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WACO, Texas — While victorious Oklahoma State players filed into the visitors tunnel early Saturday evening at McLane Stadium, hundreds of fans gathered around to greet them.
Quarterback Spencer Sanders handed his towel to one lucky young Cowboys fan. A few other players gifted their accessories to supporters.
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As the last of the team disappeared down the hallway, an OSU fan started an “OU sucks!” call-and-response among the crowd, concluding it with a “Let’s go, Cowboys!” to raucous cheers.
No. 9 Oklahoma State didn’t beat the rival Sooners on Saturday — the Cowboys opened Big 12 play with a solid 36-25 road win over reigning league champion Baylor — but Oklahoma’s stunning 31-point loss at TCU earlier Saturday made the day that much sweeter. In a season in which nothing looks like a sure thing in the Big 12, the undefeated Pokes put themselves in prime position early in the conference race.
The 2022 version of the Big 12 is deep, fun and unpredictable. Kansas — yes, that Kansas — is 5-0. TCU is 4-0 after dropping 55 on the Sooners. Kansas State is 2-0 in league play after beating Oklahoma and Texas Tech and has one of the best pound-for-pound players in the country in running back Deuce Vaughn. Oklahoma State is 4-0 and has as good a shot as anyone to be in Arlington, Texas, on Dec. 3.
“I think the Big 12 is as wide open as it’s ever been,” said senior defensive end Brock Martin, venturing that OSU is in the “driver’s seat.”
So much of the discourse around the Big 12 since Oklahoma and Texas announced their eventual departures to the SEC last summer has centered on what the league will look like without its bookends. In the immediate aftermath, it was about survival. After adding four new schools last September and temporarily stabilizing, the decisions this summer by USC and UCLA to move to the Big Ten triggered more uncertainty and a public back-and-forth between new Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark and Pac-12 boss George Kliavkoff as both tried to avoid having their teams poached.
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On the field, the conference hasn’t won a game in the College Football Playoff but has annually been one of the most competitive top to bottom, with league champions rarely going undefeated in conference play (2016 was the last time a league champ did so).
For so long, Oklahoma ruled. The Sooners have 14 league titles since the Big 12’s inception, including six straight from 2015 to 2020. Texas has sputtered since 2010 but still takes in plenty of oxygen because of the program’s national brand, deep pockets and past success.
When Baylor and Oklahoma State met in the Big 12 title game last December, it was a showcase for what the league could be post-OU/Texas. But what if that wasn’t foreshadowing? What if, instead, it became the immediate ushering in of a new era?
With the Sooners (3-2) sinking, dropping two in a row before their Red River rivalry with Texas, the league’s soon-to-be-former showcase event, and the No. 16 Bears (3-2) still working through their own issues, the conference is up for grabs.
“The Big 12, I think, is as good as advertised,” Oklahoma State defensive coordinator Derek Mason said.
Mason, the former Vanderbilt head coach who spent the past eight years in the SEC and coached at Stanford before that, called the league “as well coached as any conference out there from top to bottom.”
Coming into Week 5, eight Big 12 teams ranked in the top 40 in ESPN’s SP+ efficiency ratings, and all 10 were in the top 52. Three of the league’s future members, Cincinnati, BYU and UCF, were also in the top 40.
Saturday marked the third meeting between Baylor and Oklahoma State in 365 days. The previous two resembled fistfights, with neither team surpassing 24 points in victory and the league championship game decided by mere inches.
The rubber match started that way before the fireworks went off. Oklahoma State redshirt freshman Jaden Nixon’s 98-yard kickoff return touchdown triggered a combined 39 points between the teams in the third quarter. Baylor went from down 23-3 to trailing by just seven in half a quarter.
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The Bears, using an aggressive strategy they’ve employed since last season, went for fourth down on their own side of the field three times, including once from their own 14 (they made it). But turnovers, drops and other miscues bit them.
The reigning champs still have a ways to go to resemble the 2021 Bears.
“We’re not there yet,” Baylor coach Dave Aranda said. “Some of that is, ‘Hey, this ain’t last year.’”
Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy wasn’t sure what to expect from his team heading into Saturday. He sensed solid team chemistry, but a hostile road environment — which the gold-clad capacity crowd provided — has a way of exposing flaws.
The Cowboys passed that test. Sanders played effective, smart football, hitting multiple big-time throws downfield while also moving the chains with his running ability.
After throwing seven interceptions in his previous two starts against Baylor, Sanders took much better care of the ball, throwing just one. He also saved the team a potential critical turnover, jumping on a loose ball as the Cowboys clung to an eight-point fourth-quarter lead. Two plays later, Tanner Brown’s field goal made it a two-possession game.
“For some reason, people don’t give him enough credit,” Gundy said of Sanders. “If you protect him a little bit, he plays good. That’s what we did today. (In the Big 12) championship game, we didn’t protect him.”
The receivers are more mature, and the variety of threats, from the downfield prowess of Bryson Green and Braydon Johnson to the intermediate reliability of John Paul Richardson and Brennan Presley, gives Oklahoma State’s offense multiple ways to stress opposing secondaries.
“That was a difference,” Gundy said. “That was where we really struggled last year because we had so much youth on the perimeter.”
Defensively, the transition to a new coordinator led to a harrowing moment in the Pokes’ 58-44 season-opening win against Central Michigan, in which the Chippewas scored 29 second-half points. But the adjustment has smoothed. On Saturday, the Cowboys held Baylor to just three first-half points, which included a fourth-and-2 stop in the red zone.
WACO, Texas — While victorious Oklahoma State players filed into the visitors tunnel early Saturday evening at McLane Stadium, hundreds of fans gathered around to greet them.
Quarterback Spencer Sanders handed his towel to one lucky young Cowboys fan. A few other players gifted their accessories to supporters.
ADVERTISEMENT
As the last of the team disappeared down the hallway, an OSU fan started an “OU sucks!” call-and-response among the crowd, concluding it with a “Let’s go, Cowboys!” to raucous cheers.
No. 9 Oklahoma State didn’t beat the rival Sooners on Saturday — the Cowboys opened Big 12 play with a solid 36-25 road win over reigning league champion Baylor — but Oklahoma’s stunning 31-point loss at TCU earlier Saturday made the day that much sweeter. In a season in which nothing looks like a sure thing in the Big 12, the undefeated Pokes put themselves in prime position early in the conference race.
The 2022 version of the Big 12 is deep, fun and unpredictable. Kansas — yes, that Kansas — is 5-0. TCU is 4-0 after dropping 55 on the Sooners. Kansas State is 2-0 in league play after beating Oklahoma and Texas Tech and has one of the best pound-for-pound players in the country in running back Deuce Vaughn. Oklahoma State is 4-0 and has as good a shot as anyone to be in Arlington, Texas, on Dec. 3.
“I think the Big 12 is as wide open as it’s ever been,” said senior defensive end Brock Martin, venturing that OSU is in the “driver’s seat.”
So much of the discourse around the Big 12 since Oklahoma and Texas announced their eventual departures to the SEC last summer has centered on what the league will look like without its bookends. In the immediate aftermath, it was about survival. After adding four new schools last September and temporarily stabilizing, the decisions this summer by USC and UCLA to move to the Big Ten triggered more uncertainty and a public back-and-forth between new Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark and Pac-12 boss George Kliavkoff as both tried to avoid having their teams poached.
ADVERTISEMENT
On the field, the conference hasn’t won a game in the College Football Playoff but has annually been one of the most competitive top to bottom, with league champions rarely going undefeated in conference play (2016 was the last time a league champ did so).
For so long, Oklahoma ruled. The Sooners have 14 league titles since the Big 12’s inception, including six straight from 2015 to 2020. Texas has sputtered since 2010 but still takes in plenty of oxygen because of the program’s national brand, deep pockets and past success.
When Baylor and Oklahoma State met in the Big 12 title game last December, it was a showcase for what the league could be post-OU/Texas. But what if that wasn’t foreshadowing? What if, instead, it became the immediate ushering in of a new era?
With the Sooners (3-2) sinking, dropping two in a row before their Red River rivalry with Texas, the league’s soon-to-be-former showcase event, and the No. 16 Bears (3-2) still working through their own issues, the conference is up for grabs.
“The Big 12, I think, is as good as advertised,” Oklahoma State defensive coordinator Derek Mason said.
Mason, the former Vanderbilt head coach who spent the past eight years in the SEC and coached at Stanford before that, called the league “as well coached as any conference out there from top to bottom.”
Coming into Week 5, eight Big 12 teams ranked in the top 40 in ESPN’s SP+ efficiency ratings, and all 10 were in the top 52. Three of the league’s future members, Cincinnati, BYU and UCF, were also in the top 40.
Saturday marked the third meeting between Baylor and Oklahoma State in 365 days. The previous two resembled fistfights, with neither team surpassing 24 points in victory and the league championship game decided by mere inches.
The rubber match started that way before the fireworks went off. Oklahoma State redshirt freshman Jaden Nixon’s 98-yard kickoff return touchdown triggered a combined 39 points between the teams in the third quarter. Baylor went from down 23-3 to trailing by just seven in half a quarter.
ADVERTISEMENT
The Bears, using an aggressive strategy they’ve employed since last season, went for fourth down on their own side of the field three times, including once from their own 14 (they made it). But turnovers, drops and other miscues bit them.
The reigning champs still have a ways to go to resemble the 2021 Bears.
“We’re not there yet,” Baylor coach Dave Aranda said. “Some of that is, ‘Hey, this ain’t last year.’”
Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy wasn’t sure what to expect from his team heading into Saturday. He sensed solid team chemistry, but a hostile road environment — which the gold-clad capacity crowd provided — has a way of exposing flaws.
The Cowboys passed that test. Sanders played effective, smart football, hitting multiple big-time throws downfield while also moving the chains with his running ability.
After throwing seven interceptions in his previous two starts against Baylor, Sanders took much better care of the ball, throwing just one. He also saved the team a potential critical turnover, jumping on a loose ball as the Cowboys clung to an eight-point fourth-quarter lead. Two plays later, Tanner Brown’s field goal made it a two-possession game.
“For some reason, people don’t give him enough credit,” Gundy said of Sanders. “If you protect him a little bit, he plays good. That’s what we did today. (In the Big 12) championship game, we didn’t protect him.”
The receivers are more mature, and the variety of threats, from the downfield prowess of Bryson Green and Braydon Johnson to the intermediate reliability of John Paul Richardson and Brennan Presley, gives Oklahoma State’s offense multiple ways to stress opposing secondaries.
“That was a difference,” Gundy said. “That was where we really struggled last year because we had so much youth on the perimeter.”
Defensively, the transition to a new coordinator led to a harrowing moment in the Pokes’ 58-44 season-opening win against Central Michigan, in which the Chippewas scored 29 second-half points. But the adjustment has smoothed. On Saturday, the Cowboys held Baylor to just three first-half points, which included a fourth-and-2 stop in the red zone.
