Every college football season since 1910 has featured an Oklahoma-Oklahoma State matchup.
Saturday’s showdown between the ninth-ranked Sooners and the 22nd-ranked Cowboys in Stillwater, Okla., though, will be the last Bedlam matchup in the foreseeable future.
The series will not continue, at least for now, after Oklahoma makes the jump from the Big 12 to the Southeastern Conference next season.
While there’s plenty to be said about the series’ history, this year’s edition is plenty important without that backdrop. The teams are part of a five-way tie atop the Big 12 standings.
The Sooners (7-1, 4-1 Big 12) are coming off a 38-33 road loss to Kansas while the Cowboys (6-2, 4-1) beat visiting Cincinnati 45-13 last week.
Oklahoma State has won four consecutive games since a 2-2 start.
A big part of the Cowboys’ recent success has been sophomore running back Ollie Gordon II, who leads the nation with 1,087 rushing yards. Gordon has run for 553 yards and six touchdowns over the last two games.
“If we don’t tackle better than we did last week, Gordon’s going to pull away from the pack when it comes to college football and rushing,” Sooners coach Brent Venables said. “He can run right through you and he can run right by you. His patience for a big guy is something that’s a little different.”
This year, defensive lineman Trace Ford will be on the other side of the rivalry. After spending the last four seasons with the Cowboys, Ford transferred to Oklahoma.
“I get to finally talk trash to him,” said Oklahoma State linebacker Collin Oliver, who remains friends with his former teammate. “I haven’t been able to do it in all my years of knowing him, so this is going to be the first time of getting to do that. I hope I see him after the game as well.”
Ford has become a bigger piece of the Sooners’ defensive line in recent weeks.
Oklahoma’s offense has been potent this season, ranking seventh nationally in total offense at 489.8 yards per game.
A big part of that has been on the shoulders of quarterback Dillon Gabriel, who has thrown for 2,302 yards and 19 touchdowns with four interceptions. He also has run for eight touchdowns.
“Is he gonna take off like the guy at Kansas or Kansas State and just blindingly take off for 80 yards? Haven’t seen that,” Cowboys coach Mike Gundy said. “But he’s an effective runner who loves to run the ball inside the 10-yard line. He likes to play physical. You have to give him credit for his willingness to compete and give his body up, which is what I see from him.”
Oklahoma has dominated the series history, going 91-19-7 against the Cowboys.
The Sooners have won seven of the last eight, including a 28-13 home victory last year.
The Cowboys’ lone win in that span came the last time the teams met in Stillwater, a 37-33 Oklahoma State victory to end the 2021 regular season in what wound up being Lincoln Riley’s final game as the Sooners’ coach before he departed for Southern California.
–Field Level Media