10 Predictions

Kyle Porter —  August 29, 2012 — 20 Comments

NCAA Football: Oklahoma State at MissouriPhoto Attribution: US Presswire

I did 40 last year when you could, you know, do 25 alone on W2B. Here are 10 to get you started with 10 more to come later in the week.

1. Josh Stewart will lead the team in receptions – Gundy’s already said it will be either Stewart or Randle and I just can’t bring myself to believe that an offense led by Todd Monken will allow a running back be its leading receiver.

2. Gilbert moves into a tie for 3rd in kick returns – He has four and trails 4th place Brandon Banks (K-State) and 3rd place Ashlan Davis (Tulsa) with five and six respectively. And he might get both in the first game.

3. Wes Lunt throws 30 TD – It’s only happened three times in OSU history but it’s also never not happened since OSU installed the air raid. The freshman record is 36 (Bradford).

4. OSU Leads the Big 12 in scoring offense for the third straight year – They led by a TD in 2010 and by three last year over the fightin’ Griffins. The margin, if it exists, won’t be nearly as comfortable but I think it still exists.

5. OSU starts 15+ guys on defense – Did you realize the Cowboys only started 13 different guys on defense last season? Unheard of, and won’t happen again.

6. Joe Randle goes 25+ TDs again – They’re going to ride him all season so barring the i-word I see him getting this. He put up a TD every eight carries (208 total) last year1 so that might not happen again but he’ll also catch more than 43 balls for 2 TD out of the backfield. I see a 18-8 rush/receiving split. Something like that.

Read

Podcast: Savannah State Preview

Matt Amilian —  August 29, 2012 — 2 Comments

Carson Cunningham joins me to talk about who we think will win the Big 12, how we feel about scheduling teams like Savannah State and I give him over/unders on some stat lines for the game this weekend.

You can listen to the podcast below or feel free to subscribe in iTunes here.

Play

Daily Bullets

Kyle Porter —  August 29, 2012 — 20 Comments

How do we feel about the new OSU Nike gear? I’m pretty “meh” on it. (okstate.com)

Good stat here. (NewsOK)

OSU with the second best stadium in the Big 12? (USA Today)

It seems that throwing wolves to kids is quite an odd concept. (Scout)

I might have to re-think my decision to not go to the Texas game. (ESPN)

When people call me Daytawion it kind of shocks me. (Tulsa World)

Excellent breakdown of our LBs by Gina here. (NewsOK)

Looks like big game James is headed to Hotlanta. Hope that goes better than San Antonio. (Spurs Nation)

Is it? Maybe… (ESPN)

Read

Fun With Transitive Properties

Kyle Porter —  August 28, 2012 — 1 Comment

Last year Southeastern Louisiana beat Savannah State by 57.

McNeese State beat Southeastern Louisiana by 21.

Kansas beat McNeese state by 18.

And Oklahoma State beat Kansas by 421

Sooo that means OSU wins on Saturday by…100? I mean is that really out of the question?

Savannah State has four seniors.

What are we doing?

Three Questions: Melanie Weeden

Kyle Porter —  August 28, 2012 — 5 Comments

Big thanks to Melanie Weeden taking some time out of her busy life to chat on Pistols Firing. You should follow her on Twitter if you aren’t already.

1. You guys have been caught up in quite a whirlwind over the last few years. What was the non-football moment where you were like “whoa, I can’t believe this is my life now”?

While Brandon was a collegiate athlete, he was busy with football and academics. I had a full-time career. We didn’t have much extra time or money.

However, during the spring, I was able to quit my job, and we’ve been fortunate enough to go on some fun trips. e went to the Masters, spent time in Scottsdale, visited wine country, San Fransisco, Los Angeles, New York City, and now we’re in Cleveland! It’s been a crazy whirlwind!

We enjoyed every minute of our time at Oklahoma State, and so far, we’re really enjoying Cleveland. We are lucky to have amazing family and friends who are supportive and genuinely care about us. We realize things are changing, but we will always remember where we came from and we’ll continue to appreciate the people and blessings in our lives.

2. Three favorite sports-related movies or tv shows?

Happy Gilmore – a classic…I probably watched this movie thousands of times as a kid. I bet I could watch it right now and remember every line. It was one of the few movies my brother and I could agree on…so we watched it a lot. It probably saved the sanity of our parents on every road trip.

A League of Their Own – I remember seeing this movie when it was in theaters…another childhood favorite.

30 for 30 – these documentaries are interesting. I enjoy hearing about the great stories of sports history.

Read

We’re looking forward to getting on the plane and coming to the beautiful city of Stillwater.

Steve Davenport (Savannah St. coach)

Social Media Guide: College Football

Kyle Porter —  August 28, 2012 — 5 Comments

I’ve been busy putting together a social media guide for college football season and this is part one.

I’ll have more OSU/Big 12/Local follows later but this list is a pretty good national one to get you started. And I’ve tried to make it as easy as possible for you to start following these guys and gals. If you’re logged into twitter on your browser you can simply click follow on the right column and you’re ready to roll.

This list isn’t comprehensive by any means, these are simply the people and sites I follow to keep up with college football on a national level. If I’ve missed any great follows, let me know in the comments.

NameCompanyTwitterCommentsFollow
Adam KramerBleacher Report One of the most consistently funny college football people on Twitter. A must follow.
Andy StaplesSports IllustratedKeeps it light-hearted and funny. Really clever feed and a great writer.
Bill ConnellySB NationSmart as hell, one of the many highbrow feeds on this list you should be following.
BrandonSB NationMostly SEC stuff but minus the insanity. Seems like a pretty good guy too.
Brett McMurphyESPNIf you follow one feed strictly for college football reporting, this should be it.
Brian FremeauFootball OutsidersDoesn't tweet very often but one of his tweets is worth 10 of most other people. Plus Football Outsiders is usually high on OSU.
Bryan FischerCBSA lot of Pac-12 news but always brings great links and some solid humor to the conversation.
Charles RobinsonYahoo!Fair warning: great investigative journalist. If you see him in Stillwater or tweeting about OSU, we can all just pick a new squad...
Chris BrownGrantlandThe handle says it all - you'll be more intelligent about football (and sports) for having followed him.
Dan RubensteinSB NationGreat pulse of college football feed. And he's hilarious to boot. And on Grantland.
Dan WetzelYahoo!He's a machine during college football season, one of the best national columnists around.
Dan WolkenUSA TodayInteresting, unbiased, very funny. Intrigued by what the folks over at USA Today are doing...
Erin AndrewsFoxShe takes heat but knows her stuff. Fun, not-too-serious twitter account too.
Fieldhouse MediaFieldhouseThe place to be for keeping up with social media and colleges.
George SchroederUSA TodayAccording to some, the nicest guy in the business. Newly hired by USA Today and formerly of the Oklahoman.
Jerry PalmCBSThe stat nerd in me loves his feed.
John Walters-------Clever and always interacts with followers. Extremely thoughtful in his opinions. If he ever writes a book on why college football shouldn't have a playoff, I'll be the first to buy it.
Mark EnnisSB NationCovers the Big East primarily but he's pretty funny. And a great gateway to discovering other good feeds.
Matt HintonCBS For my money, the most underrated college football media mind in the country.
Pat FordeYahoo!Don't LOVE his columns but he's a solid follow for national coverage. And the Forde yard dash is salty.
Paul PabstDan Patrick ShowOne of my favorite all-time follows. Loves MACtion and always helps find games coming down to the wire.
Pete ThamelSports IllustratedDoesn't tweet a ton but it's usually because he's snagging a story. Can't wait to see what he does at SI.
PollspeakPollspeakAmazing roundup of all the various polls throughout the year. A must follow for me.
SB Nation GIFSB Nation#FatGuyTouchdowns and other amazing GIFs.
Spencer HallSB Nation Potentially the most obscure, intelligent writer of the footballs on the internet today. Brilliant.
Stewart MandelSports IllustratedOne of the many horses in Sports Illustrated's stable. His postgame pieces from whatever game he's at that week are must-read.
Timothy BurkeDeadspinYour other GIF and screenshot master. Not much slips past him. Strong follow.
Tom FornelliCBSLover of Italian football, covers the Big 12 (mostly) for CBS.
Tom LuginbillESPNI don't follow a ton of recruiting stuff because I find it mostly appalling but I feel like Luginbill keeps it pretty real. There are other, probably better, recruiting follows but he's my pick.
Travis HaneyESPN I'm pretty biased but there isn't another writer who can handle the breadth of national coverage like Haney. Good non-sports tweets too.
Ty DuffyThe Big LeadMichigan man, Premier League aficionado, one of my favorite college football feeds.
Wright ThompsonESPNThe best.

Daily Bullets

Kyle Porter —  August 28, 2012 — 16 Comments

I like this countdown to kickoff thing. (O’Colly)

Buffalo Wild Wings bowl…oh. (Sports Illustrated)

Cross-country ranked #1. (okstate.com)

We are definitely in “it’s time for the season to start” mode. (NewsOK)

Bummer. (Tulsa World)

This stuff makes my head spin. (Tulsa World)

How bad is Savannah State? Worse than you can fathom. (NewsOK)

Bet we don’t end the year in 6th on this list. (ESPN)

Some pretty funny wagers here. (CRFF)

Some good Big 12 stats here for the statistically-inclined of you. (Big 12 Sports)

Read

My freshman year we had a huge playbook and I was worried about learning that thing. Then Dana comes in here with a little notepad and it all kind of ended up working out.

Charlie Moore on Dana

Five Underrated Players

Kyle Porter —  August 27, 2012 — 1 Comment

NCAA Football: Oklahoma at Oklahoma StatePhoto Attribution: US Presswire

It’s inevitable when you have a pair of studs like Weeds and Blackmon last year that players, great players, are going to get lost in the fold.

Here are five guys I think the national media, and maybe even OSU fans, are underrating.

1. Jeremy Smith – Here’s the career yards per carry list for Oklahoma State.

1. Barry Sanders – 6.8
2. Jeremy Smith – 6.6

Nobody else has ever averaged over 6.0 yards per carry1. Granted, he doesn’t have the carries to prove his longevity, but if you’re looking at initial production predicting the future…look no further than #31.

2. Desmond Roland – He’s backing up the Barry and Thurman of his generation. We’ve covered Smith above but if Randle has two more years like he did last year, he’ll go down as the most decorated OSU RB of all time.

Roland could be Randle 2.0 for all we know. With Sims out of his way this season, we’re going to see more of the former three-star athlete from Dallas. And you’re going to be impressed.

3. Shaun Lewis - Known by many fans more for his ability to single-handedly melt down message boards (Shawn, Sean, Shean, etc.2) than his ability to play football.

He’s not going to lead the planet in tackles but he does so many things so well, it’s easy for him to get lost in the fray. Example: the only two players last year with 60+ tackles, 2+ INT, and 1+ fumble recoveries were Lewis and Brodrick Brown. Brown is all over the preseason watch lists, Lewis is nowhere to be seen.

Read

Podcast: Poke

Matt Amilian —  August 27, 2012 — Leave a comment

Poke joins me on the podcast today to talk about Josh Holliday, new Big 12 teams, and the best places to road trip.

You can listen to the podcast below or feel free to subscribe in iTunes here.

Play

Taking one to the house is like your mom’s cooking, you love it.

Justin Gilbert on Kick Return TDs