'Slaughtered them': How Pat Jones' 1984 Oklahoma State football team upset Arizona State

Pat Jones, before his first game as Oklahoma State head coach, stood on a ramp at Sun Devil Stadium smoking a cigarette.

As he looked onto the field, nestled between two mountain buttes, Jones spied Arizona State coach Darryl Rogers. Rogers, who had been at Michigan State and who would later coach the Detroit Lions, was “a pretty good somebody” back then, Jones recalled. Though Jones was far from a nobody, in the fall of 1984 he was a novice head coach.

So Jones walked over to introduce himself to Rogers, and they chatted as opposing coaches do before a game. Rogers acted like he knew Jones, but Jones could tell Rogers was just trying to be polite.

“And then we commence to beat their brains out,” Jones told The Oklahoman.

The Cowboys stomped the 12th-ranked Sun Devils 45-3. It marked the beginning of a stellar 10-2 season in Stillwater, in which OSU’s only losses came at Nebraska and at Oklahoma.

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When it was time for postgame handshakes that night in Tempe, Arizona, Jones wasn’t sure what to say to Rogers after such a shellacking. It’s not like Rogers would register the words, anyway.

“By the time I got to him,” Jones said, “he was pale as a ghost.”

When OSU plays at Arizona State at 9:30 p.m. Saturday, it will have been just over 39 years to the day since the Cowboys made their first trip to Tempe.

OSU departed the desert that night with a 42-point win — a tone-setting victory Jones and members of that ‘84 Cowboy squad remember well.

Former OSU linebacker Matt Monger needs only to look at his leg to trigger memories of that game.

“I've got a scar on my left shin where an offensive lineman intentionally cleated me when I was under the pile,” Monger said.

But Monger and the Cowboys inflicted more than just scars.

“Slaughtered them,” Monger said.

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The Beano Cook curse

Sun Devils running back Darryl Clack appeared on the September 1984 cover of Sport magazine, and in that edition, the late college football commentator Beano Cook ranked the Sun Devils No. 1 in the nation and picked them to win the national title.

Cook’s prediction aged poorly.

“I went to the airport Sunday morning,” Cook told the Washington Post afterward, “and when the passengers saw me they took another flight.

Added Cook, always quick with a quip: “Don’t ask me who will win the (presidential) election. I’ll probably tell you Alf Landon will.”

Landon, the Republican presidential nominee in 1936, fared about as well against Franklin D. Roosevelt as the Sun Devils did that night against the Cowboys.

OSU was prepared for Arizona State. Jones, who took over when Jimmy Johnson left for the Miami job, said the Cowboys spent some time on the Sun Devils that spring. A few OSU coaches even visited the University of Arizona that summer to swap scouting reports with the Wildcats staff.

“Leading up to that week, there were really intense practices,” said former OSU safety Mark Moore, whose 16 career interceptions rank second in Cowboy history. “Coach Jones had everybody dialed in.”

After Johnson’s departure, players endorsed Jones’ candidacy to become OSU’s next head coach. Jones, an assistant at the time, came to Stillwater in 1979.

“We got him here, and now we need to do our part and make sure he stays here,” Moore said of the team’s mindset. “I think that had a lot to do with us going out and playing as well as we did. We definitely believed in him, and wanted him to believe in us.”

Johnson, when he was still in charge, had planned for the Cowboys to get to Tempe two days in advance, but Jones changed the schedule to get there the day before the game.

“It wasn't a fun trip, it was a work trip,” Jones said. “We knew that anyway, but I just wanted to refortify that.”

The late Rusty Hilger quarterbacked the Cowboys that night in Tempe, and running backs Shawn Jones and Charles Crawford both ran for 100 yards. A freshman named Thurman Thomas got the first carries of his Cowboy career.

OSU was even more dominant defensively.

On Arizona State’s first possession, Leslie O’Neal came screaming off the edge and blindsided Sun Devils quarterback Jeff Van Raaphorst, now the radio analyst for Arizona State games. The ball popped loose, right to Rodney Harding, who returned the interception for an OSU touchdown.

OSU’s 1984 defense was one of the best in school history. The Cowboys allowed just 12.3 points per game, a mark that hasn’t been eclipsed since.

“Nobody had any idea how good that defense was, but if you go back and look at the all-time records, you'll see guy after guy who was on that team,” Monger said. “It's pretty staggering.”

Monger’s 175 tackles in 1984 rank second on OSU’s all-time single seasons list. O’Neal’s 16 sacks in 1984 remains the single-season record.

Looking back, OSU thrashing Arizona State wasn’t the upset it seemed like at the time.

Arizona State limped to a 5-6 finish while the Cowboys, not ranked in the preseason, finished No. 7 in the final AP Poll.

“That set the tone for a team that made a legit run at the national title,” Jones said. “You can debate that that's the most complete team that's ever been (at OSU).”

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OSU returns to Arizona State

After beating Arizona State 34-17 last season in Stillwater, the Cowboys are headed back to Tempe for the third time in history (OSU lost 12-10 at Arizona State in 1993).

Both the Cowboys and Sun Devils are 1-0, but neither had convincing wins — scraping by FCS squads Central Arkansas and Southern Utah.

“It's easy to get away with those types of games at home, but being on the road is going to be a test for them,” said Moore, who was at the Central Arkansas game last weekend in Stillwater.

“Big, big ballgame for both clubs,” Jones added. “There's a lot of question marks still surrounding (OSU) on both sides of the ball. What's (Mike Gundy) gonna do at quarterback?”

And on the defensive side?

“I thought they were kind of soft defensively — a little bit softer than I thought they would be,” Jones said. “Didn't tackle real well. This will be a good test.”

The stakes won’t be as high Saturday in Tempe as they were in September 1984, but perhaps this Cowboys squad could look to the past for inspiration.

“Every once in a while,” Moore said, “you get one of those games where you know you prepared well, and regardless of what they're doing it's not gonna affect you.”

Like when OSU beat Arizona State in Tempe, 39 years ago.

OSU vs. Arizona State

KICKOFF: 9:30 p.m. Saturday at Mountain America Stadium in Tempe, Ariz. (FS1)

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This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Looking back at Oklahoma State football's 1984 upset of Arizona State