Texas Tech Preview

Photo Attribution: Icon SMI

Teams: #2 Oklahoma State 9-0 (6-0) vs. Texas Tech 5-4 (2-4)
Time: 11:00 AM CST
TV: ABC/ESPN2 – Coverage map
On the call: Bob Wischusen and Bob Davie (I’m fired up for Davie, he always gives me a ton of material for my postgame writeup)

Kickoff: Count me among those aghast that OU lost to Texas Tech at home after having only lost two home games since Stoops took over. The best stat I’ve seen on Tech is that they’ve been outscored 127-34 by OU, Iowa State, and Texas since leading 31-7 in Norman. And Iowa State/Texas have accounted for 93 of those points!

For entertainment purposes:
Spread: Cowboys -18.5
Over/Under: 79

Vegas is all over the place with OSU. They were favored by 21.5 over a 7-1 #14-ranked Kansas State team last week and now they go play a 5-4 Tech team that hasn’t even been its last two games and they’re only favored by 18.5? I don’t get it.

This game feels like it’s going to be a rout. If I had to pick between this one and next Friday’s matchup with Iowa State, I think the one in Ames is going to be the much closer, tougher game for OSU. They could hang 60 in Lubbock and nobody would even blink. Hell, Texas hung 52.

OSU covers, take the over.

A few stats you should know:

• Brandon Weeden needs 573 and 3 to hold the career yards and TD marks. He’s started 22 games.
• OSU has never been 10-0.
• Texas Tech is the 3rd winningest Big 12 team this century (52 league wins). OSU has 42.
• Tech has 16 consecutive winning seasons on the line this year. They have OSU, at Mizzou, and Baylor in Dallas left. Just throwing that out there.

What I’m excited about: One of my Twitter followers pointed out that a Tech DE Scott Smith said, “They’re not that good of a running team, I don’t think. I’ve watched them play.”

He does realize that OSU scores a rush TD on every 10.63 attempts (best in the country) and that he’s going to have to try and tackle this on Saturday, right?

OSU will win if: They force one turnover or only have one. More than any other great team in the country, they thrive on burying average to below average teams via the turnover battle. OU had a pair against Tech in Norman, Tech never turned it over, and OU still came within an onside kick of beating them. By the way, that’s about the only thing from that box score that even makes a shred of sense.

How worried I am (out of 10):

Uniform prediction:

Gun to my head: OSU 59-28 – Basically I just change the last digit of these every week. OSU is going to score 5-something and their opponent is going to score 2-something. Good year to be a Cowboy.

Give me your predictions below!