Published: September 05, 2008 10:25 am         

Playing fearless

Bryant becoming OSU’s primary passing target

Dez Bryant is Oklahoma State’s secret weapon in its “backyard football” strategy.

Against Washington State on Saturday, the sophomore wide receiver caught seven passes for 90 yards, and several of them were jump balls.

Junior quarterback Zac Robinson said he just has to throw the ball anywhere above Bryant, who jumps up to complete the pass with uncanny regularity.

Coach Mike Gundy said he and former coach Les Miles used to call that play frequently with OSU alumnus Rashaun Woods. He added that you have to have the right player to make that tactic work.

“If you don’t have a guy out there that can do it, the play’s not any good,” Gundy said. “You can draw it up on a board, but you’ve got to have a guy out there that’s really athletic and has the ability to go get the ball.”

Gundy said in some ways Bryant is better at the play than Woods was.

“(Bryant is) better at bodying up, and Rashaun was a great leaper to take the ball at the highest point,” he said. “Dez can do that, but I think he’s a little more physical, so if they overload the run, we just try to take advantage of it.”

Gundy said he’s not concerned about teams putting extra coverage on Bryant.

“I think everybody approaches it differently,” he said. “It’s hard for me to speak for anyone else, but if Washington State — looking at the tape on Sunday — may have thought, ‘OK, let’s not play so much man on Dez, let's double him up,’ but then maybe Kendall (Hunter) can run the ball more effectively.

“It’s really a complicated game that’s pretty simple if you look at it: If they single up out there, you should throw it, and if they double up out there, you should run it. And if they’re better than you are, then you’re going to have a hard time doing either one.”

Bryant said he, too, isn’t worried about opponents doubling up on him because they’ll leave someone else open.

“I feel we have much talent around the perimeter,” he said. “It’s not only me and (Brandon) Pettigrew that can make plays. We have Artrell Woods, DeMarcus Conner, Jeremy Broadway and Damian Davis. They all can make plays too.”

Bryant said he was thrown the “jump ball” a lot in high school as well. He added that he sort of learned the ability from the greats of the game.

“Just watching great receivers do it, like Randy Moss, Terrell Owens, people like that,” he said.

“When I was young, that’s who I used to watch, and I felt like, ‘If they can do it, I can do it.’”

Bryant added that there’s a specific timing element to the play that he and Robinson had to work out.

“We work on it a lot in practice,” he said. “We have good timing on that play. Zac knows where I’m going to be at and I know where he’s going to throw the ball at.”

Gundy said Bryant is a talented player, which is the only reason he’s able to make the play happen.

“Dez can drive you crazy as a coach, but Dez is fearless,” he said. “He’ll go up and get the ball at any time and he’ll go across the middle at any time.

‘That’s the one thing you like about a player like that, and the guys who perform fearless out there on the edge can play for a long time. There’s just a few guys — even in the NFL — that played fearless.”

     

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