5. Jordan Brailford adds to his record-breaking sack total
Bringing in a new defensive coordinator from the Duke Blue Devils, in Jim Knowles, has partly paid dividends so far. Knowles replaced the former Oklahoma State defensive coordinator Glenn Spencer that just hadn’t been getting it done in his last few years on campus while facing some very high octane offenses in the Big 12.
One of the areas where the addition of Knowles is paying dividends is in the pass rush department. Oklahoma State actually leads the nation in sacks. That’s not usually an area that Oklahoma State stands out in particular. Yet, this defense was never particularly bad at it either.
The main culprit in this huge pass rush effort for the Pokes so far is defensive end Jordan Brailford. He’s having a huge year amid a slew of injuries now on the defensive side of the ball including linebacker Calvin Bundage and defensive tackle Darrion Daniels. Making up for those losses will not be easy.
Brailford alone has eight sacks this season already. It took him just five games to get more than three sacks from his previous career high of five. He’s spearheading this vaunted Oklahoma State pass rush that needs to continue to come up huge. Rattling the quarterbacks of some of these lesser Big 12 offense can really help out this month for the Pokes.