Phil Steele Likes Oklahoma State for Experience, But He Likes Utah for the Same Reason

STILLWATER – It took a little longer this summer, but I finally got around to having college football expert and preseason magazine mogul extraordinaire Phil Steele on my radio show on Triple Play Sports Radio. Steele is always an interesting guest and he is college football nearly 24/7 and 365. 

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Phil Steele’s 2024 College Football Preview

We jumped into the Big 12 and while you and I may think that Oklahoma State should be the favorite in the Big 12 this season. Oklahoma State is the team returning after playing in the Bg 12 Championship Game two of the past three seasons and they won 10 games last season. 

Steele, like the Big 12 media poll, likes newcomer Utah and another veteran coach in Kyle Whittingham along with a returning seven-year quarterback coming off injury in Cam Rising. I also like Rising after being around him and talking to him on and off the record in Las Vegas.

“The thing about Utah and why I’m so high on them this year is last season they lost five games, but they had a non descript injury in August when Brandon Rose the backup quarerback went down, right? Then when Cam Rising didn’t play they were down to their

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When Rising (left) and Bowman (right) square off it will be a battle of seven-year college quarterbacks.

third, fourth, and even in one game their fifth-string quarterback,” Steele explained. “Last year the Pac-12 was up there with the SEC and the Big Ten as one of the best three conferences in college football. Utah played most of the best teams on the road like Oregon State, USC, Washington, Arizona. They played all those teams on the road and lost five games because teams could just stack the box on them. Now, having Rising and Rose back at the QB gives them the depth where if something does happen to Rising it would be as traumatic as last year.

“Rising led Utah to a couple of Pac-12 titles and nearly to a couple of big wins over Ohio State and Penn State had he not got injured in those games,” Steele cemented. If he doesn’t get hurt, who knows Utah might have won those games and I think Utah is one of the best teams in the country this year.”

Steele is also big on Kansas State but agreed that the Wildcats could be in trouble if Johnson, a run/pass quarterback, has to sit any of the season with injury. Few teams in the Big 12 have started the same quarterback for a complete season.

Steele knows from his own research that Oklahoma State is experienced on the first line of the depth chart and then experienced on most second lines as well, even the third line. 

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Steele is big on Ollie Gordon and voted for him last year for the Doak Walker Award.

“With Oklahoma State this is a team that is vastly more experienced than last year,” Steele said going to the experience factor. “Last year they were 115 on my experience chart and this year they are number one. You have to love that. They have Ollie Gordon coming back and he is established and I didn’t think they ran him enough early last season. I thought there was a mistake last year that maybe they didn’t tackle as much in fall camp and they got off to a slow start those first four games. I think they will tackle more in fall camp and that will help them. Then they have Presley, Stribling, and Owens back at receiver and they are more explosive. They are a veteran unit top to bottom.” 

As always, I like to bring something to the table that Phil may not know. It keeps me in high regard with Steele. I actually get people mentioning to me that they saw my name in Steele’s magazine with all of the famous coaches and media members. It’s a cherished name drop. 

I dropped on Steele that last week Mike Gundy hired Sean Snyder to be his special teams coordinator and specialist coach. Steel didn’t know and has has always had a strong positive opinion on Sean Snyder’s work.

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Steele has honored Snyder (right) several times as top special teams coach.

“That is a heckuva hire,” Steele said excitedly. “Coach Snyder has been my special teams coach of the year before and he always has great special teams, so I love that hire. When I wrote the magazine and I saw they don’t list a special teams coordinator and generally when schools do that they aren’t great in special teams, but Oklahoma State has been pretty good. They’ve been top 20 the last two years in my special team rankings. Having a guy like Sean Snyder come in and run the unit, I love it.”

Check it out. It is probably already up on philsteele.com.