Daily Bullets (January 10)

According to his chief of staff, Jay Rosser, Pickens was hospitalized at Baylor University Medical center “briefly for a few days.” “He is undergoing daily speech therapy with marked progress daily,” Rosser said. “Boone is aggressively tackling this as he does any challenge. That’s why he said he’s going to be an old man who makes another comeback. [Dallas Morning News]

Hope he gets better quickly.

Playoff Dates Moving

Berry Tramel writes about how the College Football Playoff semifinals don’t really have a home.

This season was less of a problem. New Year’s Eve fell on a Saturday, so the Bama-Washington Peach Bowl drew 19.344 million viewers, up 23 percent from the OU-Clemson Orange Bowl in the same timeslot the year before. The Clemson-Ohio State Fiesta Bowl drew 19.236 million viewers, up three percent from the Alabama-Michigan State Cotton Bowl in the time slot. So the real difference was in the day game – masses of people weren’t at work during the playoff game this season. [NewsOK]

I think it’s pretty silly that the playoff isn’t on New Year’s every year with the title game a week later.

New scheduling for the Big 12?

Jenni Carlson on how the Big 12 should be a pioneer in scheduling over the next few years.

And yet, that’s what many Big 12 fans are forced to do when their team plays a home game against a lower-division opponent. If it’s part of the season-ticket package, you have no choice but to fork over the cash for a game against an FCS opponent.

Only three teams in the Big 12 — Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Texas — have no FCS opponent on their schedule next season. They are the exception to the rule. Should be the other way around. [NewsOK]

I’m just glad we don’t have a multi-directional FCS team on the schedule [takes a loooong hard look at South Alabama].

Pokes in top 12 everywhere

PFF has OSU there, too.

If a team has a good quarterback, it will always have a chance, and that’s precisely the case with Oklahoma State, who welcome back QB Mason Rudolph for his final season. Rudolph finished 2016 with a 92.3 overall grade, and a 90.0 passing grade, both marks ranked second among quarterbacks. Rudolph has shown good progression throughout his time in Stillwater, he posted a 69.0 grade in limited action as a true freshman, then an 86.4 grade in his first full season as a starter in 2015. The Cowboys he takes yet another step forward in 2017, to make them a legitimate playoff contender. [PFF]

This reminds me so, so much of 2011. I was more confident then, though, for some reason. This could go really well. Or it could go really, really badly. Like “me trying to tackle Bo Scarbrough” badly.

On the left: Bo Scarbrough in 10th grade…On the right: Me in 11th grade. Now I know why Alabama never called. pic.twitter.com/CS3IVIP9ib

— Kirk Cousins (@KirkCousins8) January 10, 2017

More OSU

Great uniform roundup here from the dudes over at CRFF … The good, the bad and the ugly so far from the Pokes (I don’t think OSU is a bad defensive team, I think they are an average one — we just gonna ignore turnover percentage?) … Oklahoma State’s greatest players ever. Tomorrow night would be a nice win.