Ollie Gordon can carry a heavy load for Oklahoma State. Here's why Mike Gundy hopes he won't need to
Cowboy coach has eye on tailback's health, future.
STILLWATER — Mike Gundy was talking football midway through last season with one of his harshest critics: his youngest son.
The Oklahoma State coach had told reporters that he preferred to limit Ollie Gordon to 20 carries a game. Even though the Cowboy tailback had games with more carries than that, Gundy admitted he wasn't all that comfortable pushing Gordon beyond 20.
Gage Gundy took issue with that.
"Dad, he's better 20 to 30 than he is one to 20," his father remembers him saying. "For some reason, he likes it and feeds off of it."
The elder Gundy couldn't disagree; Gordon did seem to get stronger the more he carried the ball.
But none of that changed Gundy's belief about Gordon's workload.
"Twenty would be good," Gundy said last week when I asked what he sees as a reasonable workload for Gordon this season. "Twenty carries would be good for him, good for us.
"Will there be times he has to carry it more? Probably. Will there be times where he can carry it less? Hopefully."
As the Cowboys prepare for their season opener Saturday against South Dakota State, all eyes will be on Gordon. He's a Heisman Trophy contender who's been widely hailed as not only the best running back in the nation but also one of the best players in all of college football.
Pro Football Focus recently ranked Gordon as the second-best player in the nation, behind only Colorado's two-way phenom Travis Hunter.
But ...
"Gordon has a strong argument to lead this list," Pro Football Focus wrote, "as the only player in college football who was the best at his position last year and returned to school."
Considering Gordon's talent — and his ability to run stronger as he runs more — why would Gundy want to keep that carry count at 20?
The answer is in the question: Gordon's talent.
Gundy wants to protect Gordon as much as possible.
"Protect him for us and protect him for the NFL," Gundy said.
Let's look at those two things separately.
First, the Cowboys need Gordon to stay healthy. He is the most important player on this team because so much of the offense is built around him, a rarity in this quarterback-dominant era of football. When OSU leaned into him and the run game at the start of conference play last season, it turned around everything. It opened up the passing game. It took pressure off the defense.
It was a win-win-win.
OSU hopes to win even more this season with an Ollie-centric offense, so he needs to avoid injury. Trying to limit him to 20 carries a game, of course, is no guarantee that he will not be injured; injuries can happen on the first play of the game as easily as the last. But reducing the contact a tailback takes is never a bad idea.
"The college and NFL level, running backs take a lot of hits," Gundy said. "More than any other position because they’re getting it from all angles."
Gordon has done what he can to better take the hits, adding almost 20 pounds since last season. Now listed at 6-foot-2, 225 pounds, he should be able to take (and dish out) contact even better.
"He's just a kid. He's young. He's growing," Gundy said of Gordon, who won't turn 21 until January. "His thighs are this big ... "
His hands formed a circle that seemed big enough to let a basketball pass through.
"He’s three, four or five years away from still developing (fully) ... " Gundy said. "He does a decent job of eating and in training. If he’ll continue, which when he’s here he doesn’t have a choice, but when he goes to the NFL, if he continues to take care of body and training like he does in the weight room like he does with (strength) Coach (Rob Glass), then he’s going to develop all the way up to 27, 28 years old.”
That brings us to the second part of Gundy's reasoning in limiting Gordon’s carries: the NFL.
Gordon hasn't tipped his cap about his future, but unless something unexpected happens, the feeling around Stillwater is that this will be his final season at OSU. He's a third-year player, so he'll be eligible for the draft, and with his size, strength and speed, he might be the first tailback selected.
Then, he could go on to a long career in the NFL.
It's not crazy to envision such a bright future for Gordon, and Gundy is thinking in those terms.
"It’s just a fact in coaching today: we have to take into consideration and have an appreciation for a young man — doesn’t matter what his position is — if he has a bright future for the NFL," Gundy said. "We have to take into account, 'What can we do to help him solidify that for an extended period of time?' Because we all know that in the NFL, you have to get through years three and four health-wise and production-wise ... to get a contract that can change a young man’s life."
In case you need a little refresher, every player drafted into the NFL gets a four-year contract. Under the league's rookie wage scale, contract salaries max out well below those of more veteran players.
It's why last year's Super Bowl quarterbacks had such an annual salary discrepancy.
Kansas City's Patrick Mahomes: $59.4 million.
San Francisco's Brock Purdy: $870,000.
Purdy was and is still playing out his rookie contract while Mahomes is a veteran whose play commanded big bucks when he did his first non-rookie deal a few years ago.
Those non-rookie deals are where the significant money is for NFL players. Not that $870,000 is chump change, but most players who stay in the NFL long enough to outlast their rookie deals make eye-popping money.
Barring something crazy, Gordon is going to get drafted, but Gundy wants him to get that big second deal in the NFL.
"I know this," Gundy said. "If we take 20 (carries) times 12 (games) in just there regular season, we're talking almost 300 carries. That's a lot."
His math's a bit off, but add a bowl game and maybe a Big 12 title game or even a College Football Playoff appearance, and Gordon could easily approach 300.
For a little perspective, Gordon had 285 carries in 14 games last season.
Average: 20.1 carries a game.
Remember, though, through three non-conference games, Gordon had only 19 carries. (A quick Google search will tell you how I felt about that nonsense.) No way he only has 19 carries in non-conference play this season.
Then again, if Gundy has his druthers, Gordon won't have seven games with 25 carries or more either.
"It would be great if we could keep him to that 20-carry mark," Gundy said. "But if we need him to carry 30 to win, he’s going to carry 30 to win.”
For his part, Gordon seems content with whatever the load is.
"I'm here for the team," he said. "If my number keeps getting called, I'm here for it."
Gundy said, "Ollie has never come to us once and said he wants more carries and never once come to us and said he's carrying it too much. If he continues with that thought process and allows us to do what we thing is best to be successful as a team and protecting him and his career, we'll do that."
Even if it means backing off a bit when Gordon is at his strongest.