Oklahoma State Football: Pokes show deserve top 25 ranking
The next release of the AP Poll should include Oklahoma State football following two pretty impressive wins to open the season.
There was not much competition coming the way of head coach Mike Gundy and Oklahoma State football for the first two weeks of the 2018 campaign. In Week 2, the Cowboys faced the South Alabama Jaguars for the second straight year.
In former quarterback Mason Rudolph‘s final season with the Pokes, it was a road win for Oklahoma State over South Alabama. This time around, Oklahoma State got the Jaguars at home as 31-point favorites just one week after downing the FCS Missouri State Bears.
Oklahoma State has a load of non-conference games at home for the 2018 schedule. Next week, the Pokes get a clear top 25 ranked team in the Boise State Broncos and star quarterback Brett Rypien.
In another victory where Oklahoma State posted 50-plus points, senior quarterback Taylor Cornelius still left something to be desired. You cannot fault his passing yard performance of 428 yards and one touchdown. However, the fact that he did only post one touchdown and two interceptions is worrisome.
Yet, we’ll focus on the many positives that emerged over the past two weeks. All while Oklahoma State posted more than 110 points in the first two weeks of the season, first-year defensive coordinator Jim Knowles held his opponents to just 30 points. That’s something brand new for Oklahoma State with a usually offensive heavy team.
Moreover, the Oklahoma State ground game had some more nice performances and some younger wide receivers broke out. Junior running back Justice Hill posted two touchdowns on the ground and emerging wide receiver Tylan Wallace racked up 166 yards on 10 catches and one touchdown.
Some of these great performances for Oklahoma State helped push for the 55-13 victory over South Alabama and potentially the push this team needed to get into the top 25. Both sides of the ball are doing well for Gundy so far to build momentum heading into the Boise State game and then conference play.
It would be nice to see the Pokes and Boise State ranked in the AP Poll heading into an underrated Week 3 showdown at Boone Pickens Stadium. Boise State has looked very impressive so far and is the biggest non-conference test for the Pokes by far.