Stan Geiger

Did the Pokes Throw that Game?

Food for thought for conspiracy theorists: Did the Pokes lose on purpose?

A case can be made.

The Pokes, though possessing one of the most potent offenses in the country, scored not so much as a field goal. They averaged about 25 yards per quarter. They managed only 4 yards in the entire second half. They couldn’t run; they couldn’t pass. They converted not a single third down.

Now, the Boomers have a defense. I respect that. But, c’mon.

I recall hearing a report at the start of the season that said the Pokes had the top-ranked special teams in the country. Perrish Cox got nowhere on returns. Ryan Broyles ran backwards to take a punt over his head on the hop, turned around and started running, and nobody in a Poke uniform seemed at all interested in making contact with him.

In addition, Coach Gundy left his sack in Stillwater. I can recall two instances where the Pokes faced fourth-and-about-a-foot situations. They punted. Dude, if you don’t figure you can run a play and get a foot of real estate, you don’t even need to be talking about championships.

Word was, had the Pokes beaten the Boomers, a BCS bid, a Fiesta Bowl bid, was at hand. The consensus now seems to have the Pokes headed to the Cotton Bowl.

There’s one thing worse than a team not going to a BCS bowl. That would be a team going to a BCS bowl and getting its ass handed to it. The Pokes are a good team; the Pokes are not a BCS-caliber team. The Pokes played a BCS-caliber team (Texas) earlier in the year. They got hammered.

A few years back, Nebraska got hammered in its last game of the regular season. As I recall, Colorado hung 66 points on the Huskers. Even though Colorado toasted the Huskers, even though the Huskers couldn’t win their own conference title, they were given a place in the national title game. Miami waxed them. Nebraska hasn’t been Nebraska since.

Notre Dame managed to weasel its way into a couple of BCS bowls in recent times. The Irish was pummeled in both of those games. They have done little more than lose for the past two years.

It’s all about recruiting. When a team gets embarrassed on national network primetime TV it ain’t good for recruiting.

Geography is important, too. Last year, the Pokes went to California to take a loss. The Fiesta Bowl is played in Arizona. The Cotton Bowl, on the other hand, is played in Texas.

Texas is the most fertile ground in the nation when it comes to high school recruits. UT is blessed in its position. At the same time, it’s cursed. UT can’t come close to absorbing all the blue-chip players the state of Texas produces. OU has historically feasted on Texas players. OU is a football power because of Texas. If OSU is to become a perennial football power, it needs Texas players.

So there sat the Pokes. They could have beaten OU and wound up in a BCS bowl out west in which they probably wouldn’t have looked too good or they could have made sure they lost to OU so as to go to the Cotton Bowl with a chance of drawing an opponent they could defeat in the confines of a state of grand importance to the future of the program.

What would you have done?

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