The 20 Most Important People to the 2015 Season (No. 1)

Kyle and I will be sorting through the 20 most important people leading up to the 2015 season every day until the Central Michigan game which, as you know, is just 1 (!) day away.

Porter: We reached the end! If you would have told me last October I would have Mike Yurcich in this spot, I would have laughed pretty hard at you. And yet here we are. Yurcich is the most important to Oklahoma State’s season. I’m straying from my normal definition of “who is OSU most screwed without” to create this list and simply going with “whose hands hold the most variables in them?”

I’m still not totally convinced Yurcich is a good (or even average) offensive coordinator, but at least he gets a year to prove it with his dude behind center.

Yurcich has an opportunity this season to make what should be a good offense, great. He also might hold the keys to the College Football Playoff for Oklahoma State. That’s both terrifying and exciting at the same time.

Boone: Mike Gundy is the easy answer for me here at No. 1. The team goes as Gundy goes, and he seems to be rejuvenated headed into his eleventh (!) season. “We’ve come a long way,” Gundy said to The Oklahoman, “not only as a football team, as a coaching staff, an organization, as a university and the relationship with Mr. Pickens. “I know I feel a lot better.”

More importantly, on the Kyle Porter metric of “who OSU is screwed most without”, Gundy is at the top of the list – and it’s not even close.

No. 2 (Porter: Rudolph | Boone: Rudolph)
No. 3 (Porter: Adkins | Boone: Kevin Peterson)
No. 4 (Porter: Salako | Boone: Ogbah)
No. 5 (Porter: Gundy | Boone: Carson)
No. 6 (Porter: Ogbah | Boone: Sheperd)
No. 7 (Porter: Bean | Boone: Childs)
No. 8 (Porter: Spencer | Boone: Taylor)
No. 9 (Porter: Carson | Boone: Washington)
No. 10 (Porter: Taylor | Boone: Bean)
No. 11 (Porter: Maile | Boone: Burton)
No. 12 (Porter: Burton | Boone: Simmons)
No. 13 (Porter: Walsh | Boone: Seaton)
No. 14 (Porter: Peterson | Boone: Crabtree)
No. 15 (Porter: Washington | Boone: Jacobs)
No. 16 (Porter: Sterns | Boone: Salako)
No. 17 (Porter: Childs | Boone: Sterns)
No. 18 (Porter: Sheperd | Boone: Maile)
No. 19 (Porter: McEndoo | Boone: Walsh)
No. 20 (Porter: Jacobs | Boone: Lampkin)