QUICK HITS: Ollie Gordon, Trey Rucker have big days for OSU in rout of South Dakota State
STILLWATER — The fiery cauldron into which Mike Gundy hoped to throw the South Dakota State Jackrabbits never boiled over.
Temperatures stayed in the 80s, and even though heavy humidity pushed the heat index into the low 90s, partly cloudy skies kept the sun at bay. That kept the oppressive heat away.
Everyone should be grateful for that.
Even though Oklahoma State hoped to put their visitors from South Dakota in an uncomfortable situation — there actually were lots of cramping Jackrabbits, to Gundy's chagrin; hey, Mike, put the game at 1 p.m. and guys are going to cramp! — triple-digit temperatures would've made for a rough afternoon for anyone at Boone Pickens Stadium. A friend who was involved with campus safety, and by extension safety at football games, once told me that the heat illness cases for morning and afternoon kickoffs at games in our neck of the woods dwarfed those during evening kickoffs.
And it doesn't take long to go from heat illness to something more serious.
Thankfully, that wasn't much of a worry.
Turns out, neither were the Jackrabbits.
OSU 44, South Dakota State 20.
Here's what stood out Saturday afternoon in Stillwater.
Oh my, Ollie
Ollie Gordon remains good at football.
Very good.
He broke tackles. He juked defenders. He powered through traffic. He didn't have any of his cross-country runs, but he had a bunch of sizable ones. Ten yards here. Twelve yards there.
In the end, he had 104 yards rushing and two touchdowns.
He also added four catches for 42 yards and a touchdown.
A quick moment to acknowledge that the competition will only get tougher. South Dakota State is the back-to-back defending national champ in FCS, but still, it is an FCS program.
Despite that disclaimer, Gordon looks even more powerful carrying the football than he did a year ago. He is listed at 225 pounds, but after an offseason of weight-room work, he looks even more stout than that, especially in his lower half. He's muscled up significantly in his hips and thighs.
Soft secondary
The Oklahoma State secondary allowed a lot of South Dakota State receivers to run wide open.
And the Jackrabbits took advantage, rolling up 264 passing yards and three passing touchdowns.
The Cowboys tracked down the Jackrabbits relatively well after catches, but once OSU gets into Big 12 play, you have to think the passcatchers will be that much faster. Get open, and the Cowboys might not be able to get them down.
Heck, that might be a problem next week when Arkansas comes to town.
Wrecker Rucker
With Kendal Daniels playing more linebacker than safety, the Cowboys need guys in the backfield to step up when Daniels moves up.
Trey Rucker looks capable of filling that gap. The senior safety had a team-high 15 tackles, nine of which were solo. He was strong in his tackling and solid in his positioning.
Rucker has had flashes of greatness throughout his career, but consistency hasn't always been his forte. His play Saturday was both dynamic and consistent.
Keep that up, and Rucker will be invaluable.
Better to receive
The Cowboys didn't show off a ton of depth at receiver — three of the seven Cowboys who caught passes in the game were tailbacks — but the talent at the top is significant.
Brennan Presley had seven catches for 35 yards and one touchdown, turning short passes into bigger plays repeatedly.
Rashod Owens had three catches for 81 yards and one touchdown, a long 58-yarder.
And De'Zhaun Stribling, returning from injury that sidelined him most of last season, had six catches for 83 yards.
From the look of things, the Cowboys will need to keep all three healthy. An injury to any of them could put a crimp in the plans. But if they’re available, OSU will give opponents problems in the passing game.
Numbers to remember
0: Turnovers committed by the Cowboys.
0: Sacks allowed by OSU.
1: Penalty by the Cowboys. A sign of a veteran bunch, and still, committing only one penalty is tough no matter how experienced the team.
52: Yard field goal by OSU kicker Logan Ward. He also nailed a 42-yarder and was perfect on all his extra points.
I'll have more at Beyond the Boxscore later.
It was not comfortable when the sun was out! No breeze did not help. The Jackrabbits were faking the cramps, they were getting the cramp sign from sideline.