Pokes28

The skinny on OSU (from an OSU fan that has seen them 5 times this year)... Offensively: Bobby Reid practiced on Monday and will play this weekend. It was a mild concussion (thank God) and he now has all his marbles back. Reid has developed into the great double threat player that everybody expected him to be out of high school. He runs the run/pass option that Vince Young made famous last year. He started the season a little tentative, but the Houston game was when the light switch came on. He owns the OSU record for yardage in a game passing the mark set in 1989 by now head coach Mike Gundy. The previous analysis of the running backs was pretty accurate. OSU goes with the hot hand. I'd wager that Mike Hamilton will start. If he's successful, he'll probably get most of the carries until the 2nd half when Savage will get some work. Nearly half of Savage's 300 yards have come two long TD runs. But he's just now getting healthy after suffering an injury during two-a-days. The WRs are an offensive strength. Bowman is deserving of national attention. Being a legit 6'4" and 215-220 pounds running in the sub 4.5 range and having some of the biggest hands I've ever seen, he gets moved around a lot. He lines up in the slot making it nearly impossible to double team him. The offensive line has been very good with their combination of youth and experience. The offense finds a way to put points on the board, but they do tend to start off a bit slow. Of Reid's 7 INTs on the year, 5 of them come in the first half. Defensively, this is a case where the whole isn't as good as the sum of its parts. Arguably the best player on OSU's defense was a freshman that is out for the year (Chris Collins). However, OSU is 7th in the nation in sacks, so that is a strength that we really didn't expect. The defensive line is where OSU has veteran players. DE Victor Degrate is the man who is responsible for a lot of the sacks. I think he'll be a very good 3-4 OLB in the NFL. The rest of the DL tends to do well in collapsing the pocket, but they are there more to free up the LBs. The LBers are young but very talented. FR- Patrick Lavine, JR- Rodrick Johnson, and SO - Jeremy Nethon will likely start with JR - Alex Odiari getting some snaps. They really miss having Collins on the field here. The defensive backfield is where a good portion of the problems exist. They tend to make key mistakes in coverage at just the wrong time. The starters are FR - Andre Sexton and JR- Donovan Woods at Safety and JR - Martel Van-Zant and FR - Parrish Cox get the start at corner with SO - Jacob Lacey getting a lot of snaps. Every one of these guys look like they should be all conference players, but the only one that is playing consistently good football is Andre Sexton. Woods is a disruptor, but he isn't always where he should be. Special teams up till last year was always a point of strength for OSU. But last year was a bad year and this year is odd. OSU is among the best in the nation in kick returns and punting. Kick coverage, punt coverage, and field goal kicking aren't very good. The punt return team is OK. Last game our punter (Fodge) averaged nearly 12 yards per punt less than his nation leading average of 51. So now he's down to 47 yards per punt which is still good, but he had 4 blocked punts last year and a blocked punt that ultimately got KSU started three weeks ago. Basically, special teams is an area that I hold my breath on every game. Advantages OSU has is that they do have one of the best offenses in the country. Having now fully implemented Fedora's (from Florida) offense and not turning the ball over at a record clip like last year has really made the offense as exciting as it has been since Barry Sanders' Heisman year. I will differ from the previous poster that said that Reid makes mistakes when he's under pressure (specifically in the Kansas game) as that simply isn't true. Half of Reid's INTs have come when he threw it into the end zone at the end of a drive including the one at Kansas. The only reason Kansas was up 17-0 on OSU was because 3 of the 4 OSU turnovers gave Kansas a short field. At the half of that game OSU had nearly doubled the KU yards. Kansas did force the fumbles on Keith Toston (who hasn't played since). Defensively, OSU tends to give up too many chunk plays. However having a QB that won't hurt them running the ball is a definite advantage to this defense. They tend to get burned by mobile QBs. All in all, OSU is one of the youngest team in the conference. Having Started - 6 Freshman - 8 sophomores (including punter and kicker) - 7 Juniors and 7 seniors (mostly on the DLine) I expect this to be a good game. OSU for some reason can't seem to close anybody out. When the defense needs a stop, they don't have that guy that makes that great last play to close the door. Which is why they lost to KSU and to aTm. Both games were lost or tied in the final minute of play. Pokes28 - Orangepower.com

It looks like I will be in Omaha on business on Tuesday. That means I most likely am within range of coming to the game. A few questions for anybody that would be so kind as to answer them. 1) how hard is it to get decent tickets to the game? a) Is it cheaper/easier/better seats to buy them from people out front or from the ticket office? estimated price? 2) what is parking like? I don't know the area and would like some info. 3) how are opposing fans treated? I'm sure it is fine as I went to the 1988 football game (Barry Sanders' heisman year) and was treated great. 4) what is the environment like for basketball there? 5) is it only about an hour from the Omaha airport area to the arena or will it take longer to drive it? 6) anything I havent' thought of. I guess a good one would be are there any places that fans meet prior to the games etc? In Stillwater it is Eskimo Joes... Anything like that there? Feel free to post here or send me a private message. Thanks... David Harrell - Pokes dwh

You are right that it would have been a 2 point award. But the basic point is still the same. It would have been a major decision instead of just a victory. But I'm 99.9% sure of the appeal being pretty much as I wrote it. You may be right on the tie-breaker thing. I really can't say for certain. What I do know is that the announcers kept saying that the Huskers had the tie-breaker and would win unless Mocco had a major decision or better. I'm really just starting to get into wrestling. Having CSTV is great as I get to watch quite a bit of it on there. I just wish the Big 12 would step up and force one of the sports stations to carry more Big 12 sports like college baseball, wrestling, etc. David Harrell - Pokes dwh

Actually, it isn't such a big deal. The NCAA knows that it is common for refs to judge stalling more strictly in the last few seconds of a match than throughout the rest of the time. This is so much the case that they have a sub-rule to handle the situation and to try and force the refs to be consistent. 6.10g. Stalling in the final 15 to 20 seconds of a match. With the increased excitement among coaches, referees and spectators during the closing seconds of many matches, stalling penalties often are called unjustly and unfairly. These frequently are penalties that would not be called during comparable action earlier in the match. Stalling should be called consistently through the match. A stalling warning or penalty should be called during the concluding moments of a match only when stalling unquestionably is occurring. I rewatched the match in question, and I can see where it could go either way, but when you put that rule into account and it pretty much has to go to OSU. There were a lot of occasions where there were no stalling calls made even though a longer stalling amount of time than the one in question. Really this doesn't help/hurt either program. Even a loss to Nebraska wouldn't have moved OSU from #1 and Nebraska will probably still climb or at least not be hurt by the loss. I'm glad to see that the Huskers went and beat OU yesterday though. Sounds like it was another very tough meet. David Harrell - Pokes dwh

Actually, it wasn't an error at the scorers table. What was up for debate was whether the final stalling call that occured with about 10 seconds left should have resulted in another point. The ref didn't award the point and Nebraska appealed. Just like most appeals, it was denied. It was an amazing contest. Going in OSU was ranked #1 and Nebraska was ranked #6. I think the Huskers may actually move up after that match. I think the most amazing thing is the Husker's heavyweight (sorry, can't remember his name) was able to avoid being pinned by Mocco. Mocco is a beast and actually had him to near fall a couple times and just couldn't finish it off. I know the OSU team wasn't happy with their performance, but a lot of credit for that goes to the Huskers. David Harrell - Pokes dwh