Oklahoma State University Athletics
Cowboys Practice for Second Consecutive Day on the Road
August 17, 2005 | Cowboy Football
2005 Cowboy Football Practice Report #12
Tuesday, August 16
“We're not a tough enough team right now,” Gundy said. “We've got some guys that are tough football players, but as a team we're not tough enough.
Part of the reason for that is so many rookies on the field. I look out there when the (second team) is out there, and we have five guys on the offensive line that have never played college ball before, so that's going to happen some.”
The first-year coach also pointed out the youth of the defense, with a freshman linebacker and four first-year secondary players.
The Cowboys spent a little more than two hours in practice, running drills and simulating plays, and junior wide receiver D'Juan Woods said the team is continuing to get better. “We made a lot of improvements in today's practice,” Woods said. “There are a few things we need to work on, but as far as executing the things we inserted now, we're doing a great job.
“We'll continue to pick up the tempo and be a lot faster on the field.”
While the team continues to adapt to new schemes on offense and defense, Woods said it is the veterans' job to help the younger players adapt to the college game.
“We have young guys coming in that have to step up and contribute,” Woods said. “We have to take them in under our wings as veterans and move them all along so we can be productive in the first game.”
With the season opener against Montana State less than three weeks away, senior linebacker Paul Duren said the young guys need to continue to adapt fast.
“You've got to have guys come through for you in recruiting classes,” Duren said. “You have to have mental toughness to play this game or you're not going to be doing it very long, and those guys are coming along.”
After concluding the practice with a two-minute drill, the offense paid for mistakes made in practice by doing up-downs.
While Woods said the extra workout was not fun, the amount of up-downs was a sign of the team's improvement in mistakes.
“We had 60 now, but after our first scrimmage in the spring we had 90, so I think that's an improvement, and we can better from there.”
Either way, freshman tailback Mike Hamilton said he believes the team will have an even cleaner practice on Wednesday.
“I don't want to make any mistakes anymore because I don't want to do any more of those,” Hamilton said. “Tomorrow, we're going to keep eliminating the mistakes, so we don't have to do any.”
The team's practice field was still too wet to practice on it Tuesday, and the team will spend at least one more day in Ponca City, with practice starting at 11:45. It will be the last open practice to the public.
With an estimated 400 fans in attendance to catch the Cowboys prepare for the season, Duren said the change of envirnoment has been a nice change.
“It's different,” Duren said. “Sometimes you need a new atmosphere every now and then to lift you up a little bit, and I think it's been good.”
