Published: November 26, 2005 04:22 am      

Bedlam

STILLWATER — To say the 2005 seasons have been a bit frustrating for the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State is a bit of an understatement.

The Sooners, who are 6-4 after last week’s loss to Texas Tech in Lubbock, had played in two-straight national championship games before things kicked off last August. Under head coach Bob Stoops, OU football is 73-16, with just seven of those losses since the start of the 2000 season.

In 2000, the Sooners ran the table and beat Florida State, 13-2, in the Orange Bowl to claim the program’s seventh national title.

“You go into the season wanting to win every game and that is the goal to start off with,” said OU senior Dusty Dvoracek. “It has been up and down. Everybody told us that we don’t have a chance making a bowl game and I think it showed a lot of the character and pride of this team. We came back from that 2-3 record and turned it around and now we have a chance of making a really good bowl game.”

After going 12-0 and qualifying for the BCS’s title game, the Sooners were embarrassed by Southern California, 55-19, to finish the 2004 campaign.

Things got off to a rocky start in ’05 when Texas Christian beat OU in Norman and UCLA handled the Sooners in Los Angeles — sandwiched in between was a closer than expected win over Tulsa.

And on Oct. 8, this time it was Texas celebrating, easily beating OU, 45-12.

“The bottom line is we still need to win and try to complete our season in a positive way,” said OU head coach Bob Stoops.

Finishing on a positive note is exactly what the Cowboys need after playing their way into the Big 12 South cellar. The numbers tell the story.

• OSU ranks 94th in the country in scoring offense (20.8 ppg) and 95th in scoring defense (30.2 ppg).

• The Cowboys are 100th in run defense (188.7 ypg) and 82nd in total defense (403.7 ypg).

• Only one Division I program ranks lower than OSU’s minus-14 turnover margin.

• OSU’s ranks 12th in the conference in average time of possession per game (28:17).

Cowboy fans — at least over the last three seasons — have come to expect a bit more.

Under head coach Les Miles, now the head man at LSU, O-State football participated in three-straight bowl games — the Houston Bowl (2002), the Cotton Bowl (’03) and the Alamo Bowl (’04).

A new coach, a new offensive scheme and a new defensive staff expected to keep the ball rolling. But things haven’t quite turned out the way everyone had hoped.

“It’s been a tough season,” said OSU senior linebacker Paul Duren, who joins teammates in Norman for Saturday’s 100th edition of Bedlam.

“But I know the seniors want to go out with a win over OU. It’s tough not going to a bowl game, so everybody is treating this like our bowl game.

“The program has come so far the last few years, and to go out on a winning note, to help build some momentum for the young guys would be nice.”

For the Cowboy seniors, Bedlam has provided some nice memories. Many of them were redshirting during the 2001 season, a season in which the Cowboys upset OU, 16-13, in Norman.

A year later, the Cowboys beat OU in Stillwater, 38-28. The 2003 meeting was a blowout (OU 52-9 in Norman), while Bedlam No. 99 was a down-to-the-wire affair at Boone Pickens Stadium that saw Jason Ricks’ 49-yard field goal attempt just miss sending the game into overtime.

“I remember some pretty good games,” said OSU’s first-year head coach Mike Gundy. “I remember (Brian) Bozworth, a bad penalty call and having to play them in Norman like three times during my career.”

As the Cowboys’ quarterback from 1986-89, Gundy was 0-4 against OU. The 1988 game — the only Bedlam game of his career played in Stillwater — saw the Midwest City product team with Barry Sanders (215 rushing yards and two TDs) and receiver Hart Lee Dykes to fall just short.

The Cowboys had a chance late, but a dropped pass in the end zone gave the eighth-ranked Sooners a 31-28 victory.



Roger Moore writes for the Stillwater (Okla.) NewsPress.