COWBOYS PREGAME
Consistently beating UT is Gundy's greatest feat
We get you ready for OSU's game at Texas, 6:30 p.m. Saturday on ABC
Mike Gundy placed the tip of his pointer finger on the tip of his thumb. He wasn't forming an O, to start the O-S-U chant though he might as well have been. Gundy was forming a 0, answering a question about how many of his Lone Star Cowboys had been offered a scholarship by the University of Texas.
Turns out Gundy was fudging a little. The
split end Langston Anderson and tailback Deondrick Glass, true freshmen down deep on the OSU depth chart. But zero, two, three, what difference does it make? The Cowboys have 46 Texans on the roster, and almost all were passed over by their home state's flagship school.
So explain how OSU is 7-2 against Texas this decade. Explain how the Cowboys, with a victory on Saturday night at Royal-Memorial Stadium, can complete a 10-year dominance of the Longhorns surpassed only by Oklahoma 1948-57 (9-1) and Texas A&M 1984-94 (10-1).
Gundy can't explain it, but I can — OSU has had better teams most of the decade. It's not complicated. Texas has finished ahead of the Cowboys in the Big 12 standings only twice this decade (2014, 2018). Dominion of the `Horns is the greatest example of OSU football's elevation. Not the 2011 Big 12 championship. Not the No. 3 national ranking that season, achieved with a rousing Fiesta Bowl victory over Andrew Luck and Stanford. Not the Big 12's second-best record over a full decade.
Consistently whacking the Longhorns shows that the old days are not just gone, but largely forgotten.
“There's no question,” Gundy said. “It is what it is. People know who Notre Dame is. People know who SC is. People know who Michigan is. People know who Florida is. Oklahoma, Texas, LSU. So when you beat a team like that, it's good for your program. I don't think there's any denying that.”
The Cowboys have beaten Texas in all kinds of ways. With NFL-caliber quarterbacks (Brandon Weeden, Mason Rudolph) and with a walk-on QB (Taylor Cornelius). With shootouts (38-35, 49-31) and with lowscoring gems (13-10). With Texas coached by Mack Brown (1-3 vs. OSU this decade), Charlie Strong (1-2) and Tom Herman (0-2).
“He's obviously done a really good job of two things,” Herman said of Gundy. “One is evaluating talent in recruiting and recognizing some diamonds in the rough. Then, he develops the heck out of his guys. His offenses speak for themselves.”
The Cowboys have won five straight at RoyalMemorial. Texas never before had lost five straight at home to a specific foe.
“We're proud of that,” Gundy said. “We all know this: There's certain programs that you look across the country and people recognize the name, and that's one of `em. That's a great accomplishment for the organization and the guys that were here before, that we can compete with teams that essentially get their pick in recruiting and fluctuate on an annual budget of $235 million.”
In USA Today's latest report of athletic budgets, 2017-18, UT spent $206 million to OSU's $88 million. So again, no reason to quibble.
Gundy describes his squad as blue-collar, though Big 12 foes who have spent the last 15 years chasing Cowboys like Tylan Wallace and Chuba Hubbard might protest. A blue-collar attitude shows in all kinds of ways; the Cowboys play OU tough, too, they just don't turn it into victories like they do against Texas.
“Me personally, I was always a huge Texas fan,” said Cowboy center Johnny Wilson, from Midland, Texas. “And then I came here. I want to prove that we can beat them.”
Mission accomplished. This is Wilson's fifth year on campus. The Cowboys haven't lost to Texas since Wilson arrived, including a 2017 victory in which Wilson was named OSU's offensive player of the game.
Wilson is one of those hard-hat Cowboys who have joined the stars from Weeden to Wallace and made beating Texas the crowning achievement of the Gundy era. Berry Tramel: Berry can be reached at 405-760-8080 or at btramel@oklahoman.com. He can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:405:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including FM-98.1. You can also view his personality page at newsok.com/berrytramel.