Editor's note: This story is the 10th in a series previewing each football team in the Big 12 in 2024.
Go ahead and circle the date of Sept. 21 on your calendars, Big 12 football fans.
There is a decent chance that the showdown that Saturday in Week 4 of the college football season pitting Oklahoma State and Utah in Stillwater, Oklahoma , will decide one of the participants in December's Big 12 championship game.
The Utes are picked to win the league in the preseason media poll, while the Cowboys are picked to finish third. Oklahoma State plays at another supposed contender, Kansas State , on Sept. 28, while Utes and Wildcats don't have to play each other.
Utah's strengths are well known in these parts, while Oklahoma State's prowess is known throughout the league after the Pokes went 10-4 in 2023, made it to the Big 12 championship game, and won the Texas Bowl.
"We really haven't paid much attention to preseason polls," OSU coach Mike Gundy said July 9-10 at Big 12 football media days. "The good news is we get to play all the games. I am really excited about our conference. I have said that for the last few years, as we've continued to add teams."
Utah, Kansas State , Oklahoma State and Arizona , perhaps, appear to be in the best position to replace SEC-bound Texas and Oklahoma as the new kingpins of the Big 12.
"I don't know that any of us are able to read into that at this point," Gundy said, when asked which Big 12 team will run the league. "We are learning about the new teams that are coming in. In my opinion, as we move forward, there's going to be a lot of parity. … I think that we've got a number of teams in this league that have an opportunity to make a move nationally. Whether anybody can take over and dominate for an extended period of time would be hard to tell at this point."
Clearly, Gundy believes OSU is in a good position to do that. So does Cowboys running back Ollie Gordon II, the Doak Walker Award winner in 2023.
"We've gotten bigger and stronger, because we got a couple of new teams (in the Big 12), and I am pretty sure where they came from, they are bigger and stronger over there, so we definitely gotta get bigger and stronger over here," Gordon said.
The take here: Don't sleep on UCF .
But we digress.
This preview is about OSU, which has almost every starter back on both offense and defense, including seven-year quarterback Alan Bowman.
Oklahoma State returns 11 starters on offense — Gordon presumably won't miss any games, despite some legal issues stemming from being charged with driving under the influence and transporting an open container of an alcoholic beverage — and 10 starters on defense.
Bowman, Gordon and receivers Rashod Owens and Brennan Presley are OSU's top offensive players, and its best defenders are linebackers Justin Wright, Nick Martin and Collin Oliver and safety Kendal Daniels . Martin made 140 tackles last year and was an All-Big 12 first-team pick in 2023.
"We have a very athletic defense in my opinion," Gundy said. "We can run and get to the ball. We have made a few adjustments to our defense scheme-wise, not a lot. … I think our players will have a better feel for our system and will allow us to play faster and get to the ball."
Gundy said to become an elite defense, the Pokes need to tackle better.
Without longtime in-state foe Oklahoma in the league — it is an outright shame that Bedlam won't be played in 2024 — will OSU have the same kind of hunger to win the Big 12? Gundy said people can count on it.
"We know that we're a mature team. We all know that we have a lot of returning starters," he said. "We know that we had the Doak Walker winner in the backfield. We know we have a couple of guys that had tremendous success at wide receiver. We know that we have eight linemen that have played a considerable amount of college football."
He continued, "We have a defense that has maturity up front. We have a linebacker returning that had 150 tackles. We have got guys that are returning in the secondary that have the potential to be in NFL camps next year. So now it is going to be on them, their leadership, their willingness to work hard, and stay hungry."
2023 record: 10-4 (7-2 Big 12)
Local ties:
• Running back Sesi Vailahi (former West High RB)
• Offensive lineman Nuku Mafi (former West High OL)
• Nose tackle Justin Kirkland (former Roy High DL)
Aug. 31 — South Dakota State
Sept. 7 — Arkansas
Sept. 14 — at Tulsa
Sept. 21 — Utah
Sept. 28 — Kansas State
Oct. 5 — West Virginia
Oct. 18 — at BYU
Oct. 26 — at Baylor
Nov. 2 — Arizona State
Nov. 9 — at TCU
Nov. 23 — Texas Tech
Nov. 29 — at Colorado
