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Daily Bullets (Sept. 4): Should FBS (OSU) Play FCS (McNeese St.) Teams?

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5 years ago

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To go or not to go: Pokes are favored by around 40 this weekend but you will get to Spencer Sanders play. The alternative to going would involve subscribing to ESPN+ so there’s that. 

Bullets Rundown

• Should FBS play FCS teams?
• Offensive line hype
• Gundy’s new analytics

OSU Bullets

• With McNeese State coming to town, the big humanitarian debate in college football comes to mind: should FCS schools be able to play FBS schools?

I-AA schools give out a maximum of 63 scholarships, 22 fewer than Division I-A, and much of their funding comes from these unfair fights.

“Sometimes people forget that if the bigger schools don’t play some of the smaller schools, it’s hard for them to budget and make ends meet,” Mike Gundy said.

Maybe that’s how coaches in the Power 5 conferences sleep at night. Knowing their humanitarian efforts help Arkansas-Pine Bluff and Stephen F. Austin stay afloat in football. [NewsOK]

 

The bludgeoning of Savannah State was painful but watching Northern Iowa play Iowa State last weekend was a blast. If FCS players were incurring mortal wounds, sure, it needs to stop. Play the games until then.

• The offensive line play was encouraging in Corvallis and there’s plenty of hyperbole affirmation flying around.

“Everybody has to be careful about being on the Kool-Aid early,” Gundy said. “but it was the highest grade that we’ve ever had as an offensive line group since I’ve been the head coach.

“Guys are playing hard and they’re down field. I’m guessing that coach (Charlie) Dickey is demanding they play that way.”

OSU rushed for 352 yards, with running back Chuba Hubbard accounting for 221. It was reminiscent of Gundy’s early days with a run-heavy philosophy behind a physical offensive line. [NewsOK]

That phrase “reminiscent of Gundy’s early days with a run-heavy philosophy” struck me. Gundy’s early-early OSU days felt like he was fighting with Les Miles about not running left and running right every play but his early teams (Mike Hamilton, Dantrell Savage, Kendall Hunter) certainly were featured – it is an accurate statement I suppose.

• This was interesting – Mike Gundy and OSU recently invested in the same analytics software that the Philadelphia Eagles used to help win the Super Bowl.

When your offensive coordinator is part of the analytics generation, you have to buy into some of it — both literally and figuratively.

In the offseason, Gundy purchased the advanced analytics system that became popular when the Philadelphia Eagles used it to win the Super Bowl two seasons ago.

OSU’s new play-caller, 34-year-old Sean Gleeson, loves a deep dive into the numbers, and the EdjSports analytics system is like a shiny, new toy for him. [NewsOK]

I’d love to see a feature piece on this at some point from Haisten or Tramel, just talking with Gundy about how it’s shaped some of his decisionmaking.

• These bowl picks have the Pokes in the Alamo against Arroyo – sign me up

• It doesn’t hurt to hire an alumni coach but it doesn’t help either

• I’ll take Chuba at No. 8 in these (unofficial) rankings:

• Sign me up for this remodel – seemingly Nike funded, definitely Nike-centric. I believe Cade Cunningham is coming in for an official visit.

Non-OSU Bullets

• This article on how evaluating sunk costs bogs down our decision-making process was spot on (for me at least – also, heads up about some language in there)

• Faith-based look at our changing expectations in the Digital Age

• How to read long and difficult books

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