Messin’ with Texas
OSU has made Austin its home away from home
— Les Miles stood in a cramped closet of a room accommodating the visitor’s postgame news conference , trying to digest what had just taken place at Darrell K Royal — Texas Memorial Stadium.
“There is no way to have a game like this where you don’t ache,” Miles said that night in 2004, when his final Oklahoma State squad led Texas 35-7, only to lose 56-35 in a way that had to be seen to be believed.
But then, the Texas series routinely delivered heartache for the Cowboys.
Close losses. Knockout losses. Horrific losses, like 2004, when Vince Young may have turned the corner on his career, compliments of the Cowboys. Twelve straight losses from 1998 through 2009.
Times have changed. When OSU rolls into Austin Saturday, it’ll carry a four-game winning streak at DKRTexas Memorial Stadium, the longest there by any opponent — ever. Arkansas never won four straight in UT’s 94-year home. Neither did Texas A&M. Or SMU during the height of its boosterenhanced Pony Express days.
And the Cowboys are favored, by nearly a touchdown, to make it five in a row Saturday.
OSU still trails the overall series by a large margin, 24-7, with Texas mostly imposing its will on the Cowboys outside Mike Gundy’s time as coach. Before a breakthrough in 2010, OSU hadn’t won in Austin since 1944, the year of the D-Day invasion at Normandy during World War II.
While the two teams didn’t share a conference together until 1996, Texas dominated in the Big 12, too, winning 13 of the first 14 matchups. So, what’s changed? Everything. “They were so good back then,” Gundy said. “When you played them, you knew at any time they could make a bunch of plays really fast. All those guys at their skill positions played in the NFL.”
That has changed. Texas, once a source for stocking NFL rosters, has produced just four first-round draft picks since 2008. The past two seasons, only two Longhorns were drafted at all, neither higher than the third round. In 2014, Texas didn’t have a single draft pick.
By contrast, the Cowboys have produced six first-round picks since 2009.
The talent flip has been apparent overall, too, with OSU existing as the better program since 2010, going 46-19 in Big
12 play, with Texas at 31-33.
“At that time,” Gundy said in reflecting back to 2004, when he was the offensive coordinator, “we had two or three good skill kids, and then we had a lot of guys who were kinda average. Since then, we’ve increased our number of skill in different positions.
“And the game has changed considerably with spread offenses and no-huddle and quarterback play and things like that. It’s changed a lot.”
Lately, the Cowboys have owned the edge at quarterback. Mason Rudolph and Brandon Weeden racked up at least two wins over Texas. Clint Chelf led a 38-13 rout at Texas in 2013, when Case McCoy, not Colt, was quarterbacking the Horns.
The past seven years, when OSU has won five meetings, it’s beaten Tyrone Swoopes, Jerrod Heard and Shane Buechele. This season, the Horns are on their fourth quarterback in as many years, turning to true freshman Sam Ehlinger in hope of stabilizing the position.
Saturday, the Longhorns hold plenty of motivation for halting OSU’s run.
And yet, turns out one of the Cowboys’ main men is carrying his own chip into Saturday’s contest.
Rudolph was the starter two years ago, when the Cowboys won 30-27 in Austin, yet he doesn’t consider it a personal highlight, after two of his three turnovers went the other way for Texas touchdowns.
“I’ve only been a part of one in Austin,” said Rudolph, the starter for OSU’s 30-27 win two years ago. “I obviously didn’t play my best that day, so it was a day to forget for me.
“That’s why I’m excited to get back down there and get that taste out of my mouth in that stadium and do a better job.”