Overrated/Underrated: Bow-Legged Pete and Week 1 in CFB

Week 1 is officially in the books, and Oklahoma State is sitting pretty nationally (and whatever is better than “sitting pretty” within the Big 12). I started an overrated/underrated column last week which riled several of you up after I said WR depth is overrated. I stand by that statement in general, but it’s time to move on to Cincinnati another edition of overrated/underrated, which again I stole from my pal Andy Johnson of the Fried Egg (who is currently honeymooning in Mexico).

Thanks, Andy.

Bow-legged Pete Helmets

I was out. Then I was in. Then I was out. And now I think I’m fully in. The helmets looked a little too much like those great Patriots throwbacks, and I thought they were just av-ruj in still photos. But when the lights flipped on and everybody started running around, I thought they looked phenomenal. Maybe they should only be worn at night?

However, there’s one problem. Everybody acted as if they were re-experiencing the first moon landing. Maybe it’s because it was Week 1, and OSU could have delighted fans with poop emoji stickers on the side of their lids. Maybe not. Bow-legged Pete is really good, but he’s not that good.

Verdict: Properly rated.

Week 1 in CFB

There needs to be some clarification about what I’m actually talking about in this column. I’m not discussing 2017 Week 1 in CFB but rather CFB Week 1s in general. I think this is where the WR depth thing went off the rails. The question is: “Do people generally overrate or underrate Week 1 in college football?”

This one is tough because there is essentially an 8-month hype train barreling towards Labor Day and the first full slate of the season. Sometimes the games live up to that (like this year) and sometimes they do not. But here’s the thing. I think we often forget just how much fun college football is. This is one of the greatest assets of the sport. It goes away for so long you legitimately forget just how thrilling almost every single week is. Because of that, it becomes difficult to overrate.

Verdict: Underrated

Season-to-season carryover

I saw a lot of “well Tulsa won 10 games last year so …” after OSU throttled them on Thursday. Heck, I wrote a lot of those sentences as well (dishonest independent blogging manipulation!) Do I think Tulsa is going to have a pretty decent year in the AAC? Sure, but there’s a bit of a disconnect for me from what they did last year to what they’re going to do this year.

Think about OSU’s 2013 and 2014 seasons. Could they have been more wildly different? It all looks mostly the same — same program, same uniforms, same mullet. But when you lose your ace QB, things start to go south faster than an OU fan trying to escape GIA after a wrestling match.

Gundy warned us last week that Philip Montgomery rarely has down years, and he’s not wrong about that. But I saw TU’s QB situation on Thursday, and I’m not sure Vince Lombardi could coach his way out of that one. All that to say, we should probably take big wins over 10-win teams from the previous year (if that’s what you’re hanging your hat on) with a grain of salt.

Verdict: Overrated.

The Internet

It can be a hostile and sometimes vile place to hang out, but it is still a wonderment to me. The fact that 10 of us here at PFB can all cover a college football game and upload photos and quotes and videos and break down film and post tweets from Oklahoma State grads all over the country and opine about this thing we all watched in a centralized location where other OSU fans can come and comment on it all is still a genuine thrill to me.

We were looking at some old schedules recently, and we realized that as recently as 2000, only two (!) of OSU’s game were nationally televised. A 42-7 loss to Texas and a 12-7 loss to OU. We saw as many televised points on Thursday against Tulsa as OSU fans saw the entire season in 2000. Plus we get to re-live any highlight we want as much as we want almost immediately after the game is over. That’s insane.

So just know that after hitting “publish” 7,090 times here in the last six years, I still love it every time, and I’m glad for the community of fans that has gathered around us.

Verdict: Underrated