Image credit: Daily Oklahoman
The Pokes are planning to blackout Boone Pickens Stadium tomorrow night in honor of Barry Sanders, of whom a trophy is being unveiled.
I’m down for that. Here’re some classic Sanders highlights:
Also, seems like the NCAA is a little upset that Mike Boynton named names.
Last week: 3-1 (.750)
Overall: 46-14 (.766)
No. 8 Oklahoma 37, No. 13 Baylor 34. Toughest pick of the week. I think this one will come right down to the wire. Oklahoma hasn’t lost to Baylor since the Art Briles era saw the Bears take three of four from the Sooners from 2011-2014. That feels like a very long time ago now. The last two games played in Waco have been close.
West Virginia 17, Kansas State 24. WVU’s Jarret Doege is probably still sore from the beating he took last week against Oklahoma State, when he was sacked eight times. At 4-5, in order to become bowl eligible, the Mountaineers need to win two of their final three games, of which only Texas and Kansas remain after this week.
Iowa State 30, Texas Tech 24. This is exactly the kind of game I’ve come to expect ISU to struggle in, but Tech has mostly been abysmal this year.
Kansas 24, Texas 45. Fun fact: since Texas lost to Kansas in 2016, the past three games between these two have been decided by margins of 15 points, 7 points, and 2 points. Kind of helps you understand why they called off last year’s matchup.
TCU 20, No. 10 Oklahoma State 34. Despite having had the superior team each year, OSU has dropped three of its past four to the Horned Frogs, each loss as inexplicable as the last. I wonder if that changes with the departure of Gary Patterson; suffice it to say that as an OSU fan, I am not thrilled to be playing TCU this week, especially after the Frogs seem to have found new life at QB. At the same time, 7pm, at home, in blackout conditions, against a team playing for an interim coach, you have to feel pretty good about going against a brand new quarterback with a defense that is giving up less than 17 points per game and is third in the nation in yards allowed per game (at 277 ypg, OSU is behind only Wisconsin and Georgia). I do worry, as Bill Connelly recently pointed out (I forget where or I would link it) what happens in the event that OSU again finds itself down a score late, as it did against Iowa State.