You ever eat or drink something terrible and wake up the next morning with the worst of breath and a nagging stomach ache? No? You’re not going to the right restaurants for dinner.
At any rate, if there’s any team waking up to 2016 with morning mouth, it’s Oklahoma State. Generally speaking, 2015 doesn’t matter, not a whit.
But as the Cowboys crafted their way to a 10-0 record last year entering the last three weeks of the season and CFB Playoff chatter, they had to think it’d end better than three straight losses, two at home, and an utter paddling by Ole Miss in the Sugar Bowl.
In the BCS era and heretofore, Oklahoma State has always seemingly suffered from disrespect. Who can forget the 2012 BCS Championship, when the Cowboys and their metric ton of wins over ranked teams were passed by in favor of an SEC rematch, never mind the gut wrenching way the Pokes lost their only game?
If you CAN forget it, you’re lucky, because that was the BCS at its drunken worst.
Last season, even in rolling to 10-0, respect was hard to come by. It seemed as everyone was waiting for the other shoe to fall off, which it ended up doing.
True, the Cowboys made winning close games a cottage industry in getting to that record, and true, the last three games, they were outscored 151-78 in those final three losses, and true, the schedule is much saltier this time around, but don’t fully sleep on them. And while you’re at it, give them respect when they do good things.
No one’s banging on Oklahoma or Alabama when they win a bunch of close games. “Well, they get everyone’s best shot.” Hmmm…
The Pokes should be unreal enough on offense to power them weekly to an average of 40-plus points or more. They return three linemen, Mason Rudolph as quarterback, two starting receivers including Big 12 leading returning receiver James Washington, and steady senior Marcell Ateman.
The running game needs to be sub-114 for real change to happen from a contention standpoint, but returning offensive linemen tend to help in that department.
They’ll need some luck, though, in the form of better health. The schedule is smellier, with trips to Baylor, Oklahoma, and TCU that were home tilts last year. Thus is the dilemma when you have a bunch of games against contenders at home. The next year, you make the trips.
But OSU was probably better off having it last year and cutting their young teeth in friendly environments, even though they lost to both Baylor and Oklahoma, while registering nice road wins against Texas, West Virginia, Texas Tech, and eternally pesky Iowa State.
If they can slip by Baylor on September 24, we could see another 10-0 version of the Pokes rolling into TCU and Oklahoma. There’s nothing like the present to make up for the past.
