Oklahoma State's August Practice 'More Important' Than Ever

Oklahoma State is only a few weeks away from beginning practice, and the Cowboys have a lot to sort out.

Over the offseason, OSU made more changes than just about any team in college football. While Mike Gundy is returning for his 21st season at the helm, he will be surrounded by a couple of new coordinators, a mostly new coaching staff and a roster full of new players.

Considering all of the changes the Cowboys have gone through this offseason, getting everyone ready for the season is a tough task. With limited time to get players and coaches on the same page for next season, the next few weeks will be as critical as ever.

“We have 65 new players,” Gundy said at Big 12 Media Days. “Thirty-five of ‘em, we’ve never seen practice before, and they just showed up in June. Eighteen of those are transfers, and the others are high school players. So, it’s a very unusual experience.

“They’ve done really well over the last four or five weeks and offseason. But August practice will be more important now than it ever has been, based on the new faces.”

Part of the problem with having so many new players is that there is no substitute for time. While it can be seen as a positive for the Cowboys to have so many new faces after a three-win season, there is no way to take any shortcuts as players and coaches adjust to OSU.

On that same note, Gundy also talked about how difficult it is to get into camp with so many position battles still up for grabs, considering there is an abundance of players who have yet to even practice with the team.

“Whenever I used to go on vacation in July, I used to have a really good idea of who our two-deep was gonna be, in most cases, who the quarterback was gonna be,” Gundy said. “I’m gonna try to go on vacation in a week or so, and I’m not sure that I know who’ll be the starters in eight of the 22 spots.”