Photo Attribution: Icon SMI

Yours truly has been hand selected by SB Nation to participate in the annual BlogPoll Top 25 voting system. Did they pretty much let anyone in who had a halfway decent blog, could type a sentence with less then 4 misspellings, and knew how to pen “Ryan Perrileaux”? Sure, but don’t let that keep you from thinking it’s a prestigious honor to be included in such a thing.

So what is this BlogPoll thing you speak of Pistolsguy? Let me explain in 3 bullet points (because that’s what I was taught to do in business school):

1. Every Monday I (along with hundreds of other college football bloggers) submit my top 25 poll to SB Nation who then creates a composite ranking based on other bloggers’ polls

2. From Monday-Wednesday you guys (my readers) get to weigh in via the comments section to tell me what I had wrong. Don’t think Texas should be that high? Light me up. Mississippi State is underrated? Let me have it.

3. On Wednesday I (along with hundreds of other college football bloggers) re-submit my poll for an official ranking later that week.

The truly awesome thing is that you guys get a say on what this poll looks like and the blogging community, who is generally much more in tune with what true college football fans think than some graduate assistant voting in the coaches poll or some writer who only covers 1 team, gets to voice its collective opinion. In other words: there’s going to be a lot of Boise State love.

Plus the transparancy will be refreshing as you guys get to call me out for being an idiot.

You can read more about the BlogPoll here. Let’s get on with my Week 1 rankings/explanations.

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Here are the results

When Dave from OKC emailed me a few weeks ago pitching his yearly survey to be taken on my site, I was like, “okay, that’s cool, I’ll do it…I just hope he doesn’t screw things up.” You have to understand: I get emails all the time from people wanting to post stuff and/or endorse their site/product. Some are legit, most I could do without. Most are just spammers trolling for hits.

So I was leery of Dave until he showed me past surveys he’d done. Even then though I still thought it might create some unnecessary clutter.

Then he got over 1,100 people to take the survey and produced these incredible (and very interesting) results.

Now I’m trying to figure out how to get him on board as my statistician. The pay is low Dave, like “I’ll buy you a beer when I see you and that’s about it” low, but it’s all yours if you want it.

Make sure you guys thank him on Twitter and take a spin through all the data he put together. It’s really a phenomenal piece of work.

Welcome to a new series on what must take place for Oklahoma State to reach #1 in the polls this year. Who must win in order for the Cowboys to sit atop the college football world?

Here’s your full fan’s guide to who OSU fans should be rooting for this season.

We’ve looked at A&M, Boise St., Stanford, Florida St., and LSU so far so let’s head back west and take a look at who we’re supposed to root for against Oregon.

The Ducks open with the game of September at Jerryworld in Dallas on Sept. 3rd against LSU. Side bet I’d love to make: Les will try to eat the fake grass on the field there. Also, I can’t keep track anymore but it feels like half the players suiting up have been suspended.

The schedule doesn’t get much easier after that either. Nevada at home in a sneaky non-conference affair before hosting Missouri State whose athletic director must have thought he was scheduling a basketball game (I mean there’s an outside chance that’s how this happened, right?).

Then they go to Arizona (who isn’t going to Arizona?) and come back home for Cal and Arizona State.

At Boulder and home at Washington State provide a nice precursor before going to Seattle and to Palo Alto in back-to-back weeks.

Finally USC and the Civil War at home round out the regular season prior to the Pac-12 Championship.

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Who he is: Martin won’t leave the record books in shambles like some of his teammates but it’s hard to remember a time when OSU had somebody this domineering in its secondary. I guess you could say Lucien Antoine but he wasn’t as physically gifted as the 6’1 Martin.

What he does: I loved what Gundy said in his press conference last Friday, “dudes when I played weren’t built like that. He’s 210 pounds, benches 390, runs a 4.5, and when he hits you it feels like a car wreck.” Okay, so he’s not Taylor Mays, but he can absolutely be our version of Mays and man the best secondary in the Big 12.

Where he fits in: You obviously don’t want your safeties to have a ton of tackles (he only had 55 last year) and I expect more of the same this year. It’s weird to think he could end his career with less than 5 picks (he has 3 right now) with how seemingly dominant he’s been. But like I wrote the other day, that’s the curse of being a great defensive back, you don’t get the stats to back it up.

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Photo Attribution: Adam Kemp

Who he is: This version of no. 3 is the heady 28-year old who’s experienced half a decade riding buses in the minor leagues. This version is smart and calm and he knows the offense better than any of coaches. This version of Brandon Weeden is indispensable.

What he does: There’s a sense of tranquility when you have the best gunslinger in the country controlling your huddle. The reports of him tutoring Monken on what this offense does are wildly over-reported and mostly not true. Weeden said himself, “I hate the word ‘teach,’ Todd would write down the [plays]. I would just tell him what I was thinking.” (via CBS Sports) But that’s kind of the point, isn’t it? That the elder statesmen of the nation’s best offense (or second best depending on how much Wiz Khalifa Chip Kelly is pumping) is always thinking, two, five, ten plays ahead.

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Photo Attribution: KT King

Who he is: He’s been called by some the “Desmond Mason of football.” Personally I think we should pump the brakes (or jump up inside the car and slam on them) before that crazy talk gets out of control. That being said, the dude is special.

What he does: Nearly broke the 1,000-yard all-purpose mark as a true freshman on a team that was within a busted defensive play of going to a BCS bowl. So there’s that for starters. I’ve called him Brian Westbrook to Jeremy Smith’s LeSean McCoy but that’s for convenience purposes only. He’s more like a poor man’s Ray Rice (Rutgers version).

Where he fits in: I think by the time his career in Stillwater is over he will be a 750-750 guy and has an outside shot to go 1,000-1,000. He’ll continue to pile up receiving yards because 1.) he has sick hands and runs wheel routes that make Reggie Bush nod and smile and 2.) Jeremy Smith can handle the run-specific downs and duties. It’s a nice logjam for Gundy to have.

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Photo Attribution: KT King

Bodog put some numbers to the 2011 season this week. Numbers like who’s favored to win the Heisman (3 of the 5 guys I drafted in our Heisman fantasy draft are in the top 9) and who’s favored to win the Big 12 and who will have the most rushing yards per game in the ACC. I mean there’s some pretty degenerate stuff in here.

Let’s filter it out though and look at the O-State bets you can make right now with real money at Bodog.com. Note: we’ll look at Heisman odds in a separate post.

Total Receiving Yards for Justin Blackmon

Over 1100 -105 (bet $105 to win $100)
Under 1100 -130 (bet $130 to win $100)

It looks like free money, right? Consider this though, only six times in the history of the OSU program has a receiver topped 1,100 yards (including Blackmon last year). With your life on the line right now you’d probably take the over but I wouldn’t exactly call it a lock.

Also, it’s interesting to me that you have to put down less money to bet the over. If Vegas’ goal is to get equal action on both sides wouldn’t they make the under the more desirable bet because the over seems so appealing straight up?

Total Receiving TDs for Justin Blackmon

Over 13.5 -120 (bet $120 to win $100)
Under 13.5 -120 (bet $120 to win $100)

Again, because he was so otherworldly last year this seems easy, but again there have only been five seasons in the history of the school where 14 receiving TDs was reached. I’d go under this with more confidence than I’d go under the total receiving yards number. I think Weeden spreads it out a little more this year.

Most TDs Per Game – Big 12

Landry Jones -200 (bet $300 to win $100)
Brandon Weeden +125 (bet $100 to win $175)
Robert Griffin III +700 (bet $100 to win $750)

Take away the bowl games (which you have to do with these bets) and Landry threw 35 TDs last year while Weeden had 32. Let’s also not forget that last year was Landry’s second year as a starter in the system. He realized a 50% jump in TD production from his first year to his second. If Weeden realizes the same he’ll throw for 50+ and you’ll be giggling all the way to the bank. I think there’s a ton of value for Weeden here at this number.

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Before we get into this let me get this off my chest: The only thing worse than a “hey could you talk about…” question in an Oklahoma State press conference is the “how will Todd Monken taking over for Dana Holgorsen affect the offense?” If a media member said “hey, could you talk about Todd Monken taking over for Dana Holgorsen” I think my head would start levitating atop my spine.

Who he is: You guys know the story by now: played at division III Knox College during his formative years before moving on to Eastern Michigan, LA Tech, OSU, LSU, Jacksonville and now back to Stillwater.

I did find this tidbit interesting: “Monken’s sensational senior season [at Knox College] included record-breaking numbers of 218 pass completions, 358 attempts, 2400 yards, 23 touchdowns and a 60.9 percent completion percentage. He led the nation in yards, completions, and attempts while finishing second in touchdown passes.” Weeden should have those numbers sewn up by, what, the Missouri game? The Baylor game? (courtesy of Knox College)

What he does: He calls plays from the pressbox. How much are we going to miss Dana’s hair wildly flailing in the wind as he paced the sideline trying to figure out how to get another eff you TD against Baylor? Dana was born to coach this season at OSU. Alas.

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