Get ready for a Pac-12 vs. SEC Challenge! Oh wait, not yet.
In a game that could affect both the conference and national title races, Oklahoma State (3-0) will travel to Texas A&M (2-0) Saturday. Brandon Weeden, the nation’s leading passer with 384.7 yards per game, has helped the Cowboys offense collect 157 points and average 601 yards per game, a mark that ranks second in the country. Leading the Aggies, however, Ryan Tannehill holds a 72.3 completion percentage and has yet to be sacked behind the A&M line.
For the first time ever, Oklahoma State and Texas A&M will meet with both teams ranking in the Associated Press top 10. The Aggies lead the series, winning 17 of the previous 28 meetings, but the Cowboys took the 2010 game with a 38-35 thriller in Stillwater, Okla.
Ok St Analysis:
“Texas forever?” Actually, it’s not the Lone Star State, but the smaller border state to the north that is currently on top of the college football world right now. The Sooner state has never seen this much of a boomtown for winning football as they do right now. (More on that here)
Both the Oklahoma Sooners and Oklahoma State Cowboys are winning big, and doing it with powerful, exciting aerial attacks. Oklahoma is a tiny state, with one professional sports franchise (Thunder from the NBA) and only three big name college sports teams. (if you count OSU and Tulsa as big names).
In addition to Weeden, watch WR Justin Blackmon (110 receiving yards per game) who could be even better than Dez Bryant in the NFL.
T. Boone Pickens, one of the most powerful owner and general managers (whoops, I meant to say booster) in the entire game has built the Cowboys into a big time winner.
For the full Oklahoma State preview go here
Texas A&M Analysis:
That season opening pasting of SMU gives this team lots of credibility, the week off they had, but OSU didn’t could be an advantage too.
CB Coryell Judie could make the all-name team, and the NFL Draft first round. WR Jeff Fuller could join him on draft day. Backup tailback Christine Michael could join Judie on the name team. Tannehill (passer rating 165) and RB Cyrus Gray are as good as they have had in College Station in quite awhile. And I would expect Tannehill to go “league” too. He’s found Ryan Swope early and often, as they’ve become a fantastic pitch and catch.
With a ridiculous amount of skill position stars, anything short of a Big 12 title game appearance would be a major disappointment, and I don’t see how they’re going to let the Cowboys get in the way. The program is back at a level on par with its glory days. It’ll have to stay there to compete in the SEC.
Prediction to be taken with an entire truckload of salt, not a grain of salt: A&M 45, OSU 41 (2010-11 prediction record 23-11)
Get ready for the first of two college football national championship “elimination games” this weekend. In the SEC, you have #3 Alabama Crimson Tide vs. #14 Arkansas Razorbacks. Both have legit national title aspirations as do the two teams in this game. In both conferences, you have other teams in the mix for the big prize, but eventually they’ll beat up on each other, and you may have only one left standing from each league. But don’t forget the Wisconsin Badgers from my neck of the woods and the Stanford Cardinal out west. Either/both of those squads could derail a SEC/Big 12 Challenge title game.
This is the first match-up of two top ten teams at Kyle Field since 1975, and the way the Aggies protect their house, the 12th man sign is starting to mean something again. Home field advantage wins this “Red River Shootout,” with different combatants from both states.
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