Very timely open week. Guys had a chance to take a breath on Friday and Saturday. Herman on Saturday spent time with family, watching flag football. Guys came back ready to go yesterday. Had an hour-long practice on Sunday in helmets. Went well. Wanted to keep time on field as normal as possible for game-week. Were able to do a lot more installation of the game plan yesterday than normal weeks. Excited to get back on the field with the guys, everybody made it back safely. Today is off day, tomorrow padded practice.
Andrew Beck missed yesterday with strep throat. Should be back tomorrow.
Sam Ehlinger is on schedule from everything Herman has been told. Threw 10 throws with Nerf ball yesterday, 15 with regular ball. Will throw 25-30 today. Was out there yesterday doing everything in the run game. Being very cautious with how they accelerate his throwing. Being aggressive, but doing everything possible to make sure they don't have any setbacks. Normal day of throwing would be 75-80 throws. Hoping by Thursday, barring any setbacks, he'll be there. Won't really know anything until tomorrow, won't know game status until probably Thursday. If he's healthy, and he's himself, then he'll start. Talked yesterday about Sam needing to be honest with them about his pain because his game is different than a lot of QBs. If they're out there playing cautious and tentative with him, that plays into Sam's overall effectiveness. Have a great one in Shane ready to go, ton of confidence in him as well.
Jeffrey McCulloch will practice tomorrow. Doing well with his neck strain.
Josh Thompson hyper-extended his knee last week, but is expected to practice.
On Ehlinger ... they'll be able to measure arm strength with some of the equipment they have, including velocity. For them, a lot of it will be based on naked eye observations. But they will have different things that give raw data on where Sam is. But ultimately, it will be 'does it hurt him' and in order for it not to hurt, do they have to change things where it's a detriment to the offense.
Not worried about Sam missing some practice time. He'll be at meetings, will be standing right behind during plays, just won't make the throws. Everything else, he'll get that rep in.
Keaontay Ingram ... not sure if he'll be a 20-carry guy every week. Got 19 against Baylor. He just got there in June, played a lot of football in high school, lot of wear and tear on his body. Have to be cognizant of the long-term effect, going to use him as much as they need to in order to win the game. Feel really good with Tre Watson and Daniel Young as well. Will be a measured approach to Ingram's workload throughout the season, because they'll need him in the postseason too. You'll see the big jump in his physical development once McKnight gets his hands on him for 9 months.
Zero psychological drop-off in the team if Shane gets the nod. Sam earned their confidence, but based off what Shane has done, nobody doubts that they can win games, and win big games with Shane in the game.
On changing the game plan if Shane is in ... that gets overblown a lot with QBs. Are they different? Certainly. They both have certain strengths and weaknesses, but it's easy to plug and play a different QB in this offense. They don't carry a certain game plan with only certain plays with each QB. They may call some more than other depending on who is in, but same plays are available. Only time it's a real issue is when there's a dramatic discrepancy in their skill set. All four QBs in the room, there's not a huge gap in their different skill sets to merit different game plans.
On Oklahoma State ... They have the 7th leading sacker in the country, cause a lot of disruption on defense. Very multiple on defense, make you prepare for a lot of things. RB Justice Hill as good as any back in the conference, last year and this year. OSU will probably lean on him. Third, playing in Stillwater, in that stadium in a night game, is certainly an advantage for OSU. Atmosphere will be jumping.
On the rankings and moving up to No. 6 ... Zero discussion. Literally, zero discussion. It's completely inconsequential where they're ranked through seven games. Only thing that matters is what hardware they take home and their ranking after the season. The only thing they talk about is that they've earned everybody's best shot, which is a good thing.
On Oklahoma State's offense ... They've done such a great job over the years. It's a school that's known for offense, in Gundy's tenure there. He does a great job, is very aggressive in everything they do. They're going to come after punts, are going to be sound in the kicking game, confusing on defense, on offense they're going to rely on their RB and QB. Seems like every year, they just have a WR factory up there. It is impressive to see what they have done, and they're a notch above at home.
On some formations, having a WR covered up, making him ineligible ... they use that formation quite a bit. What it allows them to do is move the tight end. Allows them to run their fullback offense from a shifted formation and see how the defense lines up and create numbers advantages.
On Charles Omenihu ... he's a great leader, great player, great student. He's going to get his degree, improve his draft stock, have his best season since he's been on campus and help the team have its best season in years. It's a win for everybody. Omenihu is having a great year. Thinks it helps some of the young guys understand the value of coming back your senior year and getting your degree.
On D'Shawn Jamison ... the next step for him, have to get him completely trustworthy in their base offense. He's working really hard with that, Mehringer and Meekins are working with him very hard on that. That's the only issue. Josh Moore is another they really like, missed last game with the flu. Wide receiver rotation, LJH or somebody has to stand by Herman on the sideline when those young guys are in. There's only one football, only 75-85 plays per game, have to be smart with how they use them.
Doesn't think the team needs any secondary learning tools on upsets like Ohio State and Oregon from Saturday. They've seen it first hand in Maryland, in a dogfight against KSU. Team is well aware that championships are won on the road. There's never been a championship team that's gone 0-fer on the road, you have to win on the road and do it consistently. You're going to get your opponent's best shot, have to dial up your intensity and preparation a little more.
Hasn't been necessary for older DBs to take the young ones under their wings and mentor them. Those young DBs have been really mature since the time they got there. They don't need much mentoring. The mentoring they get is from one of the best DB coaches in the country in Jason Washington, best d-coordinator in the country in Todd Orlando. Older guys do what they can, but it's a testament to how mature the young guys were when they got to campus.
It's human nature to pay attention to the rankings. As he's said before, any animal can hear, it's a unique human condition to determine if you want to actually listen to that outside noise. Human nature has been the downfall of empires, why would they think it can't be the downfall of a football team. Their job is to eliminate human nature, to be so focused on a singular purpose, a love and accountability to each other that it's almost impossible not to listen. For the most part, they've done a good job of not listening to outside noise.
On not playing games with the QB situation ... again, unless the skill sets are completely different, you're defending an offense. Understanding the different strengths of each guy and what the opponent may do is part of it, but they've dealt with it before against K-State.
On self evaluation during the off week ... didn't really do that from a tendency standpoint. They examine tendencies each and every week, but also, having a tendency of something you do well is perfectly okay. At some point you have to adjust if teams start to stop that play, but until that point it's okay to have certain tendencies if you're achieving your goals.
On offense, they're going to the right people with their OL, but not always getting a lot of movement. Wants to see them get more movement. Both tackles are 280 pounds, have to do a good job as coaches of giving them things they can do well on a consistent basis.
Defensively, still not to their standard on third down, especially third and medium to long. It's pretty much been a given in the past they'd get off the field, but haven't been as good in that down and distance.
Cameron Rising has been getting the reps with the 2s while Ehlinger is out.
Not sure what his gut tells him on who will be the QB on Saturday. He goes with what the trainers and the kids tell him. Tomorrow, Sam will take 25 passes of the reps and Shane will take the rest. They'll adjust that on Wednesday based on how many balls they tell them Sam can throw on that day.
That's it for today.
Andrew Beck missed yesterday with strep throat. Should be back tomorrow.
Sam Ehlinger is on schedule from everything Herman has been told. Threw 10 throws with Nerf ball yesterday, 15 with regular ball. Will throw 25-30 today. Was out there yesterday doing everything in the run game. Being very cautious with how they accelerate his throwing. Being aggressive, but doing everything possible to make sure they don't have any setbacks. Normal day of throwing would be 75-80 throws. Hoping by Thursday, barring any setbacks, he'll be there. Won't really know anything until tomorrow, won't know game status until probably Thursday. If he's healthy, and he's himself, then he'll start. Talked yesterday about Sam needing to be honest with them about his pain because his game is different than a lot of QBs. If they're out there playing cautious and tentative with him, that plays into Sam's overall effectiveness. Have a great one in Shane ready to go, ton of confidence in him as well.
Jeffrey McCulloch will practice tomorrow. Doing well with his neck strain.
Josh Thompson hyper-extended his knee last week, but is expected to practice.
On Ehlinger ... they'll be able to measure arm strength with some of the equipment they have, including velocity. For them, a lot of it will be based on naked eye observations. But they will have different things that give raw data on where Sam is. But ultimately, it will be 'does it hurt him' and in order for it not to hurt, do they have to change things where it's a detriment to the offense.
Not worried about Sam missing some practice time. He'll be at meetings, will be standing right behind during plays, just won't make the throws. Everything else, he'll get that rep in.
Keaontay Ingram ... not sure if he'll be a 20-carry guy every week. Got 19 against Baylor. He just got there in June, played a lot of football in high school, lot of wear and tear on his body. Have to be cognizant of the long-term effect, going to use him as much as they need to in order to win the game. Feel really good with Tre Watson and Daniel Young as well. Will be a measured approach to Ingram's workload throughout the season, because they'll need him in the postseason too. You'll see the big jump in his physical development once McKnight gets his hands on him for 9 months.
Zero psychological drop-off in the team if Shane gets the nod. Sam earned their confidence, but based off what Shane has done, nobody doubts that they can win games, and win big games with Shane in the game.
On changing the game plan if Shane is in ... that gets overblown a lot with QBs. Are they different? Certainly. They both have certain strengths and weaknesses, but it's easy to plug and play a different QB in this offense. They don't carry a certain game plan with only certain plays with each QB. They may call some more than other depending on who is in, but same plays are available. Only time it's a real issue is when there's a dramatic discrepancy in their skill set. All four QBs in the room, there's not a huge gap in their different skill sets to merit different game plans.
On Oklahoma State ... They have the 7th leading sacker in the country, cause a lot of disruption on defense. Very multiple on defense, make you prepare for a lot of things. RB Justice Hill as good as any back in the conference, last year and this year. OSU will probably lean on him. Third, playing in Stillwater, in that stadium in a night game, is certainly an advantage for OSU. Atmosphere will be jumping.
On the rankings and moving up to No. 6 ... Zero discussion. Literally, zero discussion. It's completely inconsequential where they're ranked through seven games. Only thing that matters is what hardware they take home and their ranking after the season. The only thing they talk about is that they've earned everybody's best shot, which is a good thing.
On Oklahoma State's offense ... They've done such a great job over the years. It's a school that's known for offense, in Gundy's tenure there. He does a great job, is very aggressive in everything they do. They're going to come after punts, are going to be sound in the kicking game, confusing on defense, on offense they're going to rely on their RB and QB. Seems like every year, they just have a WR factory up there. It is impressive to see what they have done, and they're a notch above at home.
On some formations, having a WR covered up, making him ineligible ... they use that formation quite a bit. What it allows them to do is move the tight end. Allows them to run their fullback offense from a shifted formation and see how the defense lines up and create numbers advantages.
On Charles Omenihu ... he's a great leader, great player, great student. He's going to get his degree, improve his draft stock, have his best season since he's been on campus and help the team have its best season in years. It's a win for everybody. Omenihu is having a great year. Thinks it helps some of the young guys understand the value of coming back your senior year and getting your degree.
On D'Shawn Jamison ... the next step for him, have to get him completely trustworthy in their base offense. He's working really hard with that, Mehringer and Meekins are working with him very hard on that. That's the only issue. Josh Moore is another they really like, missed last game with the flu. Wide receiver rotation, LJH or somebody has to stand by Herman on the sideline when those young guys are in. There's only one football, only 75-85 plays per game, have to be smart with how they use them.
Doesn't think the team needs any secondary learning tools on upsets like Ohio State and Oregon from Saturday. They've seen it first hand in Maryland, in a dogfight against KSU. Team is well aware that championships are won on the road. There's never been a championship team that's gone 0-fer on the road, you have to win on the road and do it consistently. You're going to get your opponent's best shot, have to dial up your intensity and preparation a little more.
Hasn't been necessary for older DBs to take the young ones under their wings and mentor them. Those young DBs have been really mature since the time they got there. They don't need much mentoring. The mentoring they get is from one of the best DB coaches in the country in Jason Washington, best d-coordinator in the country in Todd Orlando. Older guys do what they can, but it's a testament to how mature the young guys were when they got to campus.
It's human nature to pay attention to the rankings. As he's said before, any animal can hear, it's a unique human condition to determine if you want to actually listen to that outside noise. Human nature has been the downfall of empires, why would they think it can't be the downfall of a football team. Their job is to eliminate human nature, to be so focused on a singular purpose, a love and accountability to each other that it's almost impossible not to listen. For the most part, they've done a good job of not listening to outside noise.
On not playing games with the QB situation ... again, unless the skill sets are completely different, you're defending an offense. Understanding the different strengths of each guy and what the opponent may do is part of it, but they've dealt with it before against K-State.
On self evaluation during the off week ... didn't really do that from a tendency standpoint. They examine tendencies each and every week, but also, having a tendency of something you do well is perfectly okay. At some point you have to adjust if teams start to stop that play, but until that point it's okay to have certain tendencies if you're achieving your goals.
On offense, they're going to the right people with their OL, but not always getting a lot of movement. Wants to see them get more movement. Both tackles are 280 pounds, have to do a good job as coaches of giving them things they can do well on a consistent basis.
Defensively, still not to their standard on third down, especially third and medium to long. It's pretty much been a given in the past they'd get off the field, but haven't been as good in that down and distance.
Cameron Rising has been getting the reps with the 2s while Ehlinger is out.
Not sure what his gut tells him on who will be the QB on Saturday. He goes with what the trainers and the kids tell him. Tomorrow, Sam will take 25 passes of the reps and Shane will take the rest. They'll adjust that on Wednesday based on how many balls they tell them Sam can throw on that day.
That's it for today.
