When Florida State kicks off their season in Dallas in a little over a week, ESPN’s College GameDay will be there to welcome them. Two of the personalities from that show, Kirk Herbstreit and Chris Fowler, recently spoke about the Seminoles’ opponent – Oklahoma State.

“I think Oklahoma State probably lost as many players as anybody in the country coming back at a high-profile school trying to compete in a game like this against a team like Florida State,” Herbstreit said during Tuesday’s conference call.

The Cowboys return just six offensive starters and four defensive starters from a season ago. Only six players on the roster have started 10 or more games in their career.

Despite heavy roster turnover, the duo believes that Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy has established his squad as a program capable of reloading effectively.

“Chris and I were talking earlier about the job Mike Gundy is doing there. It’s hard to believe that this is his 10th year as a head coach at Oklahoma State. The last five or six years, I would pay him the compliment that his team is no longer a rebuilding type of team,” Herbstreit said. “I think OSU for years, decades, was a team that one year if everything was just right, they had enough seniors, they might get up to 10 or 11 wins. Then they would get back to five, or six or seven wins. And recently, they are winning 11 or 12 and their drop now is eight or nine.”

“There is no reason to think that trend shouldn’t continue despite all the losses,” Herbstreit added.

While they believe Oklahoma State can have a positive season in 2014, their season-opener is a huge test.

“With that being said, it is obviously a very, very big challenge in the opener against Florida State,” Herbstreit said. “I think Florida State is not a team that will come in complacent or looking past Oklahoma State. I think they will be incredibly motivated, excited to play on a big stage which is typically where Jameis Winston plays his best football.”

Fowler called Gundy’s defense in 2013 arguably his best. He said their success was predicated on their aggression.

He isn’t sure the 2014 version of Oklahoma State can follow that up, due to so many newcomers in the starting rotation.

“It is tough to be aggressive when you are inexperienced,” Fowler said. “The guys who will line up and try to stop an unstoppable offense from a year ago are pretty green at some key positions. They lack leadership. They haven’t been under fire because they just aren’t proven at a lot of spots.

“I guess I would say if I am Oklahoma State, we are so young at some key spots, let’s hope that they are just young enough and naÃ¯ve enough to go into that game and play out of their mind,” Herbstreit added.

Both analysts believe it is pivotal for Oklahoma State to get off to a fast start and make the game competitive early on, because the Seminoles showed the ability to put opponents away swiftly last season.

“You got to get off to a fast start to get your young players a reason to believe that they can play with the defending national champions,” Herbstreit said. “Playing fast earlier is something I would recommend.”

Herbstreit added that a fast start against FSU is a necessity because the Seminoles have the ability to break the will of their opponents early on.

“They typically start fast and they kind of take your will away,” Herbstreit said. “I would say getting ready to play fast early and getting some confidence and not getting blown out early is something they need to focus on.”

Fowler was a little more direct on his evaluation of the match-up while speaking about the Cowboys.

“They are underdogs for a reason,” Fowler said.