Game day thoughts – Week 10
Published: 11/10/2007 9:01 AM
Last Modified: 11/10/2007 9:01 AM
Shortly after 7 p.m. tonight, ABC's Brent Musburger will utter his famous "You are looking live" introduction from Boone Pickens Stadium in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
Tonight, ABC is sending the OSU-Kansas football game to 63 percent of the country. The main storyline is KU's remarkable unbeaten 9-0 record this year and if the Jayhawks can continue this unprecedented run of success. The primary storyline from the OSU perspective likely will be all the craziness that has taken place in Stillwater this year.
The up-and-down nature of the Cowboys coupled with their high-powered offense will get addressed. But outside of Oklahoma and the Big 12 region, the main perception of the OSU program is the infamous Mike Gundy tirade following the Texas Tech win. ABC will definitely touch on that.
Musburger's partner on tonight's telecast, Kirk Herbstreit, has been supportive of Gundy's actions since the Sept. 22 tirade.
"I was speaking from a player's perspective. When you're a player and a coach does that, you feel that that coach is protecting his players," Herbstreit said in a teleconference this week. "What he stood for is why I've been supportive of him. Players want to run through a wall when he defends one of his players like that."
And now this week, the OSU program has returned to the headlines for all the wrong reasons once again. Chris Collins pleading guilty to aggravated sexual assault of a 12-year-old girl does not help the OSU image at all. Just when OSU could start distancing itself from one public relations nightmare comes this latest bit of bad PR.
The tirade and Collins' legal predicament have not helped Gundy's public approval rating. The on-the-field performance of his team does not help matters either for the 40-year-old man.
Remember some of those summertime predictions? OSU, and not Kansas, was supposed to be the Big 12's surprise team. Gundy, and not KU's Mark Mangino, was supposed to be the league's new hot coach. The Cowboys, and not the Jayhawks, were supposed to be thinking Big 12 title and BCS in November.
OSU is 5-4 and in dire need of some positive publicity. Tonight presents another big-stage opportunity to obtain it, at least on the field.
Three things I'll be watching closely tonight while trying to make a tight deadline:
*** No hangover: Over the past two years, OSU has responded with strong efforts the week after a heartbreaking loss. But last week's loss to Texas was unlike any OSU has experienced the past two seasons. The Cowboys must avoid a slow start against the BCS' fourth-ranked team. OSU overcame a slow start last year at Kansas. But this KU team is better. Much better.
*** Change their habits: A major reason why KU is undefeated is its ability to not beat itself. The Jayhawks lead the Big 12 in turnover margin (plus-16). They also are the league's least penalized team. More impressively, KU has trailed for only 25 minutes, 39 seconds out of a possible 540 minutes of game action this year. Even more impressively, KU only has trailed once in the second half, and that was for a 65-second span midway through the fourth quarter against Kansas State.
*** Finishing: When I covered Arkansas, I often heard Houston Nutt state "we always talk about finishing" whenever the Razorbacks pulled out a close game. There is a good chance OSU's game with Kansas will come down to the end. Can the Cowboys finish off the Jayhawks or will their season take one step closer to becoming finished?
--- Matt Doyle
Written by
Bill Haisten
Sports Writer
