The Quad: After Top 2, Oklahoma St. Has Inside Track

The losses by national title contenders Wisconsin and Oklahoma threw the Bowl Championship Series race into a tizzy. College football, after a few weeks heavy on chalk and light on thrillers, re-emerged as the unpredictable and parity-laden beast that had driven the sport’s popularity and television ratings the past few years.

With Louisiana State and Alabama locked into the top two spots until the two teams meet Nov. 5, the biggest question is which team can jockey into position for a possible spot against the Tigers or the Crimson Tide in the national title game.

Right now, Oklahoma State appears to be that team. The Cowboys are No. 3 in the latest B.C.S. rankings, significantly ahead of No. 4 Boise State, No. 5 Clemson and No. 6 Stanford. Jerry Palm said he did not think Oklahoma State’s edge would disappear in the computers because it has a strong schedule.

“Oklahoma State is in the best shape,” Palm wrote in an e-mail. “They have a slight edge over Stanford in the polls (pretty even really), but figure to be the best computer team with the possible exception of an undefeated SEC champ.

“Unless the voters start coming harder for Stanford, the Cardinal won’t catch O.S.U.”

The B.C.S. rankings are determined by three components: the Harris Interactive poll, the USA Today coaches poll and the average of six computer rankings. Each component counts one-third toward a team’s B.C.S. score.

vs. No. 1 Louisiana State, Nov. 5at Southern California, Saturdayvs. Washington State, Saturdayat No. 8 Kansas State, Saturdayvs. No. 11 Michigan State, Saturday

Computer rankings: The six providers are Anderson & Hester, Richard Billingsley, Colley Matrix, Kenneth Massey, Jeff Sagarin and Peter Wolfe. Each accounts for schedule strength in its formula. The highest and lowest ranking for each team is dropped, and the remaining four are added and divided by 100 (the maximum possible points) to produce a computer rankings percentage.

View the original article here

Oklahoma State to 3rd in BCS Behind, LSU and Bama

The Cowboys moved up to third Sunday in the BCS standings, replacing rival Oklahoma as the team behind LSU and Alabama best positioned to reach the national title game. It's Oklahoma State's best showing in the BCS standings.

Two championship contenders lost for the first time Saturday, when Oklahoma and Wisconsin went down.

That cleared some of the traffic atop the standings and left Oklahoma State, fourth-place Boise State, fifth-place Clemson and sixth-place Stanford in a tight race.

First-place LSU and second-place Alabama will play on Nov. 5 in Tuscaloosa. The winner will have the inside track to reach the BCS championship game in New Orleans.

The Southeastern Conference has had at least one team first or second in 26 of the last 27 standings, dating to Dec. 2, 2007.

Oklahoma, which lost at home to 41-38 to Texas Tech, dropped to ninth and Wisconsin, which lost on the last play 37-31 at Michigan State, fell to 15th.

The BCS standings use the coaches' poll, the Harris poll and a compilation of six computer ratings to determine which teams play in the five marquee bowls, including the championship game.

Oklahoma State was ranked first in the computer rankings, third in the Harris poll and fourth in the coaches' poll for a BCS average of .9240.

Boise State was at .8302, Clemson was .8240 and Stanford .8124.

For now, they are chasing the Cowboys, hoping for them to slip up.

Brandon Weeden, Justin Blackmon and the high-scoring Cowboys have already won three conference road games, including a 45-24 victory at Missouri on Saturday.

"I just think our team plays with a lot of confidence," coach Mike Gundy said after the Missouri game. "We have a number of guys that have been in battle and had success, and we've been fortunate."

The Cowboys return home for the next two weeks to play Baylor and undefeated Kansas State, which is eighth in the BCS standings heading into its next game against Oklahoma.

Oklahoma State also has road games at Texas Tech and Iowa State before finishing the season at home against the Sooners.

It's a schedule that looks strong enough to keep Oklahoma State ahead of Stanford, Clemson and Boise State, though if all of those teams finish unbeaten the BCS won't have enough spots in the championship game for all the teams that can claim to be worthy of being picked.

___

AP Sports Writer RB Fallstrom in Columbia, Mo., contributed to this report.

View the original article here

Smith Runs Oklahoma State Over Texas 38-26

Smith went 30 and 74 yards for scores and Justin Gilbert returned the third quarter kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown. Gilbert tied the Oklahoma State (6-0, 3-0 Big 12) school record for career kickoff TD returns with four.

Fozzy Whittaker had a 100-yard touchdown return on the ensuing kickoff for Texas, but the Longhorns (4-2, 1-2) never led and lost for the sixth time in their last 10 home games.

Oklahoma State's Brandon Weeden passed for 218 yards with a touchdown to Justin Blackmon.

Texas freshman quarterback David Ash got his first career start and took every snap in the loss after rotating with sophomore Case McCoy the previous three weeks.

Ash was 22 of 39 passing for 139 yards with no touchdowns and two turnovers. The second came on a fumble with 4:34 to play that killed Texas' last chance to rally.

Malcolm Brown ran for 135 yards and two touchdowns for the Longhorns.

Smith's touchdowns were surprising for how easy they were.

The first came in the second quarter on fourth-and-inches when he ran off left tackle. There was no defender to meet him at the line of scrimmage and he coasted to the end zone.

The second came in the third quarter and put the Cowboys ahead 38-24. Smith ran straight up the middle and Texas linebackers Keenan Robinson and Jordan Hicks got washed out of the play, leaving no defender within 10 yards with a chance to tackle him.

Oklahoma State, which had lost 12 in a row to the Longhorns, now have consecutive wins in Austin. A scheduling quirk in the Big 12 put the Cowboys on the road against Texas two years in a row.

Weeden, the second-leading passer in the nation, struggled to find his rhythm for most of the game, but clicked with Blackmon in the second quarter.

Blackmon had a 16-yard catch on fourth down to keep a drive alive, then grabbed a 15-yard TD on the next play when he caught the ball at the 3 and carried Texas cornerback Carrington Byndom into the end zone.

Smith's first touchdown put OSU up 21-10 and the Cowboys seemed primed to put the game away at the start of the third.

Gilbert took the kickoff five yards deep in the end zone, zipped through a seam near the 30 and raced past the defense for a 28-10 lead. Gilbert tied the school record set by Perrish Cox for career kick return TDs.

The Cowboys had only a few seconds to get comfortable with the lead. Whittaker, who returned a kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown the previous week against Oklahoma, matched Gilbert's TD to keep Texas in the game at 28-17.

Texas was building momentum when Brown scored his second touchdown to cut the lead to 28-24.

Texas ran the so-called "Statue of Liberty" play where Ash took the snap and faked a throw to his right while tucking the ball low behind his back. Brown grabbed it, scampered to his left and tiptoed on the sideline for the touchdown. The play call by first-year offensive coordinator Bryan Harsin was similar to the one used by Boise State to beat Oklahoma in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl.

Oklahoma State answered with a 22-yard field goal by Quinn Sharp before Smith ripped off his second long TD.

View the original article here

Oklahoma State’s Weeden Is Heisman Contender

By now, Weeden knows to expect some gag gift from his teammates, and they could easily remind him of his age and his unconventional career path with a birth certificate showing that he was born 49 days before Aaron Rodgers, the quarterback of the Green Bay Packers. Or maybe a plaque showing that Weeden is older than 16 of the 32 starting N.F.L. quarterbacks.

“Somebody bought him some old-man diapers for his birthday last year,” wide receiver Justin Blackmon said. “That was pretty funny.”

The No. 6-ranked Cowboys could simply mark the occasion with a second consecutive victory over No. 22 Texas in Austin and pass a crucial signpost en route to the Bedlam Game on Dec. 5 against No. 3 Oklahoma. Oklahoma State (5-0) sits on the fringe of the national title discussion, and can enhance its standing for the first Bowl Championship Series rankings this weekend.

Weeden lurks behind Andrew Luck and others as an afterthought in a Heisman Trophy race that is gathering steam among the nation’s top quarterbacks.

“I embrace it, because it’s going to be there,” Weeden said of the Heisman talk. “That’s one thing where my age helps in dealing with it, but that stuff will take care of itself.

“Such a big deal has been made of my age. I use it to my advantage. I think it’s a positive this year. I think it’s a positive for my future. It’s one of those deals, the way I look at it is, name one person who wouldn’t want to be in the position I am, and have the kind of path I’ve had?”

Weeden idolized the Yankees while growing up in Edmond, Okla., and his favorite players were Derek Jeter and Don Mattingly. So when the team picked him as a pitcher in the second round of the 2002 amateur draft, Weeden said it was an easy call. He was traded in 2003 to the Los Angeles Dodgers as part of the deal for pitcher Kevin Brown, and also spent time with the Kansas City Royals, before shoulder problems wore down his pitching motion and ended his career after five seasons in the minors.

“The opportunity was too good, and baseball was always my thing,” Weeden said. “The day I signed the contract, I remember thinking, if this doesn’t work out, then I’ve always got college football. My goal was to make it to the big leagues the entire time, but unfortunately it didn’t work out.”

Weeden, who walked on at Oklahoma State in 2007 and redshirted, has completed 166 of 219 passes for 1,880 yards and 15 touchdowns this season. Of the Heisman-hopeful quarterbacks whose teams are ranked in the top 7, Weeden has the best completion percentage (75.8), more accurate than Russell Wilson (74.8 percent) of No. 4 Wisconsin; Kellen Moore (74.0) of No. 5 Boise State; Luck of No. 7 Stanford (73.1); and Landry Jones of No. 3 Oklahoma (69.3).

Weeden also leads in passing yardage, throwing for 497 yards more than Luck, 489 more than Moore and 66 more than Jones.

“Every time we step on the field, we get a little bit better, our timing gets better, our chemistry gets stronger,” said Blackmon, the reigning Biletnikoff Award winner as the nation’s best receiver and Weeden’s top target, with 46 catches for 534 yards and 6 touchdowns. “He’s the best. I wouldn’t trade him for anything.”

Texas might be 4-1, but it finds itself reeling after a 55-17 throttling by Oklahoma. The Sooners carved the Longhorns’ secondary into brisket, and Oklahoma’s defense forced five turnovers and scored three touchdowns.

Texas Coach Mack Brown said he was already worried about the Cowboys after the thrashing.

“We don’t have any time to sit back and feel sorry for ourselves,” Brown said.

Blackmon said: “We know they’re going to come out swinging. They’re not going to take things lightly. We’re not going to go in looking at what O.U. did and expecting the same thing.”

No matter the outcome of the Red River Rivalry in Brown’s 13 seasons, the Longhorns have always won their next game. That could be a difficult streak to continue against an Oklahoma State offense that is averaging 51.4 points, tops in the country. In the Cowboys’ 33-16 victory last year, Weeden passed for 409 yards.

“We should be able to get better because we had three hours of defending some of the best receivers and the best quarterback in the country, and now we’re going to have three hours of defending one of the best quarterbacks and some of the best receivers in the country,” Brown said. “So I think it’s on us to get better.”

View the original article here

Final: Oklahoma State 30, Texas A&M 29

Down 20-3 at halftime, No. 7 Oklahoma State scored 27 consecutive points in the third and fourth quarters to beat No. 8 Texas A&M 30-29 in College Station, Texas, on Saturday.

Oklahoma state quarterback Brandon Weeden completed 47 of 60 passes for 437 yards and two touchdowns. The Aggies turned the ball over three times during the third quarter when the Cowboys outscored them 21-0. They also turned it over on their final drive of the game.

More to come later.

View the original article here

Oklahoma State hires running backs coach

Sorry, I could not read the content fromt this page.Sorry, I could not read the content fromt this page.

View the original article here

Alamo Bowl: Oklahoma State (10-2) vs. Arizona (7-5)

The Pac-10 finally begins its bowl season on Thursday with Arizona taking on Oklahoma State in the Valero Alamo Bowl.

Here's a look.

WHO TO WATCH: Quarterback Nick Foles needs to come up big for Arizona to notch the upset. Foles led the Pac-10 with 291 yards passing per game this year, and the Wildcats didn't consistently run the ball well. Oklahoma State's defense is OK versus the run, but it's terrible against the pass, ranking 115th in the nation. Further, the Cowboys own one of the nation's most potent offenses with receiver Justin Blackmon, running back Kendall Hunter and quarterback Brandon Weeden. They are going to score points. The question is can Foles and the Wildcats passing attack keep up?

WHAT TO WATCH: And speaking the Wildcats defense, it got gashed late in the season, particularly on the ground. If Hunter can pile up yards in the early going, then it could be a long night for the Wildcats. So Arizona's run defense will need to make a statement against Hunter and company with physical play. Then, if the Cowboys take to the air --their 354 yards per game ranks No. 2 in the nation -- Wildcats ends Brooks Reed and Ricky Elmore will need to pressure Weeden and make him uncomfortable in the pocket. Problem is: The Cowboys do a great job in pass protection, surrendering just 10 sacks this year, which is tied for eighth fewest in the country.

WHY TO WATCH: For one, Pac-10 fans should be eager to see one of their own in a bowl game. Further, this one figures to showcase lots of offense, so it should be entertaining if you enjoy a spinning scoreboard. Arizona is trying to avoid ending its season with a five-game losing streak. Oklahoma State fans are eager to see their Cowboys stick it to Arizona coach Mike Stoops, whom they developed a distaste for when he was Oklahoma's defensive coordinator.

PREDICTION: Arizona would be challenged to keep up the scoring pace with the Cowboys in any event, but they are going to have to throw the ball to win, and it's a big problem that center Colin Baxter, who's started 48 consecutive games, won't be available because of knee surgery. He's the guy making all the line calls for the Wildcats. That's a good reason to expect the Cowboys defense to get at least a couple more stops than the Wildcats. Oklahoma State 44, Arizona 38.

Comments that include profanity, or personal attacks, or antisocial behavior such as "spamming" or "trolling," or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. We will take steps to block users who violate any of our terms of use. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.

View the original article here