{"id":16872,"date":"2011-08-06T15:30:08","date_gmt":"2011-08-06T20:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=16872"},"modified":"2011-08-06T15:27:16","modified_gmt":"2011-08-06T20:27:16","slug":"2011-oklahoma-state-cowboys-college-football-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/2011-oklahoma-state-cowboys-college-football-preview-16872\/","title":{"rendered":"2011 Oklahoma State Cowboys College Football Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oklahoma State Cowboys\u00a0<\/strong>
\n2010 record:\u00a0 11-2 overall, 6-2 conference<\/strong>
\n2010 Bowl Game:\u00a0 36-10 win over Arizona in Alamo Bowl<\/strong>
\n2010 ATS:\u00a0 10-3\u00a0<\/strong>
\n2010 O\/U:\u00a0 8-5<\/strong>
\nReturning starters:\u00a0 12 total (7 on offense, 5 on defense)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Expectations are sky-high in Stillwater with the return of major offensive weapons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Over the month of August, our team of writers will be previewing the top teams heading into an exciting 2011 campaign.\u00a0 The college football handicappers at Maddux Sports are also preparing and have season-long packages readily available for clients.\u00a0 Let\u2019s take a look at a program that tallied a school-record 11 wins last year in Stillwater.<\/p>\n

Offense<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Few units in America will be more exciting that head coach Mike Gundy\u2019s offensive side of the football.\u00a0 Oklahoma State led the Big 12 Conference by scoring 44.2 points a game, which was also good enough to finish third nationally.<\/p>\n

Four inexperienced offensive linemen, a new go-to receiver and a 27-year-old quarterback were all able to make things work.\u00a0 The biggest weapon was Biletnikoff Award-winner Justin Blackmon at receiver.<\/p>\n

Brandon Weeden was voted as the All-Big 12 first-team quarterback last year and is a grandpa in age on campus due to chasing a dream to play professional baseball out of high school.\u00a0 His set a bunch of school records, including passing yards (4,277) and touchdown passes (34) for a season.<\/p>\n

Blackmon leads a receiving core that has four starters returning with 305 career receptions.\u00a0 Opposing defenses will have nightmares preparing for the talent that the Cowboys possess at this position.<\/p>\n

Kendall Hunter has departed the backfield and sophomore Joseph Randle is expected to be the main threat on the ground.\u00a0 The program has proudly had a 1,000-yard rusher for four straight years and hopes Randle or Jeremy Smith is able to keep the streak alive.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s important to mention that last year\u2019s offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen is now at West Virginia and a lot of pressure will fall on first-year play caller Todd Monken.<\/p>\n

Defense<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Defensive coordinator Bill Young can definitely afford to continue taking risks on this side of the ball due to an explosive offense.\u00a0 It paid off in a big way last year, as the unit led the Big 12 with 34 takeaways.\u00a0 The figure helped the school finish 11th nationally in turnover margin (+12).<\/p>\n

The biggest questions heading into the season is replacing two All-Big 12 selections, which includes the departure of All-Big 12 selection Orie Lemon at middle linebacker.<\/p>\n

The secondary doesn\u2019t have as many questions marks as the front seven, but will have to plug a huge hole that cornerback Andrew McGee left.\u00a0 Sophomore Justin Gilbert is expected to fill the vacancy.<\/p>\n

A talented duo at safety will highlight the defense, as senior Markelle Martin and junior Johnny Thomas are big-time playmakers.<\/p>\n

Special Teams<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Junior Quinn Sharp is expected to handle both kicking and punting duties for the 2011 campaign, after being named a first-team All-Big 12 selection in averaging 46.2 yards a punt last year.<\/p>\n

The return game is highlighted by Josh Cooper, who averaged 9.9 yards on 16 punt returns.<\/p>\n

Against the Spread<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Oklahoma State has proven to be a money-making home favorite, posting a 12-5 ATS mark the past three years. \u00a0Don’t miss out on this angle by checking the college football lines page each week.<\/p>\n

Bet On<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Lining up against Baylor is seemingly a walk in the park for this program and will try to cover a seventh-straight meeting at Boone Pickens Stadium this year.<\/p>\n

Fade Away<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Facing in-state rival Oklahoma has been a losing proposition for bettors backing the squad, as they\u2019ve failed to beat the spread in six consecutive meetings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oklahoma State Cowboys\u00a0 2010 record:\u00a0 11-2 overall, 6-2 conference 2010 Bowl Game:\u00a0 36-10 win over Arizona in Alamo Bowl 2010 ATS:\u00a0 10-3\u00a0 2010 O\/U:\u00a0 8-5 Returning starters:\u00a0 12 total (7 on offense, 5 on defense) Over the month of August, our team of writers will be previewing the top teams heading into an exciting 2011 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":3920,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[200,1444],"tags":[3187,5140,5142,5139,3548,5141,2256,1141,5138],"class_list":["post-16872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-football","category-headlines","tag-brandon-weeden","tag-jeremy-smith","tag-johnny-thomas","tag-joseph-randle","tag-justin-blackmon","tag-markelle-martin","tag-mike-gundy","tag-oklahoma-state-cowboys","tag-stillwater"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16872"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16872\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16874,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16872\/revisions\/16874"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}