How is Oklahoma State not picked first?

[ProudUte]

Utah was picked to win the Big 12 by a small margin over K State. Based on the preseason all-Big 12 team, Oklahoma State appears to be loaded.

OK State has four offensive players, including their RB, a WR, and two offensive linemen. They have two linebackers on the first team. Utah has Kuithe on offense and Tafuna on defense. Yes, we also have the punter. Nevertheless, Ok State has six players to our three on the all conference team.

I know that a team is made up of more than stars. However, it appears to me that Ok State is loaded. On top of everything else they return their starting QB which is a big deal. Ok State was all over the place last season. They lost games they should have won and won games they probably should have lost. In the end – they played for the conference championship.

Now, I think Utah was underrepresented on the preseason team. Barton and Reid are all conference caliber LBs. I don’t know if the Ok State LBs are better or not. I have not watched enough of their games. I suspect that Barton was not seriously considered because of his season-ending injury. There are some excellent WRs in the Big 12. Singer probably did not deserve to make the first team, but he has proven himself. Every conference QB ranking I have seen has Rising somewhere between 4th and 6th. He is always behind Sanders, Fifita, and the QB from K State. If Rising can play like he did in 2021, I think he will be one of the best QBs in the conference.

Ok State had two offensive linemen and its All-American RB on the first team. I have to believe their running game will be excellent.

We may win the conference, but it won’t be easy. The Oklahoma State game in September is huge. I am not predicting that Ok State wins it all. But, with their apparent talent – they should be very good.

Go Utes!!!

[Uteanooga]

Fine points.

The preseason picks are fun and can generate buzz for recruiting- but should not be taken seriously as an actual prediction in any way. I think we have all at some time felt that Utah plays better as an underdog. It will not help the team to go into the season feeling like favorites.

I have no doubt that there will be some tough games. Also, that Utah will have a tough time in some games for which they are strongly favored.

Staying healthy- that is the key to the kingdom. Well, that in addition to playing like champions!

[Matt]

Oklahoma State wasn’t that good last year. Sure, they had a decent record, but they lost to a bad G5 team at home early in the season.

BYU had them dead to rights until they got conservative in the second half and played not to lose, and still it took a byu fumble in double overtime for OK st to win.

[D T]

So another case of you people beating yourselves?

Have you ever lost a game because the other team was better?

[Matt]

Good lord, what a ridiculous statement. BYU was terribke last year. I am saying OK state struggled with them as well as a s**tty G5 team, stressing the fact they weren’t that good. I was inferring that Utah will be better than them.

Take a compliment that I was giving yiur team for eff’s sake.

[Central Coast Ute]

He has a good point, though, Matt. It’s not very often when you see BYU fans say they lost a game because the other team outplayed them. I’ll admit I mostly only see fan reactions from the Utah game because I don’t follow other teams very closely. After Utah games, there tend to be a ton of excuses, and it’s not because Utah is better. My favorite was the rain game a few years back. According to BYU fans, Utah only won because they wouldn’t let BYU have the ball very much in the second half. In fact, BYU outplayed Utah, and if you change the outcome of a few different plays, BYU wins. Never mind the fact that the Utes kneeled on the one yard line in order to not run up the score to end the game.

[2008 National Champ]

or the Las Vegas Bowl where the parochial school clearly had the better team because they scored more points the last 3 quarters. That one made it on every Utah article at DN for at least two years.

The parochial school fanbase has absolutely mastered the ability to completely discount their opponents’ effort in any contest

[Central Coast Ute]

That was amazing. According to BYUSN, all BYU needed was to add time to the game to win.

[2008 National Champ]

The whole 10 game year streak was amazing for the number of ways the scoreboard didn’t matter due to the parochial school superiority in a specific statistic.

[Matt]

It wasn’t 10, it was 9. Just like byu’s 9 game streak from 79 to 87. Almost all blowouts though in the 80s.

Most of your 9 wins were close/could have gone either way. With the exception of 2011 and 2019. 2012, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18 were all right down to the wire. The 2018 was the one that got away from byu. Up 26 to 6 at the end of the third.

[2008 National Champ]

edited above…

No one disputes that the majority of those games were close. The thread is about whether your fanbase is capable of being gracious in defeat. In my experience, which started with the ’88 game, they are not. As a group they are bad losers and even worse winners and every year they weren’t on the schedule was a joy to behold.

[Matt]

That 88 game was the first time I experienced the Utes beating BYU. I was torn a bit that game because I was a high school classmate of Scott Mitchell at Springville. That was a butt whooping. The next year BYU put 70 on the board.

Utah has had the P5 advantage for 12 years and the talent gap has been large. As long as Kalani is our head coach, I think Utah continues to win 75% of the holy war matchups.

[Matt]

That was the 2019 game. BYU got boat raced that entire game from the first drive that was a turnover. Zach Wilson was not good in 2019. He looked better as a freshman.

Yes, I know many of our fans on CB make some outrageous excuses against you guys. The only games I felt we may have out played you was 2016 where we lost by a failed 2 pt conversion, and 2018, where we blew a 20 pt late third qtr lead.

[D T]

Phil Steele has his XII unit rankings & has them as follows—

OKST QB 13 RB 1 WR 10 OL 1 DL 7 LB 1 DB 8

UTAH QB 2 RB 4 WR 3 OL 4 DL 1 LB 3 DB 4

The XII media isn’t as familiar with us & I suspect the all-conference team will look much different at year’s end.

[ProudUte]

This is interesting. According to Steele – our worst position group is still ranked 4th. I don’t know if this is true, but it does say a lot about where Utah is as a team.

Ok State is number 1 at LB, Oline, and RB. That’s impressive. However, after those three positions …

[Redblood]

With replacing both stud safeties and a corner a 4 ranking in DB’s is generous. May work out that way but I don’t know.

[Utah]

This. So many Big 12 fans and media think Utah is going to struggle playing “real” football and Utah will have to learn what physical, southern football is, because their players are from the south and big boys and eat corn and s**t.

It’s going to be fun to hit them and show them how us fancy boys in the west are just better.

[Central Coast Ute]

Based off of this, I’d rank OK st. At the top

[krindor]

They have a real argument… But it’s also hard to win with a QB who is #13/16 in the conference.

I think that’s the biggest issue. Utah is very good everywhere, Oklahoma St is elite in a few places, but mediocre to subpar elsewhere

[Yergensen]

QB is key.

Ok State QB is a game manager. I’d be interested from our new Ok State friends where he falls on the game manager spectrum. Is he JJ McCarthy, Bryson Barnes or somewhere in between?

We saw first hand last year what a game manager QB can and can’t do.

[ProudUte]

I agree. Rising is a game changer and not a game manager. If he is healthy, he will make a big difference for the Utes.

[Utah]

We have the better QB. We have the better OL. We have the better TE. Even though OSU has the better RB, last year our rushing game was more effective and rushed for more yards per game at almost the same ypc. So, you could argue we have the better rushing attack. WR’s…I’ll give it to OSU…maybe. We have Singer and Pittman and others. We are really good at WR.

Defensively, we have the better LB’s, DL, and DB’s.

Then, for the final cherry on top, we have the much, much, much easier schedule. OSU’s schedule is just mean.

We are the better team, with the better players, the better system, the better coaches. We are just better.

[22Ute22]

We absolutely do not have the better OL, wtf? Oklahoma State has repeatedly been listed as top 10/5 in the whole country on basically every OL ranking list. Utah hasn’t made a single one, at least from what I’ve seen. As for LB’s, OSU has some pretty good LB’s and we lost Damuni. Plus, Barton’s status is unknown at the moment.

I think we’re better because Rising is leagues better than Bowman, but let’s not seriously act like we’re better at every position than them.

[Utah]

lol. Alright OSU fan. So, OSU’s line is marginally better than ours. Doesn’t change anything I said. We are the better team with the easier schedule.

[22Ute22]

OSU fan? I respect OSU as a program and they are very similar to us in many regards, but I don’t like them or hate them. Sorry that I’m not a biased homer like you.

I agree that we are better and have a more favorable schedule, but that doesn’t mean we are better at every position. The claim that our O-line is better or even just slightly worse when they are inexperienced and have not played a game as a unit is just insane. Oklahoma State’s O-line is the most experienced in CFB and have played many games as unit. Ours hasn’t played 1 in its current iteration after losing Laumea and Bills, and having Lomu start at LT. Our O-line definitely has a lot of talent and size, but they need to prove it on the field before I count the OL as a non-worry.

[Utah]

I don’t know if this is a Utah/BYU thing or a young person thing or a “content creator” thing or what.

But I don’t understand this need to pander to everyone.

There is a reason we are picked first and our OL is ranked fourth best. We are good. And our inexperienced OL? We return 4 starters who had a better rushing attack than OSU last year and we had no QB.

Our OL is really good. Really good. We have three NFL guys for 2025 on there.

It’s ok to realize we are good. There’s nothing wrong with that.

[HATUman]

In my opinion, that’s probably our most important game. Going into stoolwater will be a tough environment, if there is a loss on our early schedule… this might be it.

[Knoblocker]

Hey, we’re used to it! Gosh I’m just ready for some football…

And I really believe people are timid about picking us for anything because of Alan Bowman. Like someone mentioned earlier. He’s just a game manager. He had 15 TD’s and 14 INT’s last year. That needs to improve. But if he does improve in that area, we could be very dangerous.

Also, our WR’s are ranked way too low in those position group rankings!

[ProudUte]

On paper – I would pick you guys. But, I only saw OSU play a few times last year. Once was against a bad BYU team and you almost lost the game. If I remember right you were down 24-7 at home at half. However, you guys made a great comeback and were able to win.

It appears to me that you guys will be very good, and the game at OSU is my biggest concern on the schedule.

Go Utes!!!

[Utah]

Huh? OSU lost to South Alabama last year.

Go look at the average score of Utah with Risng as QB. Then look at “better on paper” comment.

Utah is better on paper.

[22Ute22]

Bowman’s problem is that he is who he is. He’s not going to magically improve as a 7th year player. Tennessee fans were glazing Joe Milton based on his physical ability and him being an older player like Bo Nix. But Joe Milton wasn’t good at all, and that was known heading into 2023. Bowman is arguably the worst QB in the entire conference, which really hinders your offense. Trust us, we know full well what incompetent QB play looks like and the damage it does to an offense. To make things even worse (for you guys), is that bowman isn’t a physically elite dual threat like Anthony Richardson or Joe Milton. Bowman had 24 rushing yards on 26 carries last year… he’s a statue in the pocket that can’t pass very well.

[Anfernee]

Exactly. Stack the box against Gordon. A few coverage disguises vs Bowman. I like our chances.

[Anfernee]

Why I say Utah: most important position in sports is quarterback. So Rising with (arguably) our most talented group of wrs and tes ever vs a very suspect Oklahoma State secondary. We get a lead on them and Bowman has to throw, pick 6 city happening. Scalley can bring the blitz also.
The Cowboys are extremely talented but Whitt/Scalley/Shaw can absolutely exploit their qb.

[Author]

Posts