Five Media Things: Spring Football Back at It This Week in Stillwater

Hoops is over just in time for baseball and spring football to take center stage. Mike Gundy and his staff reenter the spotlight this week as the Pokes get going again before a break for summer. Let’s take a look at the week, and as always you can view all OSU events right here.

What I’m excited about

Justice Hill’s oversized biceps will once again tote pigskins around the Sherman E. Smith Training Center this week in Stillwater, and we’ll be there to cover it. The Cowboys start their spring ball this week as Hill, Tyron Johnson, Calvin Bundage and a QB TBD lead the Pokes into their 2018 schedule (as a media person I’m grateful for the late start and April #content!). We will have videos and a writeup from Friday’s practice.

OSU spring practice this week: March 27 | March 28 | March 30

A media thing I think I believe

One of the most frustrating parts (ok, probably the most frustrating part) about running a website that is updated as often as this one is when we are, you know, unable to update it. That is, when our server gets sniped or I push an incorrect button or something else just breaks.

It is infuriating, trust me, but it also makes me grateful for things I’m not sure I would otherwise be grateful for — like having a functioning website upon which I can type words, #content and #style be damned.

So I guess this is a thing I believe and a thing I want to say. The first, the part I believe, is that every malaise — especially digitally — is an opportunity for us to create a better product for you. I am working with a developer right now who has helped resurrect this place more times than I can count, but we are also working toward a better end, a better means of distribution, a cleaner stream of conversation between us and you.

That will likely result in a site overhaul. I was always planning on refreshing PFB in 2018, and now we have an even greater incentive to do so. I’ve taken inspiration from a number of different media outlets, and I think I know what you want and what I need. I’m excited about it, excited about where things are headed behind the scenes here, even as the groaning of our evolution from a one-man band into a full-fledged company consumes me.

The thing I want to say is just that I apologize for all of our site outages. They make me lose sleep and wonder if whether someday I’ll need a rug as thick and as beautiful as Bill Self’s. I know that not only do we ask you to contribute to this place, but we have also (implicitly anyway) touted our site as the place you can come for OSU news 24/7. That hasn’t always been the case over the last month, and I’m really sorry for that. But I’m also glad that it has forced us (me) to create something better for the future.

What I’m reading

I’m grinding through a book called the Drama of Scripture. That’s probably not of much intrigue to many of you, but it’s been a fascinating look at the arc of the nation of Israel and how Jesus entered into that 2000 years ago.

Contribution and Site Updates

We are at 322 contributors. That’s awesome. I’m looking forward to even more of you joining in the future.

Site Growth

Pageviews through Mar. 25, 2018: 3.0M
Pageviews through Mar. 25, 2017: 3.7M
Most popular post of March: Gundy offers to pay for school safety
Most popular post of 2018: Spencer out as DC