Breaking Down the 2015 Schedule (Part 2)

Part 1 here

Football starts one week from tomorrow. One week. From tomorrow.

That’s crazy.

It also means we need to keep chugging along with the schedule. We got the boring stuff out of the way last time. Now, we can look at what to expect as OSU enters Big 12 play.

Week 4 (at Texas): Texas won’t get my blood pumping until they find a QB that can get them inside the top 100 teams in the country in points per drive. The merry-go-round continues to go as Texas hasn’t found its QB1 since Colt took that hit in the Rose Bowl.

What followed has been nothing short of tumultuous. Texas’ four starting quarterbacks since 2010 — Gilbert, David Ash, Case McCoy and Tyrone Swoopes — have combined for 98 touchdowns and 84 turnovers in the past five years.

As Mike Gundy has continued to point out, you’re only as good as your signal caller. Texas can keep going 8-4 until Bevo comes home, but that’s as good as things are going to get until a new Vince (or Colt or Major) arrives.

Also, we should let Joe Wickline and Greg Adkins wrestle before the game at midfield for the $600,000 we’ve spent two years bickering over. Winner gets to choose between the cash and Mason Rudolph.

2014 Points per Drive (offense): 1.61 (101st)
2014 Points per Drive (defense): 1.51 (12th)

Glenn Spencer anger level with a loss: Realizing Chick-fil-A is closes on Sundays on a Sunday

Week 5 (Kansas State): This is finally the year when the wizardry crumbles, right? OSU has only played Kansas State in Stillwater twice in the last seven seasons and hasn’t lost to the Wildcats there since 1999. Here’s how the games against KSU this century have played out.

2003: 38-34 win — The Sky Rylant game

2007: 41-39 win
2011: 52-45 win — The Kirk Herbstreit game
2013: 33-29 win

That’s all four of them. Kansas State is yet another Big 12 team without a QB but I can’t put the cart before that Bill Snyder-shaped horse. Plus, the first Lockett brother probably has a son now who will have 12 catches for 198 yards and 3 TDs.

2014 Points per Drive (offense): 2.65 (25th)
2014 Points per Drive (defense): 2.02 (58th)

Glenn Spencer anger level with a loss: Punches Gallagher-Iba brick, sets own hand in cast

Week 6 (at West Virginia): If OSU is 5-0 going to Morgantown and somehow escapes that dungeon with a win, I’m going to load up on server space because November is going to get so wild.

It’s hard to believe a Dana Holgorsen-coached team has produced any team outside the top 50 in points per drive on offense, but that’s what’s happened for two straight seasons.

I’m not super convinced that’s going to change this season just because their not-Texas-sized QB is running sprints in a weighted vest, but I could QB WVU in Morgantown to at least a couple of wins. The reality is that this will be a monster test IF OSU can get through the first five unscathed.

The silver lining is that this game comes in the middle of WVU’s OU-OSU-Baylor-TCU stretch in October. Cheers to that.

2014 Points per Drive (offense): 2.09 (69th)
2014 Points per Drive (defense): 2.03 (59th)

Glenn Spencer anger level with a loss: Shuns plane, runs back to Stillwater