Does Oklahoma State Still Run a 4-2-5 Defense?

Last week, Kyle Cox wrote a post discussing Oklahoma State defensive coordinator Jim Knowles’ first year in the Big 12 and what he learned from it. In his article, Cox mentions that during the spring, including the open spring practice, OSU has been showing a lot of three-down linemen fronts. We saw the Pokes run this 3-3-5 set at times last season, especially late in the year, and this differs from the 4-2-5 scheme we all heard about when Knowles was hired on from Duke.

To illustrate this difference in formation, see the first image below which shows his typical 4-2-5 set that we heard so much about leading up to last season. I’ve highlighted the “Jack” defensive end/linebacker hybrid…