OK...SERIOUSLY, TECH WILL FINALLY LOSE TOMORROW

By mark rogers
November 7, 2008

And here's why. Two words. One player:

Kendall Hunter.

The Big 12 rushing leader...by a lot. The fourth leading rusher in the country. Top 10 in carries. Top 15 in TDs. Top 20 in yards per carry. Oklahoma State will win tomorrow and may end up in the BCS because of the way they can run the football.

When Oklahoma State beat Missouri, I still wasn't convinced they were as good as hyped.

I thought Missouri just laid an egg. Then they went to Austin, and my ears began to perk up.

OSU out-rushed UT by nearly double...double. And lost. If that game had been anywhere else, the Cowboys would have won.

Home field advantage is as good as 4 or 5 points in college football and UT won by four.

Oklahoma State is out-rushing opponents this year by 156.7 yards per game. That is ridiculous.

They've gone over 200 yards as a team 7 of 9 games. Over 350 in three games. And topped out at 450...against the then-number-3 ranked team in the nation. Those numbers are staggering.

To put it in perspective...

You could argue that Michigan State is a great rushing team. Spartan RB Javon Ringer is leading the nation in rushing and rushing TDs.

The Spartans have gone over 200 yards rushing as a team three times in nine games...just three.

And only four teams in the nation average more yards on the ground than OSU: Navy, Air Force, Louisiana-Lafayette and Nevada. Four joke programs.

OSU leads the "big-boy" teams in rushing and they've played the #1 and #3 ranked teams and are about to play #2. They totalled 404 yards in those two games. It's not like they're playing cupcakes.

Here's another interesting stat: at this point in the season four FBS teams out of 120 have rushed and thrown for more than 2,000 yards. Those teams are TCU, Penn State, Tulsa and Oklahoma State.

If Hunter goes off tomorrow, OSU will win big. Hunter goes over 150 and it's a two score win. For every ten yards he goes over 150, I'll add another score to that margin of victory.

The way to beat the Red Raiders is to keep them from scoring. The way you keep a team from scoring isn't by playing good defense. It's by maintaining drives and keeping the opposing offense off the field.

Texas didn't do that. The Longhorns only racked up 80 yards rushing against TTU.

OSU can and will do it tomorrow and the Tech's run near the summit of college football win end.

Prediction: Oklahoma State - 28, Texas Tech - 24

And by the way...OSU hasn't won in Lubbock since 1944...according to one of neighbors who probably texted me that info whilst sitting in a deer blind.

Comments

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Bryson Shake on November 7, 2008 9:14 PM

I completely agree with Mark on this subject. The way to beat the Red Raiders is to keep their offense off the field. Graham Harrell cannot hook up with Michael Crabtree if they are not on the field. Make the Tech defense prove that last week was not a fluke, run the ball down their throat and keep them on the field. The key to this game for OSU is to maintain drives, keep the clock running, and get points whenever possible. In this case, a good rushing attack and assertive clock management is what will lead the Cowboys to victory. OSU 31, TT 24

Todd on November 9, 2008 1:57 PM

I guess Tech is for real? My prediction: OSU needs to do OU what Tech did to OSU!!