Five Impact Players for Oklahoma State-Baylor
STILLWATER -- Oklahoma State's currently coming off a bye week, which couldn't have come at a better time. The Pokes had just reached the halfway point in the season, and had been going non-stop since the first week of August. That's about two and a half months of action without a break.
Now, the Pokes are preparing to face a team that a large majority of national media consider a Cinderella story. Where they were five years ago with the Art Briles scandal, to being the undefeated No. 18 team in the country. But the Bears have certainly had some close games to start the season.
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They nearly fell to Rice on the road in their fourth game of the season, and then Texas Tech took them to double-overtime in Waco in Baylor's homecoming game.
The Bears were able to squeak out wins in those games, 21-13 against Rice and 33-30 against Tech.
Oklahoma State's depth chart for the Homecoming game against Baylor
In speaking with Mike Gundy earlier this week on Monday and the players on Tuesday, the team is hungry, rested and ready to face Baylor today. So, we're going to be taking a look at five players for Oklahoma State that need to step up and make an impact against Baylor to give the Pokes the chance to win their fifth-straight Homecoming game.
Chuba Hubbard
We're going to start off with the most obvious choice and that's Heisman candidate Chuba Hubbard. He's gotten off to the best start in the country in 2019 and has rushed for 1,094 yards and 13 touchdowns. Even with having a bye week, Hubbard is still 268 yards better than the back in second.
Baylor has a strong rushing defense allowing only 113.5 yards per game so far this season, but they haven't faced anyone nearly as good as Hubbard. After putting up 156 yards and three touchdowns against Tech, I think Hubbard has another similar performance, maybe even better today against Baylor.
Spencer Sanders
You can't do these articles without putting the quarterback right? At least that's the case for this week. This game against Baylor is going to be very key in the progression of redshirt freshman Spencer Sanders. He's coming off a five turnover performance against Texas Tech and has had an extra week to dwell on and correct those mistakes.
Sanders needs to come out strong against Baylor and I think he will. Will he make mistakes? Absolutely. But I don't believe he's going to let them compound upon each other and I think Sanders will have a solid game today.
Trace Ford
That's right, true freshman defensive end Trace Ford. Through the first six games of the season, Ford's recorded 11 total tackles, six of which have been solo stops and two sacks. Ford's been a major disrupter when he's been on the field this season and I think that's going to be the case today against Baylor.
I'm not even saying that he's going to lead the team in tackles or sacks today. But he's going to get into the backfield and do what he does best: disrupt. That's going to cause some errors from Baylor either leading to turnovers or big stops by the Pokes.
Amen Ogbongbemiga
Defensive coordinator Jim Knowles said before the season started that he was trying to mold linebacker Amen Ogbongbemiga into the leader of the defense. Through the first six games of the season, I'd say that he did a pretty great job of it.
Ogbongbemiga's recorded 47 total tackles, 29 of which have been solo stops with 6.5 tackles for loss and 3.5 sacks. Baylor's going to be without their leading tackler, linebacker Clay Johnston, which I think is only going to highlight Ogbongbemiga even more. I'm predicting that Ogbongbemiga will lead the team in tackles today and come up with some big-time stops and possibly even create a turnover.
Offensive line
I've done this a few times this season, but this will probably be the most important time I've done it. The Cowboy coaches have had to do quite a bit of shuffling of players over the past few games with left tackle Dylan Galloway out with injury.
With the possibility that he could return today, Oklahoma State needs an excellent performance from the line today. Spencer Sanders can't be running for his left every other play because that leads to bad decisions that lead to sacks or possibly turnovers.
We've seen a couple of great performances from the O-line this season and I'm predicting that we're going to see another today against Baylor.
