The Os(u)cars

In light of today’s 83rd annual Academy Awards I figured I should hand out a few of my own, Oklahoma State-style, for the last year of athletic achievements. Here we go.

Best Picture
The nominees – OSU vs. KU hoops (Feb. 27, 2010) | OSU vs. Texas football (Nov, 13, 2010) | OSU vs. Texas A&M football (Sept. 30, 2010) | OSU vs. OU wrestling (Feb. 21, 2010)

And the winner is…from a purely dramatic standpoint I have to give it to OSU vs. Texas A&M football [applause from the audience]. There was no shortage of intrigue or subplots in this tense early conference game between two teams who, as it turned out, shared the Big 12 south title with Oklahoma. I wanted to say the Kansas basketball game but the A&M game meant more in the bigger scheme of the season. In the Os(u)cars, that matters.

Best Actor in a Leading Role
The nominees – Brandon Weeden | James Anderson | German Fernandez | Peter Uihlein | Jordan Oliver

And the winner is…Jordan Oliver is 54-4 in his last 58 starts so it’s kind of tough to go against that, but I’m still going James Anderson, and here’s why: without Oliver OSU still goes to the NCAA tournament in wrestling, and that’s the point, to play for a title. Without Anderson though, OSU’s basketball team might not have gone to the NIT last year. In a lot of ways this season is winning the award for Anderson’s year last year.

By the way, this is such an awkward time to hand out Os(u)cars for every sport besides football. I’m trying to include the entirety of the 2010 year and melding into 2011 if necessary. Sorry Marshall Moses, you’ll be on next year’s ballot.

Best Actor in a Supporting Role
The nominees – Justin Blackmon | Kevin Tway | Jared Rosholt | Kendall Hunter | Obi Muonelo

And the winner is…kind of a no-brainer here. The real question is, where does Justin Blackmon’s Os(u)car rank amont the dozens of awards he’s piled up in the last 365 days? I say somewhere between the Walter Camp Football Foundation All-American award and David Ubben’s All-Big 12 prize. And I’m pretty confident in saying that.

Best Director
The nominees – Mike Gundy | Travis Ford | John Smith | Dave Smith | Mike McGraw | Dana Holgorsen

And the winner is…sorry McGraw and Dave, any other year finishing in the top 2 in your sport’s respective championship events would be good to score at least a share of this award. Unfortunately for both of you the supernova sport that is college football, and the mad scientist conducting experiments with it on the OSU sideline, dwarfed how brightly both of you shone. A sampling of the school records Dana and his hair broke last year: Points – 575 | Total offense – 6,763 | Pass attempts – 532 | Touchdown passes – 36 | Passing yards – 4,496 | Completions – 357.

Costume Design
The nominees – Football | Basketball | Baseball | Golf

Football might be running away with this award in 2012 depending on what Nike is growing in its pro-combat petri dishes up in Eugene but I have to give this to baseball for now. Their slick-looking socks and underrated spikes cover the +14 spread they’re laying to the golf team who has the unfair advantage of being associated with Titleist and Polo.

Short Film
The nominees – Blackmon’s end around against Baylor | James’ dagger dunk against KU | Gilbert’s kick return against OU | Dan Bailey’s game-winner against A&M

And the winner is…it’s ironic that Blackmon wins this on a play in which he didn’t receive the ball. I think this TD was the culmination of a laundry list of items that needed settling: Blackmon’s lost his edge after getting arrested (riiight), Baylor is the new OSU in the Big 12 (uh, no), the Bears can hang with the Cowboys in Stillwater (game was over after this play), Holgorsen’s getting soft (middle finger towards Briles for the entirety of the second half answered that). All in all, the play of the year.

Lastly, I got a great tweet from @djhosu saying that we should hand a humanitarian award to Jerrod Johnson for his performance in that aforementioned OSU vs. A&M game. Consider it handed.