It’s been a long week for Oklahoma State football fans, so give credit to the Cowboys for making Saturday easy.
Again, Lamar (even though I love my hometown Cardinals) is a low-level Division I-AA opponent Oklahoma State has no business playing. But given the tone of the week, I’ll cut the Cowboys a little slack in that regard.
We didn’t find out much about OSU on the field Saturday, but Sports Illustrated made sure the entire country found out a lot about the program off the field through the week.
SI’s investigation into the OSU program has occupied everyone’s attention around here. I’ll offer some detailed thoughts about what’s next for OSU when the series draws to a conclusion, but here are a few quick hits on SI, OU-TU and the rest of the day in college football.
* Just for the record, every school’s fan base feels like it has been targeted when a story like the SI series comes out. In that regard, the reaction of Cowboy fans has been pretty standard.
* If I had to guess, I’d say there is probably more truth (and exaggeration based on truth) than lies in the SI series. What do I base that on? The official response from Oklahoma State. OSU (which by the way has done a masterful PR job in all of this) has only had one official complaint about the series – that many of the allegations are five or more years old. My guess is that OSU’s own investigation will confirm at least a few slap-on-the-wrist NCAA violations as a result of SI’s work.
* Trevor Knight must be a really good practice player. That’s about all you can figure after watching Blake Bell set an Oklahoma record for most passing yards by a first-time starting quarterback. Bell throws an odd looking deep ball, but the precision of his intermediate passing made his receivers very happy.
* We should know more about the immediate future of Oklahoma football in two weeks when the Sooners face Notre Dame. A win in South Bend, and OU figures to compete with Oklahoma State and Baylor for the Big 12 title.
* I feel bad for Mack Brown. No, really, I do. Brown is a good football coach. He revolutionized recruiting while at Texas. But things eventually run their course. The college game is notoriously cyclical. The Longhorns are in a downward cycle that appears to have no chance of changing. If Texas A&M (despite Saturday’s loss to Alabama) has another 10-plus win season, Texas will have to pull the plug on Brown at the end of the year just to reenergize the fan base and recruits.
* Speaking of A&M, its game against Alabama on Saturday was about like I expected (only a little closer). Johnny Manziel can be a special player, but the Aggies lost too much on defense from last year’s team to be a serious national title contender.
Now, we’ll find out who the real Manziel is. Because of its offensive talent and the general weakness of its schedule, A&M is still a nine-plus win team this year. If the Heisman Trophy winner is the teammate the Aggies claim, he’ll rally the locker room, put the team on his back and push A&M to another successful season.
If the Aggies collapse down the stretch, locker room dissension would be a likely culprit.
* Pencil in Tulsa as a team in need of another season-saving victory in less than two weeks when Iowa State comes to Chapman Stadium.
A loss to the Cyclones, and the Hurricane may struggle to get bowl eligible.
Tulsa showed more offensively than I expected against Oklahoma. But I’m not sure the Hurricane’s current offensive plan will work against the better teams on its schedule.
* I watched a little of Texas Tech and TCU on Thursday night, and that game set Big 12 credibility back a dozen years.
I’m as big a defender of the small conference guy as anyone, but if the Horned Frogs don’t have a breakout year in the Big 12 soon, they’re recent success will start to look like nothing more than small-conference smoke and mirrors.
With TCU and Texas crumbling, the number of Big 12 title contenders is dwindling. Through three weeks, only Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Baylor seem legitimate.
* So what are you guys going to do next week when none of the state’s three teams is playing Saturday?
The folks who have been here a long time struggle to remember that happening before. Whatever you do, enjoy it. It will be the last football-less Saturday around here for a while.
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