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Oklahoma State surges back into college football relevance as quarterback Drew Mestemaker leads a dynamic rebuild. Can the Cowboys become the biggest riser in the win column nationwide? Brian Smith and Cody Stovall spotlight Mestemacher’s breakout potential, Caleb Hawkins’ impact as a top transfer running back, and how Eric Morris’s offensive overhaul could transform the team’s fortunes.
Key analysis includes Oklahoma State’s upgraded offensive line, defensive improvement targets, and crucial matchups against Oregon, Texas Tech, Houston, Arizona State, and West Virginia. The hosts debate Hawkins’ rushing yard projections, identify breakout stars like Justin Bowick and Chris Barnes, and discuss the pivotal role of NIL investments. The conversation also explores Big 12 playoff contenders—will Oklahoma State crack the top tier, or will Texas Tech and BYU dominate? Don’t miss this strategic breakdown of the Cowboys’ path to revival and postseason ambitions.
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Drew Mastemaker coming to Oklahoma State changes to Cowboys Outlook, but how much is it possible?
Oklahoma State is the biggest riser in the win column in all of college football.
You are locked on college crossover, part of the Locked On podcast network.
Your team every day.
This crossover of locked on the portal and locked on Oklahoma State.
I am Brian Smith along with Cody Stovall here to brighten your day with some news about
the big 12 Oklahoma State being relevant again and some guy named Drew Mastemaker that
is allegedly pretty good at throwing a football.
Those are the main topics today, basically.
Because Rurali knows Cody doesn't need to see any more psychiatrists.
He needs to see Oklahoma State win some football games.
Be the elder, buddy.
And after the day, he's had, he needs more good news.
So let's dig in here, man.
I appreciate you stopping in with me.
This is a fun pod because the big 12 is always difficult.
But last year was even more topsy-turvy than normal because it had a big ship up and
down.
Usually, it was more like it was meteor in the middle of most years, last year, more
solid in the middle.
I wouldn't.
It wasn't near as good.
Kansas State.
Yeah.
Iowa State kind of fell off air after start.
Obviously, Oklahoma State never got started.
Yeah, yeah.
That's fair.
Hold on.
Hold on.
How dare you disparage the mighty UT Martin, okay?
How dare you disparage that massive W?
My gun, these last W.
That's crazy.
Yeah.
It is.
He's the all-time leader in wins.
I'm sure at Oklahoma State.
Oh, yeah.
That's tough.
Yeah.
By like 70 country miles.
But anyway, I've got questions for Cody who runs the Oklahoma State pod and does a great
job.
And we've even got some, at the end, I want to get into some big 12 path to play off.
I have a couple of questions, BYU, et cetera.
So let's start with this, man, before I've got seven, I'm going to put on the screen.
When you heard Drew Mestermaker was going to become, and I'm sure you'd seen him play
in some capacity, I'd seen him in passing a little bit.
Right.
But like his numbers are ridiculous, 4,300 plus yards, and usually when I see numbers like
that, the team's terrible on defense, they have no run game, they just have to throw
it every day.
Yeah.
Well, this following, I didn't tell you I was going to put this screen up, but look at
number three on this screen.
What's that?
Yes, everybody.
Welcome to Oklahoma State.
Transfer is in with Mestermaker last year for North Texas.
He had 1431 yards and 25 scores.
This list I have up for those of you watching on YouTube, this is PFF's top 10 running
backs for 26.
Hawkins transfers over to Oklahoma State with Mestermaker.
I mean, he was on a freshman last year as well, so he's a legit guy too.
So he got some balance there.
Tomorrow, Rigby comes in and some other receivers.
I mean, I don't know if they're going to be the 88-49ers at wide receiver, but at the
same time, they ought to be better.
The defense was okay down the strap, so you just need a toy at quarterback to kind of
make it ways to make you competitive and shoot out games.
I doubt they're going to be to work and I doubt they're going to be Texas deck.
But like, this should be a bolte is my minimum expectation, because Erick Morse is proven
he can coach.
He took, I mean, for those who don't know, Mestermaker was a walk-on out of Vanderbilt High
School in Austin, Texas at North Texas.
He did not start at high school.
It is one of the greatest stories I've ever seen in college football.
Correct.
And now is there.
So what is your expectation for him going in for Oak State?
Well, in the graphic that you put up, right, the question was, can he hit 3,500 yards after
last season, having just under 4,400 yards, 34 touchdowns throwing 39 touchdowns overall.
He was able to mix in a few of the rushing capabilities as well.
Here's what I'm going to say and it might be slightly controversial.
Everybody's going to be trying to be the new Indiana and everybody's going to try to
have the next Fernando Mendoza.
I think it is very, very evident that Oklahoma State might be the best team in the country
that has lined up to replicate what Indiana did.
Now does that mean we're going to have an 11 and win season year one?
Probably not, right?
That would be a little greedy from Oklahoma State fans to expect anything other than like
eight wins, right?
I think if you're asking for 9, 10, 11 wins after a one win season, that's a bit much.
But you already alluded to it.
How dare you take my ammunition and be good at your job because I was going to say, yes,
Drew Mestermaker can do that and the reason being primarily because of Caleb Hawkins.
You're right.
Whenever somebody's putting up that amount of yardage, it typically indicates that they
don't have a lot of defensive capabilities against them or they're one trick pony and
they're having to throw the ball around the yard 24, 7, that was not the case.
When you have a tailback that can rush for almost 1,500 yards, while you're throwing
for 4,300 yards, you've got 1,000, what, 1,100 yard receiver, another 900 yard receiver.
His ability to distribute the football is Fernando Mendoza-esque.
He's going to take a little bit more chances than Fernando Mendoza, but dude, they're the
same exact size.
They're the same frame.
They run the same way.
They thank the same way.
I think that's one of the biggest leadership capabilities that you're seeing come out.
You've got to have a dude, a quarterback to have a chance.
This is the first dude we've had since Spencer Sanders and you could, I could easily make
the argument that Spencer Sanders was so limited offensively from a play-calling perspective
that we never got to see the best parts of Spencer Sanders.
Eric Morris is going to unearth that out of Oklahoma State.
So question number one, will he throw 3,500 yards?
I firmly believe so.
Additionally, because when you go and get Donovan Green from LSU, it tied in, that adds another
wrinkle, another layer, and you get Ashton Aleppo, 6,7, 330 pound tackle out of Michigan
State.
You go get 6 foot 6, 230 pound, Jacob Sexton from OU.
You get Louis Kineppa back.
All of the pieces are there, offensively at least for Drew Messmaker to do precisely that.
I think that's a very fair point.
And here are all the questions that I have for Cody.
Number one, he just answered, is he going to go over 3,500 yards talking of Drew?
I think that he's got a good chance to do it.
And they're going to still have to score.
I'm sure Oklahoma State's depth on the defensive side is not probably where they wanted to
be.
They'll be competitive, but he's still going to throw it around.
Number two, will Oklahoma State beat any of Oregon, Houston, Texas, deck, West Virginia
or Arizona State?
I believe West Virginia is on the road.
Organs at home.
I think Houston's on the road.
I mean, where are you with some of these games, whether that the location stuff, I mean,
West Virginia will be better this year.
Crazy.
In the state, Houston, Texas, deck, that's three out of the four teams.
I kind of think they're going to be really good along, they don't play BYU, but they
have the three that I think are going to be pretty good.
Do you get any dubs out of that list?
I certainly believe so.
And not to poke fun at Houston.
I think they're a wonderful story.
I love Connor Wigman, but that's essentially a home game for Oklahoma State.
Now they're better, so it will be a little bit different, but historically speaking, every
time Oklahoma State plays in Houston, the crowd is legitimately not not being hyperbolic
here.
It's legitimately like 65 to 70% orange.
So that is a pseudo home game for Oklahoma State.
I know Houston fans aren't going to love hearing that.
Secondarily, it's going to come down to a shootout between Connor Wigman and obviously
Drew Mestemaker.
I love their story, but at the end of the day, I have more faith in Drew Mestemaker.
And I think even, let's just logistically, Brian, if you have 4,400 yards in the AAC,
are you going to do that in the big 12?
No.
So you could reasonably expect maybe 800,000 yards less than what you did in the AAC, which
is precisely why I think 3,500 is a very good possibility.
Another big thing is there's going to be a lot of tempo, man.
He's going to have a ton of opportunities.
So I think when you mix all of that in, Oklahoma State does get a win at Houston.
I think we do get a win at West Virginia.
I don't think we're going to be able to beat Oregon.
Even if we were at full capacity, I don't think you can get, you know, 100 players schematically
on the same page in two games, right?
But you would expect when coming into big 12 play because they have 18 North Texas players
that are teaching our guys the system and the calls and the shifts and the protections.
I think that is going to expedite Oklahoma State to a position to, yes, win on the road
in Morgantown.
I think we do win on the road against Houston Texas Tech in Boone Pick and Stadium.
It's like second and third last game of the season.
That's going to be interesting.
If I were to throw a dart of the board, do we win right now against techno?
But it depends on how things shake out.
If you begin the season and you're only lost as Oregon and you have West Virginia dub,
a Houston dub before you even have that conversation.
Yeah, it does change the complexity of the season, in my opinion.
I think that's a very fair point.
Next one is another very fun question.
Number three, over under Caleb Hawkins, 1200 yards.
Now, remember, he had 14 plus last year, but that again, it's not the same level.
He's now at the big 12.
So what do you say on Hawkins with the calculus?
I don't think he gets quite to 1200.
The asterisk being in the regular season.
I do think that he's a thousand yard back.
I think he could be in all of Gordon's 17, 1800 yard back.
If we didn't have complimentary pieces, I think when you have Katie Batman Jones coming in,
you have to put him on the field, his speed, his elusivity, his ability to catch the ball out of the backfield.
So I think there's so much talent around Caleb Hawkins that he's going to get slightly less carries.
In addition to that, I think the coaching staff is well aware.
When you go to the big 12, it's a much different ball game.
So you don't need to get Caleb Hawkins unnecessarily banged up,
which is something we didn't do well with all the Gordon.
We had to feed all the Gordon because that was the only semblance of offense we had.
This year will be different.
I think we'll be able to distribute the ball out a little bit more evenly,
which will lead Caleb Hawkins to not quite get to that mark.
Because I think Katie Batman Jones or a day of die,
I think they could easily get three, four hundred yards as well.
I agree.
When we come back, I've got more questions for Cody.
Going to dive into the roster of some expectations.
Then a little bit later, we're going to talk about the big 12 overall getting the programs forward.
Not just one team ended to play off,
could they get two at some point down the road, get three?
How does the big 12 move forward?
That is next right here on this cross over.
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For those of you who score, never tell us the whole story
because in college football, there's always stuff going on behind the scenes.
And this is a great example of today's show with Oklahoma State and Cody.
Caleb Hawkins doesn't get talked about much.
Drew Mester Makers already started to make the rounds in quarterback and he deserves a tons of credit.
The Caleb Hawkins is a dude.
Nobody really went after him, ends up at North Texas.
He made everybody pay who didn't come after him.
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He's put in the work to get there.
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All right, Cody.
Owen D. Owen, real quick, interjecting question.
Last year it was goofy offense.
Just was bad for the most part.
Quarterback, they didn't trust.
Other team knew it.
They made a lot of problems for the Owen and stuff.
Well, the Owen just be better, like significant.
I like a little bit, but like what are we going to see at the roadspurt?
You're like, okay, this is a different deal.
You got the kick from Kansas coming in at center.
I forget his name.
That's a hell of a start because he's a guy that's a legitimate starting experience.
Go from there, give me what you got.
Yeah, I mean, I already mentioned six, seven national lepo from Michigan State, six,
six, six, seven from OU.
Obviously we did go get Tyler Mercer from KU.
We got Johnny Dixon III coming over from North Texas.
We got we got Magaya coming over from North Texas.
And I think the familiarity, right, is going to be massively beneficial.
So as it sits right now, is this offensive line ahead of last year's at this moment?
Absolutely.
Do we realistically know how good we are?
Not yet, because we haven't thrown on pads, right?
One of the best kept secrets, I guess, in football is offensive lineman.
Their job is to hold you, but do it so well that nobody sees it.
So when you don't have pads, it's really difficult for an offensive lineman to get in, you know,
in the chest and establish that position.
When they get pads on and the OLIMON can get hands on and become more aggressive, I think
that'll, we give us the peak behind the scenes that we need to see.
But again, from a conversational communication standpoint, they are ahead of schedule compared
to the last season.
And if you noticed, the back half of the year, the last five, six games, Oklahoma State's
offensive lines started producing pretty diagonal and well.
And you do get Louis Kanepa back.
You do get Caleb Hackleman back.
So I think this is going to be a big year for Oklahoma State because that OLIMON group
is a much more cohesive unit already.
Well, that's an important part of it.
All right.
Will the Cowboys finish in the top 80 of total defense last year was dreadful?
Number 116, where do you say the Cowboys finish?
Because I mean, it can't be 116, Cody, that's not acceptable behavior.
Well, no.
And I think if I looked up, somebody will correct me, I'm sure.
But I recall the last time when I looked up North Texas, they were like 48th, something
to that effect.
It's not bad.
It's not bad.
They're very opportunistic, right?
I liken it to the 2011 Oklahoma State defense, where that offense was humming and putting
up 50, 60 points in games were over by halftime.
But that defense gave up 25, 35 points on a fairly regular basis.
But they were the definition of been, but don't break.
If you got into the red zone, your chances of getting a touchdown on that 2011 D were
very, very, very slim.
And we let the country in turnovers.
I think that is the same game plan here for Scholar Cassidy.
And I think it has to be, right?
And Eric Morse mentioned the reason he brought Scholar Cassidy over is because it takes,
it takes a unique defense coordinator that's willing to have their guys basically running
cross country meets.
Because when your offense is tempo, you're going to be throwing the ball around the yard 24
seven.
You're going to score in 20 seconds.
Sometimes you're going to go three and out in 20 seconds sometimes.
So it puts a ton of pressure on your defense.
The emphasis has been creating turnovers, getting into the backfield and causing chaos, being
super aggressive.
Does that mean we're going to get burnt deep a decent amount, probably, but again, it's
risk to reward.
If you get deep a decent amount of times, but your turnover rate is plus two plus three
every single game, then it cancels itself out.
And then again, you have an offense that should be able to put up 40 on almost anybody.
I agree.
All right.
Number five, who will be the breakout player for the Oklahoma State Cowboys?
So I'm going to give you a couple.
That's okay.
So you mentioned Scholar Rigby earlier.
Yes.
He's really stuck to lose him to Wisconsin, but I think his replacement from Illinois,
the six foot four, 225 pounds, Justin Bowick.
He is a name that everybody is already talking about in spring camp.
He's a big body beast.
He could play tight in if he put on a few pounds.
He could be a Tracy Moore type for Oklahoma State, but that red zone target is something
that Drew Messmaker is going to need.
If you know you're going to be in the red zone quite a bit and you know, every team in
the country is going to be trying to Ollie Gordon, Caleb Hawkins, aka put seven, eight
in the box.
You've got to have those massive red zone targets.
We talked about Donovan Green and Titan earlier.
I think Justin Bowick is an extension of that.
I mean, do you think about it?
The goats of White receiver, Oklahoma State, the Des Brines, the Justin Blackman, the
Tylenoluses, all of those dudes were great at what?
High pointing the ball in the mother truck and in zone.
That's what we have now out of Justin Bowick.
And I think the Shimaru Rigby replacement is actually a little bit of an upgrade.
And then additionally, I'm sorry, I'll give you Chris Barnes, another White receiver from
Wake Forest.
The dude is an absolute track star.
He is a 10 six, they're a 10 700 meter dash.
This dude is going to be absolutely massive at Oklahoma State.
He had like 530 yards, 480 yards, something to that effect at Wake Forest.
We lose Gavin Freeman, who replaced Brennan Presley and it appears as though Chris Barnes
at the slot might be a little bit of an upgrade.
The almost thousand yard miles Coleman, he may be split in time this year.
I think that's how good Chris Barnes can be.
That's a pretty big statement.
Number six, your biggest concern for the 2026 season would be?
I mean, the defense is the easy answer, but if I were to go a little bit deeper into
the onion, the two things that are concerning to me are still defensive line and the
safeties.
I know we brought, we did bring over Quentin Hammons, who was a very, very solid safety.
He had a really good, I think it was top five BFF grade this previous season at North
Texas.
So he's going to be big.
And then you got Justin Boennar, who seems to be checking out pretty well.
You got most Phillips, the third from Mizzou.
So I think we have some depth at safety, but I don't know that we have the proper 2D.
Does that make sense?
I think we got a good starter, but the depth behind him just seems like a bunch of big
six foot 200 pound athletes that haven't exactly translated on the field yet.
So I don't know how that's going to look.
And then D-line, of course, you're hearing good things about like Jerry Lawson coming
over from Louisville to Sean Brown's back, Lil Johnson's back, Amano's his back.
So you've got some help, you've got some dudes, but again, I don't know what the depth component
is, right?
The depth components have been guys like Lan and Dean and Luke Webb in the past.
Are they going to be called on more this year, or is it going to be very transfer heavy
on the D-line?
I don't know.
The linebackers, I will say, very, very, very happy about them.
That's probably the most, not probably, it is the best position, the deepest position with
the most talent on the defensive side of the ball for sure.
And the cornerback room has got steadily better.
So the back end, safety, and the D-line are my biggest concern.
All right.
Number seven and finally, over under six and a half wins for Oklahoma State.
I mean, the standard should always be seven, right?
Like the Mike Gundy standard for 18 years, 19 years almost was eight to 10 wins.
That was the standard.
That's what he did.
He did it on a regular basis.
That's why he became who he was.
So I think Oklahoma State to be in training in the right direction, you've got to get to
seven wins, right?
That seems fair.
But I have a caveat.
You ready?
You're paying for way more than seven wins.
This is the downside to NIL.
When you do get the big investments and you do get the many Cody Campbell's pumping money
into the organization, then you have to have a return on investment.
So I think it would be greedy for Oklahoma State fans to ask for anything other than seven
eight wins.
But you are financially, you're paying your quarterback seven and a half million dollars
to do what?
To get you to the big 12 title.
But thankfully, we got three years of through Messmaker, unless he goes pro earlier.
But yeah, man, that's, that would be an ideal scenario, I guess.
I actually have a fun, happy thought that we're going to give Cody after the break about
that because I think he's on to something that's been on NIL, not all these guys are going
to be gone right away.
That is next right here on this crossing.
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and swap for Cody, I think you were right.
There's an opportunity for a lot of different people to look at Oklahoma State and say, man,
they spent a lot of money, they're going to be lucky to get to a bowl.
This is a layered thing.
Usually teams don't make like seven or eight game changes in their win loss record, but would
that be shocking this year?
No.
The game.
So getting to eight is not out of the question.
They're in the big 12.
It's not the SEC.
They're not going to be playing against teams that have way more talent for the most for
not Texas tech and a few of those are not going to be friendly, but we just got a quarterback
you could win a show to shoot out, yeah, you couldn't win any of those.
Correct.
So some of those games are getting the thirties last year that had no chance.
So from that perspective, I think it's true, but the bigger thing isn't this year.
It's get to a bowl, at least, yeah, keep a lot of the guys Hawkins, yeah, master maker
where it starts, but those line, any alignment of extra eligibility is keeping them here.
So you develop for the one then in 27 beyond technically, you should be really good.
If master maker goes crazy, that you're your only problem as he might turn pro because
you were.
Yeah.
Well, and there's a reason.
See again, this is a confidence thing.
Because a reason drew master maker just participated in the pro day because there isn't outside
chance that he's only here here for one year because he does precisely what he just did
again at North Texas and proves that he can do it on this level as well.
But you know, yes, I think we should expect seven eight wins.
Are we technically paying for more than that?
Yes.
But drew master maker last year, freshman, Hill Hawkins, freshman, Miles Coleman, he was
only a sophomore.
Why young only a junior?
I think out of all of the transfers we brought over 60 some odd transfers, there's literally
only a handful of seniors.
So this transfer portal that he brought in and most of the guys that were successful at
North Texas last year, they were all on their classmen anyways.
See, that's the other impressive thing that seems, seems to not get brought up enough.
He did everything in North Texas, 12 wins with a bunch of freshmen and sophomores and he brought
mostly all of them that he wanted with him to stow out America.
So yes, we should expect seven eight wins.
We're paying for maybe nine or 10 ish, but if you get to that seven ish range and you
get a lot of these guys back, then then we get to start talking about an 11 win season.
I think the biggest question for me and this is popped in my head.
So excuse me for interjecting here, but who is do you likely back up to master maker?
Because reps are always important, but is there somebody or no?
Easy, easy, easy.
And so I, you know, I get to talk to a few of the fellows here and there and the common
consensus is Grant Jordan, the backup that came over from Yale.
He would have started over Alan Bowman, Garrett Rangel, my lock A Smith, everybody we've
had for the last four years.
And yes, and the biggest thing is, right, is you have to have that, I don't know, that
swagger about you, right?
You wouldn't necessarily think a dude coming from Yale would have that, I'm going to be
the king kind of guy, but he does present himself that way.
So the team feels very confident that if something happened to Drew Mestemaker and Grant
Jordan had to come in, we could still operate fairly smoothly.
Would it look like Mestemaker?
No.
When you got Jeff Christensen calling Drew Mestemaker the potential next Tom Brady, no
matter who the backup is, it's not going to look the same.
So Grant Jordan was a kid who threw for like 2800 yards.
He rushed for like, you know, five, six, 700 yards.
So if we had to put him in for a couple of games, couple of quarters, yeah, he could hold
down the fort pretty tag on well.
Finally, with Oklahoma State, do you think everything is cohesive now?
There's been conversations you and I had, administration code, like it has been toxic
in some way, shape or form, if you want.
Is that good now, at least in the right trajectory?
Is that fair?
Yes.
So I can't, you know, I can't like devil.
Here's what I'll say.
The players are saying that they're doing things together that they've never done before.
And we've got a few players that have been here for five years, right?
And they're just, the stuff they're doing off the field, it's completely unprecedented.
Usually you go with your position group buddies to hang out, right, do some fun stuff.
These guys are going mudden, four-wheeled, hunting, shopping, and they're doing it as collective
units.
And they had this thing where every time you go to the morning meetings and breakfast
or whatever, you had to sit at different designated tables.
So you got to talk to every single member of the staff.
So you got to know every single player, kind of like to remember the titan's type of thing.
It's that kind of deal.
And Eric Morris' biggest thing before schematics, before implementation of the offensive
defense, was we have to be a unit.
He thinks that you have to be a cohesive family unit before you can be good at the Xs and
O stuff.
So his biggest emphasis has been them doing stuff.
And I can tell you, some of the things that Drew Messmaker has done off the field with
his teammates have given the defense of guys so much confidence that they know that Drew
Messmaker is going to be the guide no matter what happens.
They are already ready to run through walls for him.
Some of the defensive guys have talked about it.
You carry yourself a little bit differently when you know you got to do that can put up
40 burgers all the time.
It allows you to play more freely defensively.
It allows you to take more chances.
It allows you to think less.
When you have the confidence in your quarterback, defensively, you can do a lot more.
I agree.
All right.
That leads me to the overall question here at the end, big 12 wise.
Obviously, Texas, Texas, the best program that we've run has not really debatable.
That's fair.
BYU is probably next.
Yeah.
Utah is the one I don't know because they got.
I didn't like how that change took place, especially with some of the stuff that's come
out here lately.
That makes people nervous.
But I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.
This guy's pretty good players to quarterback, et cetera.
Arizona State went, got three good receivers.
They have the best wide receivers.
They have the best wide receiver.
Oh, they got some dudes.
They do.
Once quarterback got three receivers, brought in Cudderbowley, very talented, but he played
a terrible offense at a Kentucky.
So I don't know what to expect.
It'll get much better.
How does the big 12 become a week where they're expected to get two teams in?
And I'm just going to call it out now.
You can say whatever you want on this.
They 100% purposely did not put BYU and Texas tech on each other's schedule because they're
trying to mitigate losses.
I'm calling it.
If you don't really, that's fine.
I don't care.
I have 100% in on that, and it's not done.
But I hope you're right.
A hundred percent.
I hope you're right.
What do you think, though?
Yeah.
No, I think those are the two best teams.
Texas tech and BYU.
BYU is again returning like 83 is 85% of the returning production.
This is year two of Bearbock Meyer and some of the conversations in Spring Ball seem to
be that he is processing of information is light years ahead of this previous season.
And you would expect that going into year two, but we've seen it a thousand times.
The sophomore slump, right?
It happens all of the time.
Early indications are that Bearbock Meyer is not experiencing that right again.
We're not in full pads.
We're not in the heat of the moment.
We're not in ballgame, so we don't really know yet.
But to me, it feels like BYU is the team that can compete the most with Texas tech.
They left him off the schedule on purpose that was a great move by Brett Yormar, because
he's made some odd moves recently.
However, at the end of the day, I think Arizona State does have a lot of weapons.
I don't personally believe in color bully, but when you have that much talent around
him, it could be surprising.
I don't think Kansas State is going to enhance the way that they think they are.
I don't think Colorado is going to be any good.
Unfortunately, I don't think Iowa State is going to be all that good.
I think West Virginia, I think they have the right thing going.
They have the right people backing him, but two years in a row of 65, 61, whatever transfers.
You talked about continuity and cohesion earlier.
Right, correct.
I think they're talented, but it's going to take West Virginia time, in my opinion, to
mesh together more so than Oklahoma State, because we got almost 20 dudes that know the
North Texas system.
So in the dorm rooms, they might be playing games, they might be taking classes, they
might be drinking spirited water, but they also might be learning the playbook together.
And that seems to be what is happening, which is why I think Oklahoma State could finish
in the top half of the Big 12 this season, but at the end of the day, if I had to bet
money, Arlington right now would be Texas Tech and BYU, but here's the beauty of it.
Every time there's been a projection of the Big 12 teams to make the playoff, it has
or make the Big 12 title.
It hasn't happened outside of maybe Texas Tech, but even then there wasn't a ton of people
picking tech last year.
There were some, but not a lot.
So no year yet has the top two teams coming into the season, finished anywhere near the
top two at the end of the season.
So it should be BYU in Texas Tech, but this is the bipolar Big 12 buddy.
So something's likely crazy to happen, and maybe it's in Arizona, or Oklahoma State
that pops up in Arlington.
If you were asking me, do I bet on Texas Tech or BYU or the House, I probably bet on
the House in this ridiculous conference.
I think Arizona is a really good one.
We got a bedroom quarterback.
He's a pretty good coach.
Yeah.
Nobody takes Arizona seriously, so that's certainly helpful.
That could be the sweeper pick right there.
Yep.
Techfield is probably one of the best in the Big 12 as well.
Cody, tell everybody where they can find your work, my friend.
Locked on Oklahoma State, Adol, Deo State on X, it's O State all day.
So backwards on all the other media platforms.
I do have a good ol' tiki-taki now, so make sure that you guys go follow me on that.
I think it's O State AD, I believe so.
That's how great I am at it.
And then yeah, I just, I like to poke my head around occasionally, so if you see me
out and recruiting or seven on seven, feel free to throw things at me, because I still
got them hands, Brian.
You can find the portal podcast all the same places you find locked on, Oklahoma State,
Spotify, Apple, Podbean, YouTube.
You name it.
We will see you again soon.
This has been across over locked on Oklahoma State and the portal.
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The Portal - Daily College Recruiting and NIL Podcast

The Portal - Daily College Recruiting and NIL Podcast

The Portal - Daily College Recruiting and NIL Podcast
