In football in the state of Oklahoma, growth has come with knowledge.
Only a few weeks ago it was wondered whether the Oklahoma Sooners would be the worst team of the coach Bob Stoops era. At the same time, most had written off Oklahoma State as clearly the Big 12’s worst football team.
Not anymore.
Oklahoma State has played competitive, inspired football of late, and Oklahoma has quietly risen to second in the Big 12 South Division and compiled a 6-3 record overall, 5-1 in the Big 12. The combined record of the teams Oklahoma has lost to – TCU, UCLA and Texas – is 29-2.
Stoops deadpanned his team’s play on a media teleconference Monday.
“We’ve made some improvement as we’ve gone,” he said.
The Sooners have gotten better as quarterback Rhett Bomar has gotten more comfortable as a starter. Since completing 7-of-18 passes in his first two games, he has completed 50 percent or better in six of his past seven, including 20-of-28 for 298 yards and one touchdown in Oklahoma’s win over Texas A&M on Saturday.
Meanwhile, the Cowboys, who play eight true freshmen and four others who are redshirt freshmen or sophomores getting their first taste of playing time, are improving with experience. Oklahoma State upset Texas Tech last weekend and put a scare into Texas, jumping out to a 28-12 lead in the first half before Texas took control in the second, winning 47-28.
“We’ve come a long way in the last five or six football games,” Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy said. “They just don’t know anything when they are young. Our players have continued to practice hard. So they’ve learned and they’ve developed.”
How the North can be won
With one game remaining for each, Iowa State, Colorado and Missouri have a shot at winning the Big 12 North. Here’s what needs to happen for each school to claim the division crown:
Colorado (5-2) – The Buffs just need to win. If CU defeats Nebraska on Nov. 25, it’s in. The Buffs make it with a loss to Nebraska if Iowa State loses to Kansas on Nov. 26. CU would win a head-to-head tiebreaker with Missouri.
Iowa State (4-3) – The Cyclones need to beat Kansas and need Missouri to lose to Kansas State this week and CU to lose to Nebraska.
Missouri (4-3) – The Tigers need to beat Kansas State and have CU lose and Iowa State win. That would result in a three-way tie at 5-3, and Missouri would win the tiebreaker by virtue of its victory over Nebraska.
Bowl situation
With two weeks left in the regular season, only two Big 12 teams are out of bowl contention – Baylor and Kansas State. One more loss eliminates Kansas, Oklahoma State and Texas A&M. The other seven teams have qualified.
So where would they go? It’s a complicated answer at the top, and fairly easy at the bottom.
Texas is going to the BCS. Either as the Big 12 champion or as an at-large team if it gets upset in the Big 12 title game. The winner of Saturday’s Oklahoma-Texas Tech game likely is headed to the Cotton Bowl, which has the first choice of Big 12 teams not in the BCS. If it is Texas Tech, then Oklahoma and Colorado, provided both win their final regular-season game, will vie for a spot in the Holiday Bowl. The other probably goes to the Alamo Bowl in San Antonio. Tech went to the Holiday Bowl a year ago, and typically bowls prefer not to bring the same team back the next year.
Iowa State is on a crash course for the Houston Bowl, Missouri for the Independence Bowl and Nebraska for the Fort Worth Bowl.
There is a chance the conference won’t be able to fill its seven bowls, meaning for the second straight season the Champ Sports Bowl may have to make arrangements with another conference.
Chris Dempsey can be reached at 303-820-5455 or cdempsey@denverpost.com.
