Cowboys Aim to Shrink Gap with Oregon, Ride Positive Offseason Momentum into Fall Camp

The college football season is just over 50 days away, and optimism for the Cowboys abounds.

The Pokes have spent the last seven months checking boxes, starting with a dominant haul in the transfer portal that gave them a top 15 portal class.

Then, placement inside too-early-top 25s followed.

Recent headlines include quarterback Drew Mestemaker’s invitation to the Manning Passing Academy and Oklahoma State’s ranking in EA’s College Football 27 video game, which puts OSU in a multiway tie for 21st overall and third in the Big 12.

Of course, none of it means anything, but given the program’s lack of success the last two seasons, it certainly feels like Oklahoma State has a lot more reason for optimism.

Oddsmakers like FanDuel certainly seem to agree. While the Pokes remain decent favorites (-176) to clear their win total of 5.5 games, OSU is also the first team in the conference to have lines set for its first two games.

Oklahoma State is a 13.5-point favorite at Tulsa in week one. For context, in the days before last season’s home loss, OSU was only an 11.5-point favorite over TU.

The Cowboys are 17.5-point underdogs at home to Oregon in week two, but that’s a significant improvement from last season’s meeting when the Ducks were favored by 28.5 points before the Tulsa loss sent the program into a complete tailspin.

The change in venue certainly plays a role, but much of the shift likely has to do with the belief that Eric Morris and Mestemaker will field an offense capable of keeping up with Oregon to some extent.

FanDuel has Oregon tied with Texas for the third-best national championship odds in the country, and for good reason. The Ducks return starting quarterback Dante Moore, currently tied for the fifth-best odds to win the Heisman Trophy.

Last season, he led the Ducks to the CFP semifinals, where Oregon lost to eventual national champion Indiana after rolling past Texas Tech 23-0 in the quarterfinals.

Other key starters and contributors returning include the Ducks’ center, TE2, WR2, WR3 and RB2. The returning defensive cast is a lot more fleshed out with the top two edges, Matayo Uiagalelei and Teritum Tuioti, leading a group that includes the team’s top two defensive linemen, top two corners, No. 2 safety, LB2 and LB3.

While that matchup will be challenging given the talent on Oregon’s roster, the line swinging somewhat modestly toward OSU is just another signal that the Cowboys this fall project to be a lot closer to the teams Morris remembers playing and coaching against while at Texas Tech than the program that took the field that last two seasons.

“Oklahoma State was so good in my memories,” Morris said last week at Big 12 Media Days. “I remember going to Boone Pickens, how rowdy it was, the paddles slapping against the wall, the student section on fire. You know, my memories are always good, and obviously during those times, there were a bunch of eight-win teams, nine-win teams, 10-win teams, won the Big 12 in 2012. I didn’t have any of these bad memories.”