Examining Baylor's Stillwater struggles
STILL WATER—Baylor coach Matt Rhule knows he doesn't have to remind any of his players what happened the last time they were at Boone Pickens Stadium two years ago.
“It was 59-16, and they threw a ball in the end zone that was almost caught that was going to make it 66-16,” Rhu le said this week .“There' s not a lot of young guys going on this trip. This is a lot of redshirt sophomores, juniors and seniors, guys who have been t here before, so I think our guys understand how hard this is going to be and how much of a battle.”
Of course, in 2017, Oklahoma State was supposed to win big.
The Cowboys had a 10- win team led by seniors such as Mason Rudolph and James Washington.
Rhule was in his first year at Baylor, on the way to a 1-11 season.
But over the last decade, Still water hasn' t been a friendly place for the Bears — even their good teams, like the 2011 squad quarterbacked by eventual Heisman Trophy winner Robert Griffin III.
Baylor comes to town this week ranked No .18 with a 6-0 record entering Saturday's 3 p.m. kickoff on OS U' sh om eco ming weekend.
Yet the Bears are 1-12 in their last 13 visits to Boone Pickens Stadium, and 1-4 since they pulled themselves out of the basement of the Big 12 and became a regular bowl team in 2010.
Since then, Baylor leads the series 5- 4, but only one of those wins has come at Boone Pickens Stadium.
Here's a look at how things have gone for Baylor in its last five trips to Stillwater:
2010: OSU 55, Baylor 28
Perhaps OSU had laid the groundwork for this one two years earlier with a 34-6 win over a mediocre Baylor team quarterbacked by Griffin in his stellar freshman season. The six-point performance was a season low for Baylor that year, and Griffin couldn't do much more when he returned in 2010.
Baylor came into the game ranked No. 22 with a 7-2 record, but fell behind 34-0 by the middle of the third quarter. Justin Blackmon and Kendall Hunter each had two first-half touchdowns. Griffin threw for just 267 yards on 30-of-48 passing.
2011: OSU 59, Baylor 24
Griffin's Heisman superpowers were useless once again within the walls of BPS. When OSU r unning back J oseph Randle scored his third of his four touchdowns shortly after halftime, the Pokes led 42-0.
Griffin threw for 425 yards but had just one touchdown, got s acked t wice and was intercepted by Justin Gilbert and Daytawion Lowe. Randle and Herschel Sims each rushed for more than 100 yards on 22 combined carries.
2013: OSU 49, Baylor 17
Even more significant than the 2011 game, Baylor came in with a 9-0 record two weeks after beating Oklahoma and ranked No. 3, firmly in the BCS title race.
Unlike t he previous t wo visits to BPS, Baylor actually scored in the first half — but only a field goal. When OSU quarterback Clint Chelf rushed for a 4-yard touchdown in the final minute of the third quarter, the Pokes led 35-3.
Early in the fourth quarter, with Baylor trailing 35-10 and threatening to score, a l ow shotgun snap skipped past Bryce Petty. OSU's Tyler Patmon scooped i t up and went 78 yards for a touchdown — as ABC announcer Brent Musburger called it at the time, “The dagger, ladies and gentlemen.”
2015: Baylor 45, OSU 35
For all the talent Baylor has brought to Stillwater at the quarterback position, it was third-teamer Chris Johnson — who was moved to tight end the following season — who pulled out a victory.
Playing in place of Jarrett Stidham, who was injured in the second quarter, Johnson threw a pair of touchdown passes in the third quarter to give Baylor a 38-14 lead. The OSU quarterback duo of Mason Rudolph and J. W. Walsh couldn't keep pace and Baylor earned its first win in Stillwater since 1939.
2017: OSU 59, Baylor 16
In the only Stillwater meeting this decade that wasn't expected to be competitive, OSU made sure it stayed that way. Running back Justice Hill had a 79-yard TD run in the second quarter that gave OSU a 21-10 lead.
Quarterback Mason Rudolph threw three touchdown passes and snuck another one in. And to top it off, backup QB Taylor Cornelius pulled the ball on a zone-read and went 40 for a score in the fourth quarter.