Stagnate in Stillwater
By: Dee Wright
The eyes of college football fans across the nation were on Stillwater Oklahoma on the twenty-first day of September. NCAA fans were expecting to see the projected best two teams in the newly expanded BIG12. The first BIG12 conference game of the season for Oklahoma State was played on a hot Saturday afternoon. The 14th ranked Cowboys took on the 12th ranked Utah Utes. This was supposed to be a battle of two of the oldest quarterbacks in the NCAA. That was not what the fifty-two thousand fans at Boone Pickens Stadium got. Utah’s’ quarterback Cam Rising in his seventh year did not play for the second week in a row with an injured hand. On the other side of the field Alan Bowman the quarterback for the Cowboys, whom is also in his seventh year of college, did not show up until the fourth quarter after he had been benched during halftime.
There was limited offensive production from the Cowboys. Head coach Mike Gundy after the game said, “Offensively we were awful” Whenever the Cowboys had possession of the ball, it was difficult to sustain a long drive. Which was evident by the time of possession. Utah had control of the ball for over forty-two minutes which means OSU had the ball less than eighteen minutes. Oklahoma State did not attempt to convert a fourth down at any point in the game. When Alan Bowman threw the ball before halftime, he only completed eight passes on twenty-two attempts for eighty -nine yards. Running the ball for OSU was inept, by the mid-way break the Cowboys had only rushed for thirty yards total. When coach Gundy was asked about the success of Utah’s defense he said, “I didn’t think that our plan for attacking their style of play was good.” He later said “We could have been better. We could have attacked them better and could have gotten better play. But I’m going to give them credit because somehow that seems to happen a lot with them, and I’m going to say that its probably not by accident.”
In the fourth quarter the OSU’s offense woke from their three-quarter slumber. Alan Bowman was benched at halftime. Sophomore Garrett Rangel came into the starting lineup in the third quarter. With a new quarterback at the controls first down were expected but the offense had the same lack luster results. Rangel only completed three passes of the eleven he attempted. When asked about sitting Bowman, HC Mike Gundy said “sometimes, you’ve got to get a guy out of there and calm him down a little bit” “I just felt like we weren’t getting good play, and we needed a relief pitcher and get somebody else in there.” In the fourth quarter the old, more experienced, quarterback came back in refreshed which resulted in sixteen points.
Defensively Oklahoma State for most of the contest kept the game close. For the first three quarters OSU had only given up thirteen points, despite being on the field for extended periods of time. The Cowboys gave up nine points at the beginning of the last quarter, apparently slowed by exhaustion. When asked about OSU’s defense Coach Gundy said “Honestly, I thought they played really well. You can only be out there so much. It made it really difficult.” In the end Oklahoma State defense played well enough to win but gave up chunks of yardage at the most critical times. There were several turnovers in the game, but the Cowboys could not capitalize on Utah’s misfortune.
Oklahoma State made a late come back to make the final score close but not enough to win the game. OSU is now behind in the race for the post season playoffs. Good news for the Cowboys is that the college football season is long and there will be many more opportunities to win the BIG12 conference.
Dee Wright
