Oklahoma State stays alive on the day that Bedlam dies
Confetti from a college football Saturday
Oklahoma became the 46th state in 1907. It wasn’t easy. When the idea of statehood came up, Native American tribes voted overwhelmingly to form the state of Sequoyah. It would join the U.S. on its own, together with Oklahoma. However, President Theodore Roosevelt thought Sequoyah would be too Democratic, so he urged the two neighbors to consolidate, and that was that.
The University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma A&M didn’t wait for the process, even though they were on opposite sides of the line. They played their first football game in 1907.
Later, A&M became Oklahoma State, and a typical, classic intrastate rivalry blossomed, between schools 80 miles apart. OU was the liberal arts school in Norman. Oklahoma State was the land-grant, technical and agricultural school in Stillwater. It’s the type of thing that fuels college athletics, splitting families, fostering grudges, providing a calendar date to be circled. Wrestling actually was the most passionate battleground for the rivals. It is believed that the mat was the place where the matchup was first known as “Bedlam.”
There is no more Bedlam in football, at least not on the schedule, not after Saturday in Stillwater.
In the 117th renewal, Oklahoma State held off Oklahoma, 27-24. It kept the Cowboys tied for the Big 12 lead with Texas, and put them in position to finish in the top two, which would qualify them for the league championship game. This is a team that lost to South Alabama, 33-7, in September, so to be 7-2 is a gift. “If anybody says they saw this coming, I’m going to call BS on it,” said OSU coach Mike Gundy.
Oklahoma has now lost in consecutive weeks to Kansas and Oklahoma State and can forget the College Football Playoff that looked so enticing after a win over Texas. Quarterback Dillon Gabriel has Heisman Trophy characteristics, but his chair in New York might have been usurped by Ollie Gordon, the Cowboy running back who gained 137 yards in 33 carries Saturday and has a nation-leading 1,266 yards even though he had just 111 in the first three games. Gordon has eight touchdowns in his past three games.
Gordon also had a goof that nearly ended the series on a Sooner note. He wound up with the ball on a fleaflicker but didn’t read the coverage before he threw the ball. Billy Bowman of the Sooners intercepted. Oklahoma had the ball on its 44 with a 21-17 lead in the fourth quarter. The Cowboys held up, got a touchdown from Gordon, and then Kody Walterscheid jumped on a fumbled snap by Gabriel, setting up a field goal.
Oklahoma got to within 27-24 and needed one last drive. On fourth down, Drake Stoops cut off his route just short of the first-down marker, and couldn’t take Gabriel’s pass to the line.
Thus Gundy won his fourth Bedlam game in 17 tries as a head coach, although he’s been involved in 33 of these games as a quarterback or an assistant.
It was Oklahoma State’s 20th win after all these years. As Charles Barkley is fond of pointing out, it can’t be a rivalry if one team dominates. But when it’s part of the societal fabric, it goes beyond scores, and that’s what is so poignant about this situation. Because Oklahoma and Texas are moving into the SEC next year, Oklahoma State will be left without its most important Big 12 opponents.
And because the Big 12 teams play nine conference games, a continuance of OU-OSU just isn’t convenient enough. That doesn’t mean they won’t play again sometime, or won’t be ordered to, by state legislators with nothing better to do.
Florida and Florida State are in different leagues and they still play. The same with Clemson and South Carolina, Georgia and Georgia Tech, and Louisville and Kentucky. The fact that Texas needed to get into the SEC to renew its incredibly bitter rivalry with Texas A&M just shows how money corrupts and then corrects. But Kansas doesn’t play Missouri anymore, either. It’s somehow more important to listen to the TV people and put together gerrymandered conferences than to acknowledge neighbors.
Obviously some of the game’s greatest players and coaches have tasted Bedlam. Barry Switzer and Jimmy Johnson used to be on opposite sidelines. Thurman Thomas, Dez Bryant, Barry Sanders….Billy Sims, Sam Bradford, Kyler Murray and Baker Mayfield. USC’s Caleb Williams is 0-1 at Bedlam, getting sacked by OSU on the final play of the game in 2021 when he was Oklahoma’s freshman quarterback, in the final Sooner game for both he and coach Lincoln Riley.
In 2014, Oklahoma led by seven when it decided to punt from midfield. Tyreek Hill was on the other end. The current Dolphins game-wrecker streaked 92 yards for the touchdown that put it into overtime and helped Oklahoma State win.
But the first game might have been the most distinctive, in 1904. The two schools played on a frigid day at Mineral Wells Park, in the town of Guthrie. Oklahoma A&M was punting, and the wind blew the ball behind the punter. Eventually the pigskin tumbled down the hill and into an icy creek. A Sooner player went into the water and emerged with the ball, and it was ruled a touchdown, not that the Sooners desperately needed one. They won, 75-0.
Nobody is around to gloat about that one. Several thousand Cowboy fans will chirp about this one. “We’ve put up with a lot of crap for 100 years,” Gundy said. “We’ve had our butt kicked a bunch. Now we can walk around and say we won the last game.”
More confetti from a college football weekend:
Texas 33, Kansas State 30 (OT)
— The latest coach to go Fourth Down And Out is Chris Klieman of Kansas State. His Wildcats had wiped out a 27-7 deficit to take this game into overtime in Austin, and they forced a field goal in Texas’ first possession. With fourth and goal on the four yard line, K-State could have tied it with a chip shot field goal, although Chris Tennant had missed a 27-yarder, plus an extra point. Instead Klieman went for the win, and Will Howard was hassled by the rush of Barryn Sowell. T’Vondre Sweat batted down the pass, and the Longhorns remained tied for the Big 12 lead with Oklahoma State.
— It was a strange call because Maalik Murphy, the Texas quarterback filling in for Quinn Ewers, had struggled in the second half and was 19 for 37 with two interceptions overall. Kansas State shouldn’t have feared Murphy’s ability in upcoming overtimes. Howard was 26 for 42 for four touchdowns for the Wildcats (6-3).
— Texas is 8-1 with TCU, Iowa State and Texas Tech left and will be heavily favored to get to the Big 12 title game, which features the top two teams in the league. Oklahoma State is not on its regular season schedule. The Longhorns have scored at least 30 points in every game.
Alabama 42, LSU 28
— Jalen Milroe was the unsteady quarterback when Alabama lost to Texas. He didn’t play at all the next week, and Alabama had to hustle to win at South Florida, 17-3. Milroe rejoined the lineup the next week in a 24-10 win over Ole Miss and has probably become the most improved QB in America. Against LSU (6-3), he ran 20 times for 155 yards and four touchdowns as the Tide went to 7-1.
— In what Nick Saban called their most complete game of the year, Alabama’s players cashed 11 of 14 third downs and ran for 288 yards. They had no turnovers and became the first team in LSU’s last nine games to hold the Tigers under 500 yards. They punted on their first possession and did not punt again.
— A hard hit to the chin by Dallas Carter knocked out LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels after he had matched Milroe score for score throughout most of three quarters. Daniels scampered for 163 yards in 11 carries and hit 15 of 24 passes for two touchdowns, including 10 completions to Malik Nabers, the nation’s top receiver. But Terrion Arnold’s interception set up Jase McClellan’s score that put Alabama ahead, 42-28. With Kentucky and Auburn remaining, the Tide moved closer to winning the SEC West.
Mississippi 38, Texas A&M 35
— Jaxson Dart had settled in as Ole Miss’ quarterback after he had transferred from USC. But Saturday gave him the chance to lead a fourth-quarter comeback in a vital SEC game. He did it on a 75-yard drive that ended with Quinshon Judkins’ touchdown, the third of the day for Judkins. Then the Rebels had to withstand the Aggies, who had a chance to tie with a 47-yard field goal by Randy Bond. It was blocked by 6-foot-7 Zxavian Harris.
— Tre Harris caught 11 of Dart’s passes for 213 yards, and Dart hit 24 of 33 passes for 387 yards. The Rebels are 8-1 with Georgia next up. Their only loss was to Alabama, which will probably cost them the tiebreaker edge in the AFC West, but what if they wind up with wins over Georgia, LSU and Tulane?
— Texas A&M fell to 5-4 and has now lost nine consecutive road games. Shemar Turner, perhaps its best defensive player, was ejected for dealing a low blow to offensive lineman Micah Pettus. Kiffin had needled A&M coach Jimbo Fisher during the week, referring to his “NFL roster” and saying the Rebels needed to watch out because Fisher had said the Aggies’ goal was to win the game to become “bowl eligible.” After the game, Dart said, “Money don’t buy victories.”
Washington 52, USC 42
— Dillon Johnson churned for 256 rushing yards and four touchdowns as the Huskies (9-0) continued the sorting-out process in the Pac-12. They lead Oregon by a game, and everyone else has at least two losses, but Washington still has Utah and Oregon State on the schedule. Oregon has to play USC and Oregon State, both at home.
— Johnson is a transfer from Mississippi State who had a career high 100 yards in the win over Oregon. He had a fifth touchdown, from 14 yards, called back. In the fourth quarter, USC was down 45-42 when a holding penalty by Duce Robinson nullified a touchdown. A sack by Washington’s Voi Tunuufi drove USC out of field goal range, and the Huskies assumed control on their own nine-yard-line. Their first play was a 53-yard burst by Johnson, who scored a 1-yard touchdown with 2:20 left for a 10-point lead.
— The Trojans fell to 7-3. In their past seven games they have given up 44.5 points per, and for the seventh time this season they have allowed the opposing team to rush for 193 or more yards.
UNLV 56, New Mexico 14
— There was no reason to think UNLV would join Vegas’ list of winners. The Rebels came into 2023 with two winning seasons in this century. Barry Odom, formerly the head coach at Missouri, became their sixth head coach in the 2000s this season. Suddenly they are 7-2 and one game out of the lead in the Mountain West. Their only losses are to Michigan (35-7) and Fresno State (31-24), both on the road, and they’ve exceeded 40 points six times.
— Jordan Maiava, a redshirt freshman who is from Las Vegas, has taken over at quarterback and tossed three touchdowns on Saturday. Ricky White caught eight of his passes for 165 yards and two scores. White is a Michigan State transfer who, in 2020, caught eight vs Michigan for 196 yards. He was quieter this year at Ann Arbor, with two catches for 31 yards, but he illustrates how the transfer portal can shuffle underused players from the power conferences to the level below.
— The Rebels play in Allegiant Stadium now, home of the Raiders, which gives the program a different aura. Odom was the defensive coordinator at Arkansas after his time at Missouri. He’s the first UNLV coach who had been a head coach of an FBS program since John Robinson, who was at UNLV from 1999 through 2004. When hired, he said rebuilding was not necessary in conflict with winning. Maybe winning is so contagious it carries over, from the NHL Golden Knights and the WNBA Aces.
Army 23, Air Force 3
— The Falcons are still unbeaten against the civilian population, but Army knows their methods too well. The Cadets ganged up on the option game in Denver and raised their record to 3-6.
— Bryson Daily had touchdown runs of 62 and five yards in a first quarter that Army dominated, 17-0. With the big deficit, Air Force had to throw the ball 24 times, and wound up with two interceptions to go with four lost fumbles. The Falcons had attempted 40 passes all season. It was the first time Air Force had gone without a touchdown in exactly six years. That was in another game against Army, a 21-0 loss.
— The Falcons rushed for 155 yards, about half of their average per game. Daily carried the ball 36 times for Army, which has thrown 142 times this season. The loss damages Air Force’s hopes of playing in a New Year’s Six bowl game, as a representative of the Group of Five conferences. Tulane slipped by East Carolina, 13-10, and will remain the top-ranked team among those leagues.