Ranking Oklahoma State’s 2017 Home Games by Difficulty

We’ve ranked all six of Oklahoma State’s road games by difficulty. This time we look at the games OSU will play under the lights of Boone Pickens Stadium.

OSU gets six home games this season, five of which will be Big 12 games. It’s a sneaky good schedule, so if you have season tickets, enjoy!

No. 6 – Kansas

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Not that crazy things can’t happen, but this is the last game of the regular season and OSU should be firing on all cylinders at this point. Kansas will be better this year than last, I think they win three to four games. I just can’t see OSU being one of them.

Kansas hasn’t beaten OSU in Stillwater since 2007, and the closest margin since then was 70-28 in 2011 (and it wasn’t really even that close of it game). They’re not going to change that this year.

No. 5 – Baylor

This is not the same Baylor program we’ve known the last few years. Now entering their second season without Art Briles and first under Matt Rhule who turned around the Temple program, the Bears are continuing to rebuild their identity both on and off the field.

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Baylor’s offense is likely going to take a step back again this year, but that’s not why OSU is going to win this game.

The Bears are breaking in a new defensive coordinator this season and with him, a switch to a more complicated 3-4 scheme. It’s going to take the defense time to adjust, and I don’t just mean one offseason. Even if Baylor’s players get the hang of the new defense by the end of the year, it’s unlikely they do by Week 7 when they come to Stillwater.

This should be the year OSU ends Baylor’s winning streak.

No. 4 – Tulsa

Yep. Tulsa is ahead of Baylor.

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For one, Phil Montgomery is in his third year at the helm of the Golden Hurricane. He didn’t take long turning Tulsa around going from six wins in his first year to 10 in his second.

For two, Tulsa can score. Montgomery’s system is built to put up yards and points — even if they are replacing a lot on that side of the ball. Do they have the players on defense to really slow down Oklahoma State? No. But they might have enough on offense to at least make it interesting for awhile.

Add to this, the Cowboys haven’t been great early in the season the last couple of years. If the Cowboys come out of the gate sluggish or looking to play extra vanilla, they could get more of a challenge than we would like from our in-state adversaries.

No. 3 – TCU

I’ll be honest. I don’t know if TCU is going to be better this year than they were the last. But I feel like they should be.

Patterson has always been able to turn the Frogs around. They play good defense and can score. I realize it was in Fort Worth, but last year feels like a bit of an outlier. The score was 10-6 at half and the Frogs just couldn’t get into the end zone in the second half, even though they came close a couple of times.

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It all comes down to Kenny Hill. If the former Texas A&M quarterback can rebound from a disappointing season, then the Horned Frogs will be back to being formidable. At worst, TCU should bring a talented defense with them to Stillwater.

I expect a real fight from the Frogs in Stillwater this season.

No. 2 – Kansas State

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When are Kansas State games not difficult? It doesn’t matter where they, who is ranked higher, or if a walk-on wide receiver is playing quarterback (seriously, that happened), OSU and Kansas State play close games.

We’ve talked about this a couple of times but it’s worth pointing out again. OSU is 5-2 over the Wildcats in their last seven meetings, but KSU has outscored the Cowboys by 19 points during that time. That’s how close these games are. Just look back at last year when the game came down to the final play. Heck, go back to 2011 in one of the wildest back-and-forth games I’ve ever seen.

The Wildcats are always a tough test. I don’t expect anything different this year.

No. 1 – Oklahoma

I’d love to not pick the obvious here, but that would be dishonest.

When your head coach is 2-10 against a team during his tenure, they’re obviously going to be the toughest opponent on the schedule. Granted, there is a major difference between this game and the other 12 — Bob Stoops is gone and Lincoln Riley is now in charge.

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Yes, Riley will still be getting used to being the head coach of the Sooners, but he will have Baker Mayfield at quarterback to help ease the transition. It’s also not like Riley is unfamiliar with the Big 12, having served as OU’s offensive coordinator for the past two seasons.

This will be OSU’s toughest game. They have the best quarterback in the league outside of Stillwater, and enough returning assistant coaches that I’m not sure the transition will be all that rough in Norman.