Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy says he expects senior quarterback Zac Robinson to return to the starting lineup for the 11th-ranked Cowboys during Saturday's critical regular-season finale against rival Oklahoma.
Robinson missed Thursday night's win over Colorado after sustaining injuries to his head and shoulder in a victory over Texas Tech the previous week. But Gundy said during Monday's Big 12 football coaches teleconference that Robinson began throwing over the weekend and that he would return to practice Monday afternoon. Gundy normally does not discuss injuries which means Robinson could or could not play.
Just or unjust? Excessive or just plain over the top?
Whatever side you fall on, the NCAA has made it's decision where Oklahoma State All-American receiver Dez Bryant is concerned. The governing body turned down the final appeal on the junior's one-year suspension for lying, likely ending his college career.
STILLWATER, Okla. -- It almost seems uncanny, the parallels between tonight's Texas-Oklahoma State Halloween showdown and last season's matchup between the Longhorns and Texas Tech.
A hostile road environment that will be filled with rowdy fans. Night game. National TV audience. The fourth game of an unforgiving four-game stretch that includes Colorado, Oklahoma, Missouri before this one.
A bid for the Big 12 South title and a shot at the BCS national championship game also hang in the balance.
Oklahoma State's Donovan Woods will line up in his fourth position in as many years this fall. The 6-2, 225-pound Woods has previously been a quarterback, free safety and strong safety for the Cowboys. In 2007, he will line up at the modestly-named "star" position. According to OSU coaches becoming a Star means being utilized as a linebacker/safety hybrid.
"We did it a lot at Ohio State," said new defensive coordinator Tim Beckman following the Cowboys' 94-play situational scrimmage on Friday. "It's just one position where we can utilize him."
Donovan is keeping a positive mindset, which is refreshing in a time of rampant "me first, gimme, gimme" attitudes in college sports.
"Plans change," Woods said. "Only one person has the true plan for us, so I kind of look at it that way." "I knew I had the potential to play a lot of positions," Woods said. "I can look at it and say, 'Wow, I really have played four positions in four years,' but I'm continuing to get an opportunity. I'm thankful for that."
And you can't blame the Cowboys for attempting to utilize Donovan anyway they can. He is after all, the last of the long line of Woods brothers to come through Stillwater. Donovan was preceded at Oklahoma State by siblings Rashaun and D'Juan, who are both in the top five in receptions and receiving yards for the Cowboys.
"I expect more out of myself and more control of the game," the junior added. "I want to start dictating things more and I just want to be more efficient than I was last year."
Cowboys head coach Mike Gundy appears to be high on Reid's abilities this spring.
"Bobby is better now than he was at the end of the year. He's doing a better job of engineering and controlling the offense. He's more confident now and if he continues to run the ball like he has in the last four or five practices, he'll be able to create a lot of problems for a defense."
Despite the superlatives, Gundy isn't entirely ready to dismiss the two-quarterback system he employed a year ago. That means fans can expect to continue to see sophomore Zac Robinson.
"We'll have six or eight plays a game with Zac in there because he's a good player and he makes plays," Gundy added. "The more playing time he gets will help him. ... There's no substitute for game experience."
It makes sense to get both quarterbacks on the field, especially given the success the Cowboys enjoyed in 2006. Reid appears capable of carrying the team, but Robinson has also shown the ability to step up, including completing 8/17 passes for 149 yards against Oklahoma a year ago.
"This year, 38, or 11.2 percent, of OSU's 337 alternative admissions students were student-athletes, according to university data."
Oklahoma State had previously hoped to keep the number of athletes to about 9% of the total number of students admitted through alternative means each year. Although the school's policy is not a written regulation, officials in the admissions office were apparently made aware of its existence.
With the endless attempts of the NCAA to regulate every aspect of intercollegiate athletics, it is interesting to note that currently, there is no such NCAA policy concerning the alternative admissions student-athletes. However, as the article points out:
"An NCAA task force noted in 2005 that setting limits on alternative admissions would ensure universities can't gain an unfair advantage by admitting a greater number of lesser academically-qualified athletes than other schools."
The annual rivalry game between Oklahoma and Oklahoma State has been moved to Saturday, November 24th by the Big 12 Conference. This year's game was originally scheduled for October 27th. The move means that the game will add to a quality slate of conference games during Thanksgiving weekend. Currently, the Texas-Texas A&M and Nebraska-Colorado rivalry games are played annually on the Friday after Thanksgiving. The OU-OSU game will now join the Missouri-Kansas game – the nation's second most-played rivalry – on that Saturday.
The decision to move the Bedlam game was prompted by ... wait for it ... television revenues!
We've done this, in part, because on that weekend, you have two play dates, which adds to our potential television windows," [Big 12 assistant commissioner Bob] Burda said. "With these games, we can offer attractive matchups on both Friday and Saturday."
It is hard to argue with the move given that all four of the contests are now guaranteed to be televised by either ABC or Fox Sports Net. The move also has the support of OU head coach Bob Stoops who believes it will help his team prepare for the Big 12 Championship game:
"We've played in five of those games during our eight years here, and the only one we didn't win had an open week before we went to play," he said. "Of the four we've won, three went directly from our last regular-season game to the championship game. If that's what works best for us, I'm all for it."
Coach Stoops talks as if Oklahoma in the Big 12 title game is a forgone conclusion. Heh. Texas fans have to love that.
Someone from the SMU athletic department, perhaps coach Phil Bennett himself, responded to a recent entry to let us know he's not a candidate for the Oklahoma State offensive coordinator job.
The internet is a crazy thing. I have gotten a couple of calls in recent days about some rumors circulating on the web. Let me set the record straight – they're not true. I am the head coach at SMU and I plan on staying here, building a winning program. I don't know how this thing got started, but I wanted to end it today.
Yessir. You can find the full text of his message at the snazzy SMU "Mustang Musings" blog. As an aside, the blog is a great idea by the SMU athletic department. They're able to get an official word out on things quickly and in a location besides the customary and drab team websites that internet newshounds sometimes skip. Call it the Pravda effect - we want confirmation from independent news outlets instead of state sponsored ones.
Bennett's intention to remain at SMU comes as no surprise, seeing as how he'd be leaving a head job for that of a coordinator at someplace that isn't a traditional power. That's a backwards move if I ever saw one, and speculated as much when I wrote about the opening at Oklahoma State.
Anyway, there's the official word straight from the horse's mouth. Looks like those pesky newspapers are on the wrong scent once again.
Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy says he expects senior quarterback Zac Robinson to return to the starting lineup for the 11th-ranked Cowboys during Saturday's critical regular-season finale against rival Oklahoma.
Let the Dez Bryant/NCAA debate begin.
STILLWATER, Okla. -- It almost seems uncanny, the parallels between tonight's Texas-Oklahoma State Halloween showdown and last season's matchup between the 
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The Daily O'Collegian, the student newspaper at Oklahoma State University notes that 
Someone from the SMU athletic department, perhaps coach Phil Bennett himself, 
