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Scott: Five Predictions for the 2018 OSU Football Season

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Much like Oklahoma State is using a next-man-up approach to this season, I’m the next man up in PFB’s five predictions’ series.

Here are links to the past two sets of predictions, and as always, I’m sure you guys will agree with everything I have to say.

Prior Predictions

1. Cornelius finishes with the third most rushing touchdowns on the team: One thing I’ve heard a lot about Taylor Cornelius this fall is that he is deceptively athletic.

Everyone remembers his 40-yard touchdown run against Baylor last season, and I’ll never forget how perplexed I was when in a Real Talk with Ramon Richards, Richards said if he had to make a basketball team with football players a few years ago, he would include Cornelius in a starting five with himself, Marcell Ateman, James Washington and Jordan Sterns.

Needless to say, the dude is an athlete.

Mason Rudolph’s 10 rushing touchdowns a year ago put him in second on the team, but I think J.D. King will get more red zone carries this season to push the quarterback to the No. 3 slot.

I’d put Justice Hill and King above Cornelius, and while I do think LD Brown and Chuba Hubbard could have breakout seasons this year, getting touches will be difficult with how deep the Cowboys are at running back. Cornelius, though, gets to touch the ball every play.

2. Cowboys take at least one kick or punt back for a touchdown: The Cowboys haven’t returned a punt for a touchdown Halloween of 2015 when Jalen McCleskey did so against Texas Tech, and OSU hasn’t returned a kick for a touchdown since Oct. 11, 2014 when Tyreek Hill saved the Cowboys from eternal embarrassment against Kansas.

The Cowboys have a lot of athletes this season who should be able to get the job done in guys such as Dillon Stoner, McCleskey, CHUBA HUBBARD, LD Brown and Tyron Johnson.

3. OSU chews some clock: Chews might have been too heavy of a word, how about tastes the clock.

Last season the Cowboys had the ball about an hour less than their opponents (6:05:27 to 6:54:33). This season, I would expect the Cowboys to have a higher emphasis on the running game with a stacked backfield and an inexperienced quarterback, and as long as Justice Hill isn’t averaging 12 yards a carry, they should have more of the clock than their opponent.

A side effect to this is that the Cowboys points per game would likely drop as well, but I don’t know how drastic that difference will be to make a full prediction on it.

4. Knowles’ 4-2-5 works beautifully: Analytically, Dustin Ragusa would do (and has done) a much better job breaking down new defensive coordinator Jim Knowles’ 4-2-5 defense.

However, here’s something that I think just makes sense: The Big 12 is known as a passing league, so why not have more members of the secondary out there? On top of that I like the experience the Cowboys bring up front, and I think they’ll be able to get some pressure on the quarterback.

5: Passes get distributed equally: A year ago, OSU wide receivers accounted for 4,669 of the Cowboys’ 5,059 receiving yards. However, 2,705 of those were split between James Washington and Marcell Ateman.

I think OSU’s group of receivers is stacked again this season, but I don’t think one or two guys will dominate. I see the Cowboys taking a “by committee” approach.

Tyron Johnson probably jumps out as the Cowboys’ most flashy successor to James Washington, and while I think he could have a great season, I also think slot guys like Jalen McCleskey and Dillon Stoner will make a bigger impact in the slot this year. Tylan Wallace is also set to break out this season, and while I haven’t heard too much about him in camp, 6-foot-6 Patrick McKaufman will probably make some corners look like children in the end zone.

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