Jake Trotter, ESPN Staff Writer 10y

Oklahoma State, Iowa State hoping to get ground games going

Oklahoma State and Iowa State will meet in Stillwater this weekend in a battle of coaches unhappy with their running games.

The Cyclones are last in the league with an average of just 104 rushing yards per game. The Cowboys are faring better on the ground, but their 4.1 yards per carry average is the worst Oklahoma State has had since Mike Gundy’s first season in 2005.

“It’s not good enough,” Gundy said. “You’ve got to be over five in most cases.”

Iowa State coach Paul Rhoads has become exasperated with his rushing attack, as well. Running backs Aaron Wimberly and DeVondrick Nealy gained just 17 yards on 12 carries in a 49-28 loss to Baylor last weekend.

"There is no running attack," said Rhoads, whose club is averaging just 3.4 yards a carry, which ranks 108th nationally. "You've got to run the football and you've got to defend the run if you want to be successful. We're not even scratching the surface at doing that."

That starts for both teams with the offensive line. After graduating several key players, Oklahoma State had one of the most inexperienced offensive lines coming into the season. That wasn’t the case for Iowa State. Only Oklahoma had more career returning starts along its offensive line than the Cyclones. But so far, Iowa State has been unable to pave consistent lanes for Wimberly and Nealy.

"We need to do a better job of blocking. That's not just the interior five, that's everybody," Rhoads said. "Receivers are part of the blocking group and the tight ends. And our running backs need to do a better job of running the football. We've got to make some folks miss.

“In watching Oklahoma State, other people are taking care of every gap, too, and sometimes backs make folks miss. We need that added to the quotient."

The Cowboys have a back in Tyreek Hill who can make opponents miss, and another in Desmond Roland who can through tackles. Roland broke out in Ames last year with 219 yards rushing.

But Gundy would disagree about his offensive line taking care of every gap. Gundy called it a “stretch” to say that the line was any better in a 45-35 win over Texas Tech.

The Red Raiders, who had been awful in run defense, stacked the box to compensate for their own deficiencies, which made running the ball tough sledding.

“Last week we didn't really have an opportunity to run the ball with the way they played defense,” Gundy said. “Tech's perspective was to stop the run with safeties, which didn't really give us numbers throughout the evening."

But after watching Oklahoma State quarterback Daxx Garman throw for 370 yards and four touchdowns, it’s unlikely Iowa State will utilize a similar scheme and put its young secondary in vulnerable situations.

The Cowboys hope this will be the game that finally gets their ground attack going. Iowa State, too.

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