Bedlam Football Q&A With Kyle Porter

If you've not had a chance to check out Kyle Porter's website, Pistols Firing, then you've missed out on some of the best Bedlam coverage (from an OSU perspective) on the innerwebs. Kyle joined us Thursday night on our podcast and has postings on his site that range from an interview with ESPN's Jake Trotter to telling the world how quarterback Clint Chelf can become a legend.

Kyle and I had a follow up to Thursday night's podcast to discuss the game a little more in depth.

CCM: OSU lost their top QB and WR from last year, have had numerous QB injuries this year and yet they're still cranking out points like crazy. What's the secret?

KP: The secret is that Todd Monken knows how to operate a playbook. The other secret is that the running portion of the air raid has always been the secret. I'm assuming your readers have already read this terrific piece by Chris Brown but if they haven't they should. Oregon runs a different offense but the concept of wanting to run the ball as much as possible is similar with OSU.

CCM: Finish this sentence and tell us why. Kyle Porter's favorite OSU quarterback is...

KP: Ahhh, that's tough. As recent as two weeks ago I would have said Lunt, but now I'm all in on Chelf. I think the whole subcultural Choo! Choo! thing and all the dynamism within the OSU locker room surrounding Chelf really has some weight. He doesn't have the best arm (Lunt's makes me gasp) and isn't the best runner (Walsh is Manziel with better per game stats) but Chelf has really galvanized this team. He's Gundy's guy, he's the team's guy, and I guess that makes him my guy too.

CCM: Seeing the success that Baylor and West Virginia had on the ground against OU, do you see the trend continuing this weekend with the Cowboys?

KP: Absolutely. That's the point of our offense -- you saw it last year, Smith and Randle both went 100+ and Weeden didn't even really try to throw it in the end zone. Monken has probably watched that WVU game 100 times now, salivating even more on each replay. But as we all know, game planning and executing are two totally different things.

CCM: What is the biggest defensive concern for OSU coming into this game?

KP: Probably getting dinked and dunked to death by Landry. He completes 66% of his passes and OSU is so obsessed with not getting beat deep that they'll give up the 7-8 yard routes all day. Landry can do that up and down the field then let Mr. Bell take over inside the 15. That worries me.

CCM: Prediction time. Tell us what's going to happen, and how, on Saturday afternoon.

KP: Like I said on the show (CCM's Thursday night podcast), I'll go 41-38 Pokes with 0% confidence.