1. Why fear the Cowboys? Oklahoma State has been the most consistent program in the Big 12 (other than Oklahoma) for what seems like a decade. Mike Gundy is unapologetic in his approach and I think that there were a ton of transfers out of the program, but he’s been consistently very good for so long. The fact that he has his program in place and knows what he wants is an advantage. The scheme may change, but the expectations do not. I think the running attack should be very good and Brennan Presley and Stribling, the Washington State transfer, are good players.
2. The Best Jimmy’s and Joe’s. This is a list of players on preseason All-Big 12 teams and again, maybe there wasn’t consensus about who would be at quarterback, Rangel or Bowman. I think both running backs are very good.
- QB Alan Bowman
- QB Garret Rangel
- RB Ollie Gordon II
- RB Jaden Nixon
- WR Brennan Presley
- OL Jake Springfield
- LB Collin Oliver
- S Kendal Daniels
3. Transfer Report. Oklahoma State dipped pretty heavily into the skill position part of the portal, with Elijah Collins at running back from Michigan State, Josiah Johnson, a tight end from UMass, Arland Bruce IV from Iowa and De’Zhaun Stibling from Washington State along with Alan Bowman from Michigan and Dalton Cooper at offensive line from Texas State. I wonder what Bowman has left (I think a lot) and how sharp he is after a couple of years off at Michigan. Defensively, it was just Justin Wright at linebacker and Anthony Goodlow at defensive end, both from Tulsa.
4. Tough to Replace. Almost the entire defensive line seemingly left and a few receivers. I know that Gundy is unflinching in how he likes to run his program, but he lost a lot of players. I should mention that Collin Oliver will be good at linebacker and former Texas Tech footballer Xavier Benson is also expected to be a big part of the defense along with linebacker Justin Wright.
Previous 4 Things Preseason Previews: Baylor; BYU; UCF; Cincinnati; Houston; Iowa State; Kansas; Kansas State; Oklahoma; Oklahoma State; TCU; Texas; Texas Tech; West Virginia
Ed Note. This is what I worked on while on flights. I tried not to get too deep because that would be incredibly difficult to do this for 14 teams and I think most of us want a cursory idea of what opposing teams are. I also found the idea of who is transferring in as more important than the freshmen arriving. That’s definitely changed over the course of years. I also thought that knowing who is being replaced is relevant more than most things.