Oklahoma State has had two weeks to prepare for its trip to BYU, where the two will clash at LaVell Edwards Stadium on Friday. The Cowboys (3-3 overall, 0-3) are looking for their first league win, while the Cougars are tied for first place with Iowa State and Texas Tech at the top of the Big 12 standings with unblemished league records.
Here’s what OSU’s coach Mike Gundy said about the upcoming matchup with the Cougars.
BYU head coach Kalani Sitake is preaching hard work and humility for the No. 13 Cougars, who are bowl eligible and 6-0. OSU is ranked 129th in total defense and 71st in total offense. These are tough numbers to climb back up in the conference standings for OSU. The Cougars have given up only five sacks this season, a remarkable number. BYU is also outscoring opponents 69-23 in the third quarter — many of those points coming in bunches because of defensive and special teams play.
OSU has won five consecutive games when unranked and 11 of its past 14. This is taking advantage of a role as an underdog, which the Cowboys are this week.
Here are some of our stories from BYU’s impressive win over Arizona last week:
- How BYU stayed perfect in beating Arizona (Jay Drew)
- Cougars use familiar gut punch to take out Arizona (Dick Harmon)
- Moments to remember from win over Arizona (Jackson Payne)
Cougar Insider predictions
Question of the week: A preseason poll by Big 12 coaches has BYU ranked No. 9 in the league. How does this measure up with your opinion before the season kicks off? Bonus question: What will be the key for BYU against Oklahoma State and predict a score.
Jay Drew: If you had asked me about the Big 12 coaches picking BYU to finish ninth in the league basketball race before last week, I would have nodded my head and said, “Yeah, that sounds about right.”
Then I watched the Cougars’ Blue-White game last Wednesday night, and let’s just say I was more than pleasantly surprised. Kevin Young has assembled one of the most talented rosters at BYU in recent memory. As I noted in my article, it is a team loaded with talent. If the Cougars can figure out how to play together, and get some defensive stoppers to emerge, the sky is the limit.
So I am going to say BYU finishes in the top six. That’s pretty optimistic because the league has only gotten better with the addition of the four corner schools, but I seriously believe this BYU team can compete with any team in the conference. Time will tell.
As for the BYU-Oklahoma State football game, one big key for BYU to win will be to stop the run. The Cougars were torched last year in the double-overtime loss by OSU standout RB Ollie Gordon II, who ran for five touchdowns (getting two in the overtime periods) and more than 160 yards in the season-ender for BYU.
Gordon has mostly been bottled up this year, but he has NFL talent and could make Friday night miserable for the Cougars if they can’t slow him down.
Prediction: BYU 28, Oklahoma State 24
Dick Harmon: Big 12 basketball was down a bit last year, but this season it is the elite of the NCAA with AP preseason No. 1 Kansas leading the way. Every team is better and then the league added Arizona, an annually top-10 team. I can see how coaches in the Big 12 poll voted BYU to finish ninth with a new coaching staff and a whole bunch of new players injected into the roster that need to find chemistry. Finding roles and making pieces fit is more important in hoops than anything.
I like the challenge placed on Kevin Young and his players. It’s motivation to compete and rise. We see how this went with BYU football this season — that’s a good thing. The questions about this team have positive answers. Does BYU have more talent than a year ago? Yes. Is the team deeper? Yes. Has defensive athleticism increased? Yes. Does BYU have passers and ball handlers? Yes. Is BYU stronger in the post? Yes. Does Young have shooters? Yes. On paper, is this a better team than a year ago? Definitely.
Where is the weakness? Well, a year ago, Mark Pope’s team spent time playing in Europe and gained tremendous chemistry. Young’s team needs to establish role players and meld together very fast. They are capable of being top five and a key will be winning games at home.
The Oklahoma State game will come down to both defenses and this is where BYU has a huge edge. The Cowboys have struggled to stop offenses while BYU has proven opportunistic and is top 25 in most defensive categories. Turnovers will prove to be the difference in this game.
Prediction: BYU 34, Oklahoma State 21
Cougar tales
Last weekend was a historic weekend for BYU basketball recruiting when head coach Kevin Young’s staff hosted the No. 1 high school player in the country, AJ Dybantsa, on an official visit. You can read details about his visit here. Young also announced a new member of his staff who will coordinate recruiting — his brother.
In football, the Cougars added its fifth edge rusher with a commitment from Vincent Tautua from St. Louis High in Honolulu.
Before BYU defeated Arizona last Saturday, Fox Sports came to Provo to host its national college kickoff show. Here’s how it went down in this piece.
From the archives
From X-verse
Remembering 1984
- How LaVell Edwards negotiated the minefield (Deseret News)
- Mark Bellini was in the right place, right time (Deseret News)
- Team led by warriors believed even before first game (Deseret News)
- Key role from walk-on Kelly Smith in big plays (Deseret News)
- ‘Dad was calm, Mom was worried’ (Deseret News)
- Veteran sports writers explain 1984 in this video (Deseret News)
Extra points
- BYU experiences deja vu in beating Arizona (KSL Sports)
- National writer flies in to hang with beer-drinking fans (Matt Brown)
- Why Robinson won’t forget his 10th interception (Deseret News)
- Here is the latest on the Y’s Guys Podcast.
Fanalysts
Comments from Deseret News readers:
OK, OK, all detractors aside. It is time for me to eat my humble berry pie. (Actually it is carrot cake with lemon cream cheese frosting.) My wife made it while BYU was beating Arizona. It cooled overnight and I sat in my hospital bed eating cake (humble berry pie sorry). Cancer is a Bitttzyy. I thought sure BYU would be four games only, maybe five at best. I was wrong, they’ve done six and are now bowl eligible for a leftover bowl. Great. That is improvement. But what is really galling is, they have six games ahead of them I can’t see them doing last year and losing five or six of them even if the team in red up north is on the schedule.
So congratulations, Cougars, I’m celebrating with my carrot cake, cheering you on while watching my heart monitor so to not overdo it. Ox 95, BP 72, doing good. Thank you for the win. I’m almost a believer again. Now, get out of the left-over garbage bowl league and get into the playoff for BIG12 picture. Let’s see if you can do it.
There are a lot of us die-hard old timers rooting for you kids. (And don’t mind us when we’re cranky because you don’t win every game.)
— Dimitri
Congratulations to the Cougars. They continue to amaze. From an outsider looking in, I would say the most critical decision Coach Sitaki has made is the hiring of Coach Hill. Coach Hill has brought consistency and discipline to BYU’s program that was not there prior to his hiring. Harmon can talk all day long about people getting off of Sitake’s back. But I think that Coach Hill has added a huge piece to the Cougars success puzzle. Again congratulations to the Cougars.
— AlwaysAnAggie
Up next
- Oct. 16 | 5:30 p.m. | Women’s volleyball | Iowa State | @ Ames, Iowa
- Oct. 16 | 7 p.m. | Softball | Utah Valley | @ Provo
- Oct. 17-22 | TBA | Men’s tennis | ITA Regional | @ Las Vegas
- Oct. 17-22 | TBA | Women’s tennis | ITA Regional | @ Las Cruces, New Mexico
- Oct. 17 | 7 p.m. | Women’s soccer | Baylor | @ Provo
- Oct. 18 | 8:15 p.m. | Football | Oklahoma State | @ Provo