10 Questions about Oklahoma State Football after Five Games

We had this conversation earlier this week in Slack, but it really is absolutely stunning that the 2018 football season will be halfway over (not including the Cheez-It Bowl) after the Iowa State game this weekend.

For whatever reason it feels as if we have more questions than answers after five games — I suspect the words Missouri, State, South, and Alabama have something to do with this — but I figured it was time to lay out 10 questions I have for the rest of 2018.

1. How Consistent Can Corn Be?

Corndog is American politics. Neither party can come to an agreement on what we believe to be true deep down, but we can certainly agree that Corn is inconsistent (and modern politics is inane and quite tiring). There have been the best of times (first half against S. Alabama). There have been the worst of times (second half against Texas Tech). There is much to discuss. But like the presidency in every new cycle, we are stuck with what we have for the foreseeable future.

(I tried to turn this into a Spencer Sanders-25th Amendment joke, and I couldn’t quite land the plane. Please email me your nominations).

The question now is whether Cornelius can find and maintain a level of consistency commensurate with what a team loaded at running back (more on that in a minute) needs going forward.

2. How Much Justice Can One Team Levy?

Mike Yurcich calling plays for Justice Hill the rest of the year after what we saw last Saturday at Kansas ⤵️.

Contrary to what Mike Gundy has been saying, Oklahoma State has actually been pretty good at rushing the football — they rank No. 16 (!) in the country in yards per touch out of the back field — and letting Justice ride the rest of the way could determine whether OSU is eating Cheez-Its (z?) or visiting the Alamo come December.

3. Tylan Can’ Keep Doing This … Right?

If Tylan continues at his current clip, he’ll end the season with 1,419 yards and 8 TDs. That’s *gasp* that’s more yardage than every James Washington season except for his final one. At some point teams just erase No. 2 and make No. 13 and No. 17 and ? beat them, right? Right?

Related: I’m excited about teams making 13 beat them. It’s like that old Barry Switzer story about how he came in the film room in the 1980s and said you guys better pray Thurman Thomas doesn’t get hurt. Well, it’s like the homeless-to-poor man’s version of that, but still.

4. Will Injuries or Offenses Crush This Defense?

Oklahoma State currently ranks No. 15 in the country in offensive points per drive and No. 60 in defensive points per drive. Me waving at all my Mike Yurcich haters GIF below.

Also me, ignoring the Texas Tech game.

Anyway, Jim Knowles’ defense has been decimated by injuries (most significantly to Darrion Daniels and Calvin Bundage) and still has two of the top 10 offenses in the country on the slate. The numbers probably aren’t going to look great come December 1, but I’m curious about whether we’re talking then about all the bad injury luck or the fact that Knowles is just Ivy League Glenn.

5. Discipline? Special Teams?

My 5-, 4- and sometimes even my 1-year-old are all more disciplined than Oklahoma State has been so far this season (the Pokes are No. 103 in the country in penalty yards per game against). I don’t understand. If your institution preaches culture, shouldn’t two things that you excel at be discipline and special teams? I don’t even care if they block a punt the rest of the year. I’m just hoping for average to slightly above it. Something that doesn’t put you in position to lose a game because you have multiple people jumping into the Bundage zone every time Kyler Murray yelps a hard count.

6. Is Jordan Brailford the Big 12 DPOY?

I looked back at the numbers for last year’s co-defensive players of the year in the Big 12, Ogbonnia Okoronkwo and Malik Jefferson. Let’s just say Jordan Brailford is … tracking nicely.

Obo: 75 tackles | 17 TFL | 8 sacks
Jefferson: 110 tackles | 10 TFL | 4 sacks
Brailford (pace): 49 tackles | 30 TFL | 21 sacks

7. Will We Get Homecoming Throwbacks for Texas?

I’m not even going to apologize.

8. Good Gundy | Bad Gundy?

Which are we getting? My feelings are documented on the internet — as an aside: I met a 91-year-old woman at a block party last night, and trying to explain to her what I do for a living was akin to trying to what I imagine trying to tackle Justice Hill in the open field would be like — but we’ve gotten both versions, Dr. Gundy and Mr. Mullet, so far in 2018. If it goes badly — like, “losses to Iowa State and Kansas State in the next two weeks” badly — what will the rest of the year be like between him and those of us in the media?

9. Who Takes Advantage of the Redshirt Rule?

The answer to this could be related to the answer to No. 10, but I’m curious to see how (or if) OSU uses the redshirt rule coming down the stretch against Baylor, OU, West Virginia and TCU. We’ve talked a lot about how it affects the QBs, but does a four-game bumper mean C.J. Moore will get run? Does it mean Jonathan Shepherd, JayVeon Cardwell and Sean Michael Flanagan see the field again after playing the opener against Missouri State? I would imagine we see at least a few of these guys for a team short on bodies and long on injuries.

10. Will November Matter?

OSU has played so few meaningless Novembers over the last 10 years that I’m not sure what we’re going to do if they lose two of their next three. Novembers have rocked in Stillwater, and Oklahoma State has played for three of the last five Big 12 titles on the final day of the season. That reality feels a long way from this one, but then again at no point in 2013 until it actually happened did I think OSU was going to square off against OU with a (probably frozen) trophy on the line.

Whether OSU eventually ends up playing for yet another one this year isn’t really my question, though. My question is whether they’ll even have a prayer of doing so when the calendar flips after Halloween. Embedded within this is the ever-present “can OSU even remotely hang with OU” query always hovering over every season and offseason when it comes to Gundy and OSU. That feels like a strong “no” right now, but (much?) stranger things have happened.