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Hailing from Stillwater, OK, the Oklahoma State Cowboys are coming to Athens for the first time since 1946. I decided to take a quick look at Stillwater and found a few things out. One, it’s a lot like Kansas…flat and generally devoid of distinguishing characteristics. Two, the whole dang city looks like it’s laid out on a perfect grid oriented north-south and east-west…Athens might as well be Paris or Rome (I’m making assumptions those cities aren’t grid-like because they’re old) when it comes to crazy side streets after looking at Stillwater so if you see a lost OSU fan, just point them in the general direction of Sanford. Three, apparently they gave us the fast food chain Sonic, which has given us some pretty funny commercials…that’s kinda cool. Four, Billionaire T. Boone Pickens’ donated money ($165 million or some such ridiculousness) has gone to make some pretty impressive upgrades to their athletic facilities. Their stadium (a little small by SEC standards) has a beautiful exterior and they’ve now added an amazing basketball facility adjacent to it. Impressive.

Lastly, take a look at their stadium and its immediate environment…they have parking lots, big ones, right near the stadium. To any OSU fans making the trip, don’t expect many of those at the door of Sanford. I imagine Pickens probably bought Winder or Watkinsville for traveling OSU fans to use as housing, but that’s about as close as you’re getting to park. Oh and another thing, Athens isn’t flat, so don’t expect that typical Big XII type thing where you see the stadium for 10 miles in all directions.

OSU Offense

The OSU offense presents significant challenges for a UGA defense with more than a few questions that need to be answered. They have a devastating ground game featuring several speedy RBs, a mobile QB and an All-American level WR. Last season they were the 16th ranked total offense and the 7th ranked scoring offense. Not too shabby. They were held to 20 or less only once (Texas) and put 34 on the board 7 times…consequently, each of their 7 wins.
At QB, former UGA recruiting target Bobby Reid is a dangerous pass-run threat entering his junior year. He’s a quite nimble load at 6-3, 235 but also an effective passer with a career completion percentage of 53%. He threw for over 2,000 yards last season with a sporty 24-11 TD to INT ratio. A closer look at the stats reveals some pretty erratic numbers. Digging deeper reveals that most of this is because the guy battled injuries. He got knocked out of the Texas A&M and Oklahoma games. Tossing those games out and looking at other comparable defenses to UGA, it really boils down to Texas and Alabama (Nebraska isn’t the Nebraska of old yet so they’re excluded here, good scoring D, bad yardage D…for the record, statistically speaking, UGA had better Ds than both Bama and Texas last year in both total yardage and points…I digress). In those two games (Texas and Bama), Reid only managed 26-57 (46%) for 334 yards with 1 TD and 3 INTs. Rushing-wise in those games he only managed 18 carries for 52 yards (under 3 ypc). Honestly it’s hard to get a feel for how good a runner the guy is as he was sacked 17 times last season and in the NCAA that counts against rushes. For the season, he averaged 4.2 ypc…Stafford averaged 4.1…Reid just runs a lot more. He’s a solid passer but he racked up 30% of his season’s passing yardage in 2 games (juggernauts Houston and Kansas). Heck, add the opener against Missouri St and you’ve accounted for half of his passing TDs (12) in those 3 games. He also admitted that he gets really nervous and amped up before games. Backup Zac Robinson is a Reid clone, very athletic and solid.

Columbus native Dantrell Savage comes into the season as the starter at RB. While he won’t be scaring any of Barry Sanders’ OSU records, he is a very fast, smallish back that averaged an impressive 6.5 ypc. He split carries last season with a number of backs, otherwise his stats would be even more impressive. He’s not a tremendous receiving threat, averaging fewer than 1 reception per game. Backup Keith Toston had nearly as many carries as Savage and provides a little more muscle while having a nice 6.0 ypc. 3rd string RB Mike Hamilton transferred to GA Southern. UGA fans liked to talk about the 3-headed monster of Ware, Lumpkin and Brown…OSU actually had one, with Savage, Toston and Hamilton each going for over 540 yards on the season and averaging over 6.0 ypc combined. Throw in Reid’s 500 yards and this is a potent ground game.

OSU’s major weapon on offense is WR Adarius Bowman. Like Calvin Johnson, Bowman is a big (6-4, 220), athletic WR that creates all kinds of difficult matchups just off his size and natural strength. Bowman transferred from UNC 2 years ago and broke onto the scene in a big way last year with 60 catches for almost 1,200 yards. With those prodigious numbers, it might surprise you that he only topped 100 yards receiving in 2 games…Houston and Kansas (again). He went absolutely crazy in that Kansas game, snagging 13 passes for 300 yards and 4 TDs. There’s a long list of potential complimentary WRs, but Bowman is clearly the star, snagging roughly a third of their completions and nearly half the yards last season. TE Brandon Pettigrew is solid, pulling down 24 passes last season with 3 TDs. At 6-6, 260 he’s a nice-sized target.

OSU replaces two starters along the OL this season and features a varied unit with two sophomores, 2 juniors and a senior. LT Russell Okung started as a true freshman last year and is the most talented lineman they have. Opposite him will be converted LG David Koenig who will be adapting to the OT position. They average just under 300 pounds amongst the starters…not the biggest OL we’ll see, but not small be any means. They return 7 of their top 10 from last season, with 4 having started 5 games or more last season so there shouldn’t be a tremendous dropoff from last season’s performance although replacing all-Big 12 OT Corey Hilliard won’t be easy.