How did Oklahoma State Cowboys turn the tables in football series against Texas Longhorns?
STILLWATER — Collin Oliver said the words that all Oklahoma State fans know are true entering this week’s Big 12 Championship Game against Texas.
“As much as I’d like it to, history doesn’t matter,” the Cowboy linebacker said.
If the Cowboys could use history as collateral, they’d take out a loan for one more win over the Longhorns.
Entering Saturday’s title clash, set for an 11 a.m. kickoff at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, 18th-ranked OSU has won nine of the last 13 meetings with the seventh-ranked Horns. But this will be the 38th and final clash in the series, at least for the foreseeable future, with Texas heading to the SEC after this season.
Oliver and several of his teammates have been part of two straight Cowboy victories over Texas. That’s 18.2% of all OSU victories in the history of the series, which was first played in 1916.
The teams played just 10 times between that first meeting and the 1996 season when OSU and Texas joined up as members of the Big 12. The Horns won nine of those first 10, then 13 of the first 14 as conference opponents.
But in 2010, the axis rotated the Cowboys’ direction. Since that year, OSU has won nine games, including six of the last eight, going from a program desperate to catch Texas to one with the Horns under its foot.
With history in the rearview, this OSU team will try to replicate what past teams have established.
But how did OSU get here?
Let’s take a look back at some critical moments in the shift of the series:
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Close calls for OSU vs. Texas
OSU coach Mike Gundy showed right away that his team wasn’t going to fear Texas.
In Gundy’s first OSU-Texas game of 2005, the Horns were on their way to the national title, ranked No. 2 at the time and quarterbacked by eventual Heisman winner Vince Young.
The Cowboys jumped to a 28-9 lead in the final minutes of the first half. Young led an epic rally for a 47-28 win, but the foundation had begun to form.
The 2007 game was similar, with OSU jumping to a 21-0 lead in the second quarter, only to see Texas come back. The game was tied until the final play, when Longhorn kicker Ryan Bailey hit a 40-yard field goal for a 38-35 victory.
The trio of Zac Robinson, Kendall Hunter and Dez Bryant brought the next key moment in 2008. Ranked No. 7, the Pokes went to Austin to face the nation’s No. 1 team.
Despite falling behind 14-0 early, OSU rallied to cut it to 28-24, and had the ball in Texas territory late in the game, but fell short. But to that point, most of the games in Austin had been horribly lopsided.
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How Mike Gundy, OSU broke through vs. Texas
The 2010 meeting, of course, was the breaking point in the series for OSU.
Texas was unranked while the Pokes were No. 12, on their way to an 11-win season.
The game was tied at 3 after a quarter, and the Cowboys exploded for 30 straight points. Hunter scored twice and Jeremy Smith had a rushing TD. And there was a Brandon Weeden-to-Justin Blackmon connection for another score as the Cowboys earned what, at the time, was just the program’s third win over Texas, 33-16.
A year later, with the Cowboys on their way to a Big 12 title and Fiesta Bowl win, they tacked on a 38-26 victory, the program’s second-ever win in Austin and first since 1944.
Weeden-to-Blackmon struck again. Smith had 140 yards and two TDs on just seven carries. And Justin Gilbert had a 100-yard kickoff return.
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Taking control
When the 2015 game arrived, Texas still led the all-time series 24-5. OSU had won back-to-back meetings just once, in 2010-11.
But the shade of orange that controlled the series was growing brighter.
After Texas’ Holton Hill ran back an interception off of Mason Rudolph 41 yards for a go-ahead touchdown late in the third quarter, the Cowboys had to respond in the challenging road environment of Darrell K. Royal — Texas Memorial Stadium in Austin.
They did it with a defensive shutout in the fourth quarter, while getting placekicker Ben Grogan into field goal range for a pair of kicks in the final 1:33 — the last one with 6 seconds on the clock — to seal a 27-24 victory.
That ignited a string of four straight OSU wins over the Horns.
In 2016, the Cowboys trailed 25-23 late in the first half, but responded with two Rudolph TD passes, a Barry J. Sanders rushing score and two more Grogan field goals for a 49-31 win.
In 2017, it was an overtime interception by Ramon Richards off Sam Ehlinger in the end zone to seal a 13-10 win in Austin.
And 2018 was one of the most celebrated Cowboy wins in the series, when former walk-on quarterback Taylor Cornelius and receiver Tylan Wallace powered a 38-35 win over a Texas squad that entered the game ranked sixth.
The last six games in the series (four OSU wins) have been decided by a single possession with an average margin of 5.7 points, and that’s a trend this year’s Pokes should hope for.
Entering Saturday’s meeting as 15.5-point underdogs, a tight battle is the Cowboys’ first hope.
“We’re gonna go out there and ball,” Oliver said. “Texas is a great team. They have great talent. We’re just gonna go out there and execute our calls and try to get the W.”
Scott Wright covers Oklahoma State athletics for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Scott? He can be reached at swright@oklahoman.com or on Twitter at @ScottWrightOK. Sign up for the Oklahoma State Cowboys newsletter to access more OSU coverage. Support Scott’s work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com or by using the link at the top of this page.
Big 12 Championship Game
No. 18 Oklahoma State vs. No. 7 Texas
KICKOFF: 11 a.m. Saturday at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas (ABC)
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: How did Oklahoma State football turn tables in series against Texas?
