Oklahoma State Not Popular In Anonymous Player Poll At Big 12 Media Days

ESPN did its anonymous Big 12 player poll at Big 12 media days this week (which followed up its anonymous Big 12 coaches poll from earlier in the year). This one was not particularly kind to the Pokes given what we believe their public perception currently is (as one of the top schools for the 2016 season).

A sampling from ESPN.

• OSU didn’t get a single vote as the team to beat in the Big 12 this year. Not that crazy, right? Except that Texas and Baylor did. 

• Mason Rudolph was voted the fourth-best QB. This is probably fair although I would have him second or third.

• Mike Gundy was not in the top four of coaches you would want to play for and placed among “others receiving votes” along with Dana Holgorsen (?!) and Kliff Kingsbury.

• OSU finished second in league’s best helmets with 16 percent of the vote. This was behind Baylor which had 32 percent.

That last bullet might have been the most devastating of all! Twice as many players think Baylor has better helmets than Oklahoma State!

I’m mostly talking about this tongue in cheek. It’s not as if OSU was exactly discarded on the side of the road. Certainly Texas and Baylor should not be considered teams to beat ahead of OSU, and I would have liked to have seen Gundy a little higher in the coaches poll. But overall these were more or less fair sentiments.

And all of this is good of course because it provides good fodder for Mike Gundy to feed a hungry team.