.vresize.36.36.medium.0.png){kind=small}
.vresize.36.36.medium.0.png){kind=small}
No. 9 Oklahoma State is about to find out how its high-powered offense will operate with someone new at the controls.
Offensive coordinator Todd Monken makes his debut Saturday night as the play-caller for quarterback Brandon Weeden and Biletnikoff Award-winning receiver Justin Blackmon when the Cowboys start the season by hosting Louisiana-Lafayette.
Monken inherits most of players who produced 44.2 points per game last season under Dana Holgorsen, who's now the head coach at West Virginia. Only Oregon and Boise State averaged more points than Oklahoma State last season.
The main difference is that All-American running back Kendall Hunter is replaced by Joseph Randle in the backfield. Monken plans to run the same fast-paced offense, with maybe just a couple tweaks.
"I would say there's not many coaches in the country that would want to do that," Weeden said. "He's good friends with coach (Mike) Gundy. He understood the excitement of what we had going on here and the players we had coming back."
Monken, who was a receivers coach at Oklahoma State when Gundy was the offensive coordinator, was brought in from the NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars and asked to learn Holgorsen's scheme without the benefit of a playbook or experience working with it.
"We've had a smooth transition," Gundy said. "When you have a quarterback that's as mature as Brandon is and who's willing to buy in and he's a good guy and he's easy to get along with, that helps in that transition. Personalities are such a big part of what we do every day. And Todd came in and was willing to accept our offense."
Oklahoma State ranked second in passing yardage (345.8 ypg) and third in total offense (520.2) last season. The offense that first-year Ragin' Cajuns coach Mark Hudspeth and his staff will encounter Saturday won't be much different, but it will now be run by someone with a quite different personality than the coordinator who's gone.
"The reason (Holgorsen is) so good is he can call plays. He has a feel for calling plays," Weeden said. "He knows how to set plays up. He was really good at it.
"And this isn't coach Monken's offense. He's kind having to learn something new. If you look back and say, 'Why did Holgorsen do that?' you'll just scratch your head and you'll never figure it out. He just thought outside the box."
Weeden said Holgorsen essentially was done preparing for games by Friday night, believing the Cowboys had run enough repetitions in practice during the week that there was no reason for endless refreshers. With Monken, Weeden said he may need to prepare as though there will be a pop quiz looming sometime before the game.
"Completely different," Weeden said. "He loves to talk ball. If you're walking back from practice, he's talking football. If you're walking to practice, he's talking football. He's a football nut. He's a good guy, great to be with."
Now, he'll be in charge of the same approximately 45 plays to tinker with as the game goes on. And he'll be sending them in from the press box instead of the sidelines, where Holgorsen preferred to operate.
And there could be some surprises. Hudspeth, who was the passing game coordinator at Mississippi State the past two seasons, closed down training camp to ensure his players were fully focused on football - and to keep from providing OSU and other early opponents a scouting report.
"We don't have many advantages this year, but the element of surprise for the first few games is definitely one of them," Hudspeth said. "We tried to use that to the best of our ability."
Monken said he thinks he has a good idea what he'll face against new Louisiana-Lafayette defensive coordinator Greg Stewart from his time at Jacksonville State, which upset Mississippi last year.
"I think from their end of it, they've got to be wondering what we're really going to do," Monken said.
The Ragin' Cajuns held a halftime lead last season before Oklahoma State pulled away for a 54-28 victory. The Cowboys went on to share the Big 12 South title for the first time in school history and set a program record for wins. This year, they have equaled their best preseason ranking.
Two years ago, Oklahoma State also started No. 9 before getting upset on its home field by Houston in the second week of the season.
"Essentially, they're going to come in here and they could care less what we did last year," Gundy said. "And by us having all of this preseason hype and being ranked eighth or ninth in the country, that just throws fuel on their fire. It gives them something to work for."
