Mailbag Wednesday: Is Tyreek the best athlete in OSU football history?

Welcome back to the PFB Mailbag. As always, thank you for your questions on Twitter.

Let’s get to work.

@pistolsguy Does #okstate basketball finish higher this year in conference play than last year?

— Cade Webb (@CBW_oSu) November 12, 2014

I’m going to say yes. It just has to finish seventh or better to improve on whatever it was that happened last season.

TCU will finish last (I will bet my wife’s life on that) and then Tech *should* finish 9th which means OSU would have to beat out only one other team.

Since the conference went to 18 games the 7th place finisher has won seven games and nine games so I’m thinking eight gets it done. This should be an eight-win team (I think).

The funny thing would be if the following happened:

2013-14 — OSU football > OSU basketball
2014-15 — OSU basketball > OSU football

@pistolsguy Would spending more time on football plays help OSU more than having 17 different helmet combinations?

— Big 12 Refs (@Big12Refs) November 12, 2014

I would legitimately like to know who runs this account. It’s not Faux Pelini or even Faux Holgorsen good but it’s really good.

@pistolsguy Is Tyreek the best athlete our football program has ever had?

— Colin Johnston (@ColinDJohnston) November 12, 2014

The first question — how do we define “best athlete”? To me it’s who’s the fastest, strongest, quickest, bounciest, freakiest genetically, etc.

Based on that he has to be, right? Who’s even close? Justin Gilbert? Perrish Cox? Prentiss Elliot? Barry? Bob Fenimore?!?

That’s actually a good question — is Tyreek Hill a better athlete than Barry Sanders. I say yes, but that doesn’t mean he’s better at football (or even on the same planet or galaxy or universe).

Also, there are some fun stories about Barry Sanders dunking at OSU that might make me re-think this.

The bigger question — who’s the best athlete in Big 12 history? I’ll take suggestions in the comments.

https://twitter.com/itsivanibarra/status/532620971367100416

I hope not.

https://twitter.com/jamiedonwheat/status/532620476062117889

The bball choice. We have enough other helmets to make up for not having carbon fiber but those basketball unis make me weak.

Speaking of, this was on the front page of okstate.com today. It’s probably the baseball equivalent of those OSU unis, no? 

@pistolsguy do you think Wickline has some blame when it comes to the o-line? Wasn't the strongest recruits in the last couple of years.

— Eric Williams (@Super_EWilliams) November 12, 2014

Probably.

Do I think we would be better if Wickline was still in Stillwater. Yes, I do. Mike Holder called him the best offensive line coach in the country[1. While we’re here, does Holder go home at night and rank offensive line coaches or…?] and I would agree with that.

But I think even having him back wouldn’t prevent the things that are happening this season and a lot of that falls on whiffing on recruits. Some of it, though, falls on fate — having two would-be starters transfer and/or quit football isn’t on Wickline.

(I don’t think).

@pistolsguy through the first 30 games, will @OSUMBB or the @okcthunder have more W's?

— Cale (@kobewanginobili) November 12, 2014

If you had to rank the five biggest sports draws in the state in terms of how good they are relative to their respective leagues, how would you do it?

You know how it might go?

1. OU basketball
2. OU football
3. Thunder
4. OSU basketball
5. OSU football

Gonna go throw up, be back in a little bit.

@pistolsguy which OSU athlete do you think would be elite at a sport they didn't play in college or the pros and what sport would it be?

— Nolan (@nolancox) November 12, 2014

Personally I’m not sure why Daytawion Lowe is still trying to make it in the NFL and not pursuing a career in equestrian. I’ll never understand that one.

@pistolsguy is this Gundy's last season at OSU?

— James Thompson (@thompjptoot) November 12, 2014

What?

No.

https://twitter.com/dylan_parker15/status/532632463626240001

My response would be “don’t buy stock in Time Inc.”

https://twitter.com/allisonmbrown/status/532607270069489664

I actually think about this a lot. When I started this blog I never really thought it would be that successful and I didn’t give much thought to the name.

True story: The original name I had for it was “Two Desmonds” (as in No. 1 and No. 34) — how awful is that?

I’ve never been able to settle on anything recently that makes me think “dang, I wish I would have named it that” though.

I think Orange Power is a really good name for a blog like this but obviously that’s taken. You want something that people can insert into “do you read _________” as in “do you read The Oatmeal?” or “do you read The Blaze” or whatever.

I don’t think “do you read Pistols Firing” really rolls off the tongue but I haven’t ever thought of anything OSU-related that does.

Do you guys have any suggestions?