The Oklahoma State University Cowboys are, somehow, against all odds, in the Big 12 title game against Texas. Mike Gundy is the Big 12 Coach of the Year. I have no idea how either of those things happened. I do know that even with this weekend’s results, my pal Trent is the winner of the inaugural Whiskey Cup! That’s a 50-60-ish dollar bottle of whiskey, now owed by yours truly to the College Football Football Laureate of Leflore County.
Trent’s from a little town—much bigger town than my own home town an hour to the south—just north of the Winding Stair Mountains, called Poteau, Oklahoma. That’s pronounced Poe-doe, for all you non-locals.
Anyway, even though Trent has the whiskey in the bag, we agreed to pick the Big 12 title game, so here I am.
Trent last week: 6-1 (.857)
Nate last week: 4-3 (.571)
Trent overall: 74-31 (.704)
Nate overall: 71-34 (.676)
No. 18 Oklahoma State 37, No. 7 Texas 34. The spread favors the Horns by -15. Everyone nationally-speaking seems to agree that this is a bad matchup for OSU, considering UT is so tough against the run. What very few people seem to be considering is that this Texas team—this indestructable Texas-is-back-Texas-team—is that though these Briskets beat a faltering Alabama squad earlier this year, they also barely beat a very mediocre bunch of Horned Frogs by the score of 29-26, squeaked past K-State by 33-30, and were one extremely horrible call away from facing an upset at the hands of Houston, whom these Beefs beat by a single score. It’s definitely a bad matchup for the Pokes—any idiot can see that. But these Pokes are weird. I tend to think about it in terms of who I’d rather face if I was coaching Texas this week: honestly, I’d rather play OU or ISU or K-State. The Pokes are terrible when they’re terrible, but they also have some weird ineffable somethingness that to me, as an opposing person, would be quite scary. Texas owns the all-time record between these two 26-11-0, but has dropped nine of the past thirteen to the Pokes, a run of games that produced this wonderful
gif. To me, for OSU to get one last swipe at the Horns—especially as I don’t see this series getting picked back up any time soon—is pretty sweet. I bet—I hope—OSU makes the most of it.