What’s not to love about Oklahoma State’s offense?

With Doak Award-winning RB Ollie Gordon leading the attack behind an experienced offensive line (more than 200 career starts with seven seniors), the Pokes can move the ball consistently on the ground while setting up valuable play-action passes for ever-improving QB Alan Bowman (1,200-plus play-action passing yards in 2023).

While I have questions about OSU’s defense, it could improve with nine starters returning from last year’s unit.

Overall, the Pokes return 19 starters from last year’s Big 12 Championship runner-up roster, ranking first nationally in experience.

Conversely, Arkansas ranks 88th in experience.

I worry about the offensive line (62 career starts) and linebacking corps (lost all four starters from last season).

There are major depth concerns across the defense, and on offense, it’s uncertain how Boise State transfer QB Taylen Green will perform in the SEC after three years in the MWC.

I always want to bet more experienced teams against less experienced ones in September.

The former is generally more game-ready in non-conference play.

The Bowman-Gordon duo should roll over a questionable Razorback defense that ranked 74th in EPA per rush allowed last season.

The pick: Oklahoma State -10.

IOWA STATE (+2.5) over Iowa

I’m bullish on Iowa State. With 19 starters returning from last year’s roster that improved mightily after a slow start, I think the Cyclones could explode this year.

I love QB Rocco Becht, 2023’s Big 12 Freshman of the Year.

Two of his top three receivers from last year return alongside all five offensive line starters.

The Cyclones are strong and experienced in the secondary.

Though the Hawkeyes always field an elite defense, I’m not ready to believe that Tim Lester has suddenly fixed a hapless offense after a 40-0 victory against FCS Illinois State.

I don’t overreact to Week 1 FBS vs. FCS results, and I’m far from ready to buy in on QB1 Cade McNamara.

At the minimum, this should be a sloppy, lower-scoring game decided by one possession, and I’m willing to take the points in a points-at-a-premium battle.

Cyclone head coach Matt Campbell is 31-16 against the spread as an underdog of three or more points in his career.

The pick: Iowa State +2.5.

OREGON (-19.5) over Boise State

The Ducks looked awful against FCS Idaho (24-14 win) last week, but they dominated the boxscore, tripling the Vandals in first downs (31-10) and more than doubling them in total yards (487-217).

Oregon was unlucky with ill-timed penalties, skewing the final result.

Again, I don’t overreact to Week 1 FBS vs. FCS results, so I remain high on the Ducks as national title contenders.

While Boise State is among the favorites to represent the Group of Five in the College Football Playoff, I’ve downgraded the Broncos significantly after their performance against Georgia Southern.

Betting on College Football?

I had concerns about the defense, but it’s much worse than I imagined.

Georgia Southern dropped 45 points on 99 total plays, generating 0.30 EPA per rush (90th percentile) with 10 explosive plays (12 percent, 85th percentile).

What do you think Dan Lanning, Dillon Gabriel and the Ducks will do? They might drop 60.

Though superstar RB Ashton Jeanty obliterated Georgia Southern’s weak, undersized defensive line (school-record 269 yards and six touchdowns), he will be less effective against stiffer competition.

Oregon has talent and experience on defense, with nine returning starters from last year’s unit.

Lanning should key in on Jeanty, trying to force inexperienced QB Maddux Madsen into uncomfortable passing situations.

Last week: 1-2. Clemson (L), Syracuse (L), Hawaii (W)
2024 Season: 1-2.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (KCRG) – There is an investigation after reports of a car following other vehicles on interstate 380 with flashing lights, but it’s not a law officer.

The Johnson County sheriff said the most important thing to do is verify if you’re dealing with an undercover police officer. In this case, the sheriff says it wasn’t an undercover officer.

The driver in the car allegedly following others reached out to the Johnson County Sheriff, who is now investigating.

“I was driving home from Cedar Rapids and I passed that car, and when I did they got behind me and turned on red and blue lights,” said Kaylee Picek, who was followed by the suspicious car.

She said when she was on her way home the car started flashing what appeared to be police lights. But she didn’t pull over, because something didn’t seem right.

“Then he got behind me and followed me for a while and I called 911 because I was like ‘there’s no way this Red Buick is a police car, there’s no way,’” Picek said.

The 911 operator reassured her the Buick was not part of a police department or sheriff’s office. The car eventually stopped following her.

Sheriff Kunkle said she did the right thing in a confusing moment.

“Especially if it’s an officer from a local agency, they can verify directly over the radio that that is in fact a law enforcement officer,” said Sheriff Brad Kunkle.

Iowa has laws about which vehicles are allowed to use flashing lights, especially if they’re blue. But Sheriff Kunkle wouldn’t say if the driver of this car will face charges… only that the situation is under investigation.

For Picek, she’s just grateful her drive home ended the way it did.

“If you have any doubts about it, calling 911, calling the police, if it is a police officer, it’s not gonna be a big deal, they’ll just tell you to pull over. And if it isn’t a police officer you might have saved your own life,” Picek said.

Picek said while she doesn’t think her particular situation was likely to become violent, she’s worried it would have become dangerous if she had pulled over.

“I think maybe it might have been some road rage thing. Or more so a power trip thing, he got passed, he didn’t like it. And he wanted to control how other people drove without doing it the proper way.”

Copyright 2024 KCRG. All rights reserved.

Iowa Statewide Assessment of Student Progress results for spring 2024 show that the state has reached or surpassed pre-pandemic proficiency levels in English language arts and mathematics, according to the Iowa Department of Education.

The department released results Friday from the spring 2024 assessment that determined whether students in 3rd through 11th grade were meeting proficiency standards in the two subjects, in compliance with the federal Every Student Succeeds Act.

In the release on spring results, education department officials wrote that overall results showed some long-term progress for most grades, while results “do not show meaningful progress in most grade levels” for mathematics by remaining steady in comparison to previous years.

For English language arts (ELA), proficiency rates improved or remained steady in all assessed grades, with the exception of 3rd grade, in comparison to the previous year. Proficiencies increased across five grades — 4th through 8th.

When looking at long-term results, the department found the largest increases in ELA scores for grades for 6th through 8th grade students’ proficiency in comparison to 2019 scores, rising between 8 and 9 percentage points. However, proficiency rates have decreased since 2019 for third grade students, as well as those in 9-11th grade.

In mathematics, proficiency increased in comparison to 2019 results for grades 3, 5, 6 and 8, with the highest improvement coming for 3rd grade students with a 5 percentage point increase. Results for 7th and 11th grade students remained at the same rate, while students in 9th grade saw the biggest drop of 7% fewer students proficient in 2024 compared to 2019. Grades 4 and 10 saw proficiency rates drop by a percentage point over the five-year period.

Overall, most mathematics proficiency rates show “relatively little to no growth across most grades when compared to last year,” according to the department news release, with grades only increasing or decreasing by 1 or 2 percentage points.

The results also showed that significant proficiency gaps remain among students with disabilities and students who are English language learners in both of the assessment areas. English language learners had an average proficiency difference across all assessed grade levels of 53% in English language arts and 45 percentage points in comparison to the overall student results, while students with disabilities saw differences of 45% in English language arts and 41% in mathematics.

“We celebrate the successes of our learners, and we continue to work in partnership with families and educators to provide all students what they need to meet high expectations and realize their incredible potential,” said Iowa Department of Education Director McKenzie Snow. “Informed by our student achievement data, we reaffirm our commitment to strengthening early literacy and narrowing and closing achievement gaps experienced by students with disabilities and students who are English language learners.”

During the 2024 legislative session, test results were cited as a motivation to pass the law proposed by Gov. Kim Reynolds making significant changes to Iowa’s Area Education Agencies system providing support for children with special needs in Iowa schools.  A report released by the Guidehouse consulting firm said the state spent more per-pupil on special education funding than the national average, but that students with disabilities performed below the national average on assessments. However, AEA supporters and education advocates argued the report cited misleading information.

In addition to efforts to change special education provisions in Iowa schools, the Iowa Department of Education said in the Friday news release the state is working to improve proficiency rates by adopting new academic standards for both of the tested subjects, approved by the Iowa State Board of Education. The department also provided professional learning opportunities for implementing the new standards over the summer for nearly 2,000 mathematics educators and more than 1,300 English language arts educators, according to the release.