Mike Gundy and your Oklahoma State Cowboys (Larry Reece voice) will take the field for the first time in 2018 tomorrow night. It’s been a long time coming since the Pokes defeated Virginia Tech in the Camping World Bowl back in December. A lot of familiar faces have moved out of the Cowboy locker room and found a new professional locker room to call home. When they left Stillwater they took the confidence many fans had in this team with them. Now we’re left with new faces and uncertainty. Nobody quite knows what this season will bring. Like many other seasons under Mike Gundy, this one will have plenty of ups and downs, but it will be a fun and interesting season. No matter what happens, here’s why everyone should enjoy this football season.
Loyal and True
It’s our alma mater. Cowboy fans have been relatively spoiled with three straight 10-win seasons. This team may not enjoy that same success, although, a lot of these guys are young. This should be a year for them to improve and hopefully be ready to contribute to a really good team next season.
Justice Hill
Well, really all of the running backs, but especially Justice Hill. This may very likely be the last season we see Hill running around BPS in an Oklahoma State jersey. He has the potential to carry this OSU team to a successful season. On the other hand, who isn’t excited to see Chuba Hubbard play? You aren’t American (or Canadian) if you aren’t excited to watch this guy play football. That isn’t even including guys like L.D. Brown and J.D. King. This might be the most stacked the running back position has been in this era of Cowboy football. All of these guys could have a big year if the offensive line can open some holes for them to run through.
Jim Knowles
I’m intrigued and excited to see what Knowles can bring to the OSU defense. He’s bringing in a new scheme and fresh ideas to a defense that desperately needed it. The Pokes will use 5 defensive backs on the field this season, which I am a huge fan of. The performance of the defense may end up determining if this team can reach 10 wins or not. Either way it’ll be interesting to see if Knowles has success in his first year as defensive coordinator for the Cowboys.
That Massive Video Board
This one doesn’t need much explaining. We’ll get to watch replays on a mammoth new video board. It will be interesting to see if it affects the players at all, but I’m excited nonetheless. I’m pretty sure watching college football on a massive video screen is the American Dream or something. We’ll get see it in action for the first time tomorrow night. Be there or forever regret your decision not to go.
For the Students
You freshman may not realize it yet, but you better cherish this season. Especially the game against South Alabama. Saturday night games are incredible (or so I’ve heard since OSU hasn’t actually had one since I stepped on campus over TWO YEARS AGO). I’m not mad about it though, I’m actually laughing about it with my hot and totally real girlfriend. But seriously, it flies by. You only get four years as a student and before you know it you’re paying the same amount of money to go to Bedlam every year as you did to go to every OSU home game as a student.
It also means more to see your classmates succeed on the field. You’ll always be an OSU Cowboy, but you’ll never get to watch your classmates on the field again once you graduate. They put in a lot of hard work to get here. At least try to stay until the end of the game. Leaving at half time is tempting sometimes, but you’ll never get those games back. Stick it out and be loud start to finish. It makes gameday fun.
One Final Note
Doing this countdown with everyone has been a great time and has all of us pumped up for the season. Enjoy this season no matter what the team’s record is. Before we know it we’ll all be right back here counting down the days until the 2019 season. I can’t wait to see everyone in BPS on Thursday and throughout the season. Let us know in the comments section what you think the team’s record will be!
No. 14 - The Changing of the Guard at OSU with No. 14 Taylor Cornelius
No. 13 - Ranking Gundy’s 13 Season Openers
No. 12 - The 12 toughest players OSU will face from the 12 teams they’ll play this season
No. 11 - Let’s talk #11 Zac Robinson
No. 10 - Why OSU will and won’t reach 10 wins
No. 9 - 9 Interesting stats and numbers
No. 8 - 8 Things we would like to see in 2018
No. 7 - 7 Predictions for 2018
No. 6 - 6 Unexpected players who will contribute
No. 5 - 5 Questions for the 2018 season
No. 4 - 4 Traditions Freshmen Need to Know
No. 3 - 3 Uniform Combinations Oklahoma State needs to pull our of their bag in 2018.
No. 2 - Looking at No. 2 Mason Rudolph