Bill Haisten
Tulsa World Sports Columnist
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STILLWATER — Before Friday night, I had never been aware of actual “Fire Gundy!” chants during an Oklahoma State home football game.
Mike Gundy is only the most accomplished person in OSU football history, and the state of the Cowboy program now is so bleak that a “Fire Gundy!” call could be heard throughout Boone Pickens Stadium.
Friday’s Tulsa-OSU contest was played one year after the Cowboys were ranked 13th in the AP poll and rocked the Golden Hurricane 45-10.
Before this rematch, Tulsa was an 11½-point underdog.
Tulsa was the 19-12 winner, and it wasn’t an upset.
The Golden Hurricane had the better coaching, the better quarterback and the better team, and its defense got two immeasurably important fourth-down stops.
Tre Lamb may have his name legally changed to “TRE LAMB!” after presiding after a Golden Hurricane victory on Cowboy turf — something no other University of Tulsa head football coach had done since 1951.
With scoring drives of 15, 16, 10 and 10 plays, Lamb’s offense ball-controlled the Cowboy defense into a state of depression. Heroic TU kicker Seth Morgan converted on field goals of 27, 38, 47 and 47 yards, and former Cowboy Braylin Presley scored what must have been an extremely satisfying touchdown.
TU opened the scoring with Baylor Hayes’ 19-yard, first-quarter connection with Presley, the former Bixby superstar who barely got onto the field during his 2022 freshman season at Oklahoma State and didn’t do much in two previous Hurricane seasons with Kevin Wilson as his head coach.
Lamb has breathed life into Presley’s career and into the Tulsa program as a whole. Through three quarters, a wobbly Oklahoma State team — with yet another terrible offensive line — had no answers for the Hurricane pronounced advantage in energy and competitive fire.
Overall, Tulsa recorded its first win over Oklahoma State since 1998 (when that Hurricane squad prevailed 35-20 at H.A. Chapman Stadium).
In advance of next week’s Big 12 opener against Baylor at Boone Pickens Stadium, the Cowboys are 1-2. What a challenge for Gundy — restoring the hope of Cowboy players and fans who must be absolutely demoralized.
When you look at the conference schedule, there seems to be the OSU possibility — and perhaps the probability — of a second consecutive 0-9 finish in the Big 12.
One year after having been 13th in the country and considered a Big 12 contender, OSU has a train wreck of a football situation and “Fire Gundy!” messaging from the student section.
At the 14:14 mark of the fourth period, Oklahoma State got a touchdown on a 5-yard Zane Flores run. It was OSU’s first TD against an FBS defense since the fourth quarter of last year’s 56-48 loss to Texas Tech.
Remember when the Weeden-Blackmon and Rudolph-Washington OSU offenses would total more points than some of the Cowboy basketball teams? Before Flores scored, there had been a span of 168½ game minutes since OSU achieved a touchdown against a major-college defense.
The only Cowboy touchdowns since that Texas Tech loss had been scored against the FCS defense of Tennessee-Martin on Aug. 28.
Oklahoma State did have one final possession that began with 26 seconds left to play. The Cowboys drove to Tulsa’s 42-yard line, but Flores’ Hail Mary pass was knocked down with three seconds remaining. On the final play, OSU’s Gavin Freeman collected a lateral and raced to the Hurricane 9-yard line before getting shoved out of bounds.
Time expired. As Hurricane players celebrated, OSU players headed straight for the exit tunnel. They didn’t stick around for the band’s performance of the school song.
The Hurricane ended a 23-game streak of futility in games played on the OSU campus.
If any other team had beaten these struggling Oklahoma State Cowboys on Friday night, it would have been interesting but not historically relevant.
For a Tulsa football team to win in Payne County for the first time in 74 years — it’s a giant deal for the University of Tulsa, for the TU fans who made the trip over here, for Hurricane players like Braylin Presley and undersized QB Baylor Hayes, and certainly for Tulsa’s young and always fired-up new coach Tre Lamb.
This is TU’s biggest win in a long time.
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Bill Haisten
Tulsa World Sports Columnist
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