How Oklahoma State football's Brennan Presley can help Ollie Gordon II and the run game

STILLWATER — Rarely does Brennan Presley feel tired during an Oklahoma State football game.

During practice? Sure. All the running the Cowboys’ slot receiver does during the week will wear him down.

But games, when he might only be on the field for 60-70 snaps, are usually a breeze — except for last Saturday.

Presley had three catches and a rush on the Cowboys ’ opening drive, plus two incomplete passes in which he was the intended target.

“I was very tired,” Presley said of the opening series. “I don’t get tired that often, but just starting the season, it’s very different, all the adrenaline, all that stuff. I felt like it was very humid out there, too. We expected it to be hot, but then it was kinda not hot.

“It was hard to breathe. That first drive, honestly, it took me out.”

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Presley finished the Cowboys’ 44-20 win over South Dakota State with a team-high seven catches for 35 yards and one rush for 4 yards.

And Presley knows he needs to be ready for that type of involvement in the offense all season, but in particular, this week when the 17th-ranked Cowboys host Arkansas at 11 a.m. Saturday at Boone Pickens Stadium.

The reasons are twofold. First, Presley needs the ball in his hands as frequently as possible because of his playmaking ability. That’s why he had 101 receptions last year, and two games with at least 15 catches.

But his secondary value will be heightened this year as opponents — especially early in games — focus their efforts on containing running back Ollie Gordon II.

Presley routinely lines up toward the inside of the formation, but many of his receptions are made on the outside. So, because of the threat he poses, a defense can’t simply put a single defender on him and hope for the best.

“That’s what he does — he pulls people out of the box and allows you to get some decent numbers to run the football,” coach Mike Gundy said. “We ran the ball quite a bit into bad numbers, in my opinion. A couple times we were ahead in the game and we did it. Other times, we should’ve done some other things.

“But Brennan helps eliminate that and forces those guys that have to be run-pass players, they have to be worried about him getting wide. Having a guy like that is a big deal.”

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Presley came just shy of 1,000 yards last season, and with his first three catches on Saturday, he had already moved up a rung on OSU’s all-time receptions list .

Now with 232 for his career, he has the third-most ever by a Cowboy and is in range of both Justin Blackmon (253) and leader Rashaun Woods (293) for the all-time lead.

Assuming he gets 12 more games (the rest of the regular season plus one in the postseason) Presley will need to average just over five catches per game to reach the top of the list. He has 2,583 career receiving yards with a shot at reaching OSU's top three on the all-time list there as well.

Last year, OSU offensive coordinator Kasey Dunn installed a variety of plays that included frequent pre-snap motion for Presley in an effort to get him in open field and mess with the eyes of opposing defenders — once again causing potential confusion to draw attention away from Gordon.

But if you ask Presley, he says his most important method for helping Gordon and the run game isn’t what he does when the ball is thrown to him.

“First things first, we have to do a better job of blocking on the perimeter,” he said. “We can do those things, but if we don’t in turn do our part in terms of digging out safeties and blocking and trapping corners and stuff like that — if we don’t do our part, then Ollie has to make five guys miss.

“The way South Dakota State was running to the ball, that’s seven, eight people tackling him, when it should be we get our blocks and he’s one-on-one with somebody.

“That’s always a good advantage for us.”

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OSU vs. Arkansas

KICKOFF: 11 a.m. Saturday at Boone Pickens Stadium in Stillwater (ABC)

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: How Oklahoma State football's Brennan Presley can help Ollie Gordon II and the run game