STILLWATER — When LD Brown met his new running backs coach, he had a natural bit of skepticism.

Brown had just arrived at Oklahoma State for his freshman season when he was introduced to running backs coach John Wozniak, who had been hired to replace Marcus Arroyo — the coach who recruited Brown out of DeSoto, Texas.

“What am I walking into?” Brown asked himself. “Who is he? He didn’t recruit me. I don’t know him.”

But Wozniak settled Brown’s concerns quickly in the summer of 2017.

“He was a guy who listened,” Brown recently told The Oklahoman. “It was a genuine conversation when you had a conversation with him, whether it was ball or it was life.

“It was very easy to trust him early on, because he didn’t really care about the player, it was more about the person.”

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Seven seasons later, Wozniak has only strengthened his status as a highly respected piece of the Oklahoma State coaching staff.

He recruited and developed the Cowboys’ first Doak Walker Award winner, Ollie Gordon II, who goes into the Texas Bowl looking to extend his lead as the nation’s top rusher.

Twentieth-ranked Oklahoma State faces Texas A&M at 8 p.m. Wednesday at NRG Stadium in Houston, with Gordon sitting on 1,614 rushing yards for the season.

Only five running backs in OSU history have reached the 1,700-yard mark, and if Gordon gets there, Wozniak will have coached two of them, with Chuba Hubbard being the other.

“RBU, baby,” the always excitable Brown said. “Look at all the guys Woz coached that are in the League.”

That list currently includes Hubbard, Justice Hill and Jaylen Warren, though Brown also spent some time in an NFL camp and in the USFL. And Gordon feels destined for the NFL as well.

Particularly at a position like running back, and especially when you’re stringing together talented backs like OSU has done, managing the room can be one of the biggest difficulties.

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“It’s always a challenge keeping those guys moving in the right direction,” head coach Mike Gundy said. “Woz has been really good for us.

“When you’re in the situation he’s in with a player that’s bringing in the notoriety and things like Ollie is, it can be a challenge in a lot of areas. Recruiting is difficult, because you have a Doak Walker winner returning, so there’s not a long list of guys that wanna come in behind that guy.”

Wozniak identified one player early for the 2024 recruiting class, with Del City running back Rodney Fields Jr. being one of the first players committed to the Cowboys in this class. And Wozniak added 6-foot-2, 225-pound Jaden Allen-Hendrix late in the process to beef up the position’s depth.

Yet the key to Wozniak’s success remains his relationships.

He fosters relationships with his players, he learns how they need to be coached and he builds connections with them that stretch beyond football.

“Ever since I stepped on campus, he has always taught me something,” Gordon said. “There’s never a dull moment with Coach Woz. He’s a great coach, great person in general. He’s a guy you want to be around and I really appreciate him bringing me up to this point that I’m at now.”

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Brown has watched from afar this season as Gordon has emerged as college football’s top running back and he sees the same consistency from his position coach that he always experienced himself.

“He’s a player’s coach, no doubt,” Brown said. “We know what we need to be doing, he’s gonna coach us to do that, and he expects us to go out there and execute. He’s gonna turn up with you, celebrate with you, dance with you, do handshakes with you. He’s a perfect player’s coach.

“Ollie is out there ballin’ and I see Coach Woz out there turning up with him. The same Woz I remember, and it makes me happy.”

Scott Wright covers Oklahoma State athletics for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Scott? He can be reached at swright@oklahoman.com or on Twitter at @ScottWrightOK. Sign up for the Oklahoma State Cowboys newsletter to access more OSU coverage. Support Scott’s work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com or by using the link at the top of this page.

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Texas Bowl

No. 20 Oklahoma State vs. Texas A&M

KICKOFF: 8 p.m. Wednesday at NRG Stadium in Houston (ESPN)

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma State football gets vital impact from John Wozniak, RBs coach