One of the big questions for the Oklahoma State football team this spring is how the offense will react to the new offensive coordinator Sean Gleeson.

OSU has been consistently good on offense lately and Gleeson comes from Princeton where he ramrodded one of the most prolific offenses in the nation. Princeton was undefeated in 2018.

“He’s been a solid coach and has been good with the style of offense that we have,” said OSU coach Mike Gundy. “He’s done an excellent job with quarterbacks and training. He’s had a lot of success, is young and ambitious. The players have a very good feel for him as a person and as a coach, so I just felt like he was a good fit.”

Spring drills give an opportunity for Gleeson to learn the players and for them to adjust to him.

“Well, he needs to go through the spring to find out who we are and find out about our team and our quarterbacks,” Gundy said. “He knows the offense. I think he’s probably being a little humble. He’s a pretty sharp guy. I think what he means from the ‘learning phase’ is learning to the speed that we play and some of the things we do that are a little unusual. I think every day he gathers a little bit more information. To his benefit, he doesn’t really know much about us right now.”

Gleeson is impressed with OSU and Stillwater.

“I don’t have a pair of Cowboy boots yet,” said Gleeson. “My family has been out for a little bit and they enjoyed it, they loved it. The community here, people go above and beyond to invite you in and teach you about what they love about this place. I’m excited to be here. I can’t wait. I was like a kid in a candy shop today so I can’t wait to get some more of these guys and get some more practices under our belt.”

Gundy wants his team to be more physical this year.

“A lot of that is based on our personnel and will vary from year to year,” Gundy said. “We always want to pride ourselves on being a physical football team. In the style we play on offense, you lose some of that at times.”

OSU defensive coordinator Jim Knowles saw improvement in the Cowboy defense last year and is looking to build on that. The Big 12 Conference is packed with high-scoring offenses.

“You know, you come to the Big 12, you know the history of it and the power of it offensively,” Knowles said. “I think when you see it firsthand it’s different. Offensive coordinators are willing to constantly seek the big play and take advantage of your weaknesses. We’ll be better this year. We finished in the top ten in sacks and red-zone defense and everything else wasn’t good enough. That’s a starting point. We have a couple of things we did well, but everything else has to improve.

“Another year in our system and getting our guys comfortable challenging and contesting, you know, treating every play like a game, we’re going to make improvements.”

Defense starts with the defensive front. Knowles wants improvement there this season.

“I think we have to wait and see on that, right? Those guys have to prove themselves,” Knowles said.”I think we can be dynamic with Brock Martin and Mike Scott kind of taking over for Jordan (Brailford). I think those two guys together will be dynamic, and (we have) a lot of good young players coming up inside, but they’re going to have to prove themselves. I’m most excited about our secondary.

“We played a lot of young guys there last year, and you know, ‘school of hard knocks’. They had some tough experiences, but they are going to be light-years better and we have two great corners in my opinion. I think when you have two great corners, you have a shot.

“I think they are going to be some of the best in the league and in the country. When we can play two guys like that, I think we have a chance to be good in the secondary.”