coach Jimbo Fisher (for all of his warts), former offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino and former starting quarterback Max Johsnon.
“We haven’t an idea on a lot of schemes, so we practiced hard against each other and we put a package together for Texas A&M that gives us a variety of ways we can go based on what we could potentially see in the game,” Gundy said. “I saw they had a wideout just leave a day or two ago, and I don’t know if he’s playing in the bowl or not. We just have what’s left on paper.”
The Cowboys…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/texas-bowl-preview-oklahoma-state-045900401.html
Author : Stillwater NewsPress, Okla.
Publish date : 2023-12-23 04:59:00
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