Daily Bullets (Aug. 29): OSU’s Front Door, Who’s the New Cowboy Back?

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Mike Gundy and the Cowboys’ winning ways make for one heck of a campus brochure.

OSU is one of only seven FBS schools with at least 10 wins in each of the past three seasons.

Since 2015, only five programs have been a presence in each of the College Football Playoff rankings. OSU is among those five.

In advance of the 2018 season — which opens Thursday with a home game against Missouri State — the Cowboy program has unprecedented momentum: In the past eight seasons, there were six final records of at least 10 victories.

Winning football has a far-reaching effect on the university as a whole, and the numbers are striking.

“I’ve said this from Day 1: The most beneficial front door and sales pitch for this university is the football team,” Gundy told the Tulsa World. “You can track enrollment, all of the sales and everything that has happened, and football has had the biggest impact on the university, period. I don’t think there’s any question of that.” [TulsaWorld]

Listing hard numbers like ticket sales pre-Miles at less than 30,000 to more than 50,000 exemplifies the incredible draw that winning football games is. Below is probably the wildest stat around the effect of winning football for OSU.

At the start of the 2012 fall semester — 7½ months after the 2011 Cowboys concluded a 12-win, Big 12 championship season — OSU welcomed a class of 4,289 freshmen. It remains the largest freshman class in the history of higher education in Oklahoma. [TulsaWorld]

Surprise Back

I don’t know about you but seeing a name atop the “receiving” Cowboy Back depth chart was surprising.

Over on offense, the quarterback situation has been spelled out a lot as has the running back pecking order and those did not change from what we reported. The biggest surprises were the tight end “Cowboy Back” where walk-on Logan Carter has emerged. We reported on how he was looking good in summer workouts and gave him the nickname “Thor” as that is what the 6-4, 245 pound Carter looks like. [GoPokes]

This may be a sneaky interesting storyline for the first couple of games – seeing if Carter can catch some balls and run the seam.

OSU and NCAA Notes

Holgorsen is tooting the horn for scheduling uniformity, something a hypothetical Power Five commissioner would surely institute….Justice Hill made this short list of college “fantasy football” backs to have….Cowgirl Soccer is continuing Neal Patterson’s winning ways….Why tomorrow will be special for Cowboy d-lineman Enoch Smith….This ESPN writer has the Pokes back in the Alamo for a Fiesta rematch

For your SEC coworkers/family members to chew on:

So according to The Bear, only OPENING WEEK counts for non-conference schedule stats. Anything for the SEC!

Teams that play 10+ P5 games:
Big10: 12
Pac12: 10
Big12: 9
ACC: 5
SEC: ZERO

FCS Games:
SEC: 16
ACC: 14
Pac12: 9
Big12: 8
Big10: 3 https://t.co/xxDsVfvXO0

— Pick Six Previews (@PickSixPreviews) August 27, 2018

“Our wives are friends and think it’s a great idea for us to hang out… Fantastic.”

When you haven't seen her since the divorce, but you're not going to miss your kid's 3rd grade play. pic.twitter.com/UhNrvqZizP

— Chewing Clock (@ChewingClock) August 27, 2018

Jamal Fobbs seems like he’d be perfect to rejoin the Cowboy staff at some point.

Only 2 days until @CowboyFB 2018! This 2 is Jamaal Fobbs, who is third in both career kick returns (69) and career kick return yards (1441) at OSU. Currently the RB coach at Tulane #okstate #GoPokes pic.twitter.com/RipIeAlLKj

— Doug Shivers (@casdas29) August 28, 2018

Mercy.

Stop it. pic.twitter.com/eX9NZdj3pu

— Harold R. Kuntz (@HaroldRKuntz3) August 26, 2018

Here’s your Big 12 slate for week one.

YES, game week is here!
Oklahoma St v. Missouri St
#7 OU v. FAU
#16 TCU v. Southern
#23 Texas @ Maryland
Texas Tech v. Ole Miss
#17 WVU v. Tennessee
Kansas v. Nicholls
K-State vs. South Dakota
Baylor vs. Abilene
Iowa State vs. South Dakota State pic.twitter.com/pGeWixiX9C

— Heartland College Sports (@Heartland_CS) August 27, 2018

Yesterday on PFB

• Ragusa previewed week one with five things to know about Missouri State
• Cox looked at the superlatives in place for the 2018 season
• A four-star 2019 wing is set to visit Stillwater
• Boone shared the seven things we learned about OSU in fall camp
• The storyline countdown continues – how will the 4-2-5 work?

Stuff I’m Reading

• Enjoyed this piece on Oklahoma City, the Thunder and such
• As I’m reading my 50th book of the year, I’ll cosign on a lot of these methods of fitting in reading
• Faith-based thoughts on why this musician deleted social media was challenging

Did this over the summer – couldn’t agree more.

Some personal news: Watched The Godfather trilogy for the first time the last few days. Each film is appropriately rated by history.

— David Ubben (@davidubben) August 28, 2018