Big 12 victories have been scarce this season for Oklahoma State and Baylor.
The Cowboys (3-4, 0-4 Big 12) are the only winless team in league play heading to Waco, Texas, on Saturday afternoon to face the Bears (3-4, 1-4). Baylor finally picked up a conference victory last week with a 59-35 win at Texas Tech.
Baylor quarterback Sawyer Robertson threw a career-high five touchdown passes in the victory to help the Bears snap an eight-game conference losing streak.
Baylor matched its win total from last year’s 3-9 campaign. Head coach Dave Aranda shifts his attention to building some momentum as the Bears prepare to play the first of back-to-back home games.
“The belief and the confidence is contagious,” Aranda said. “When [the team] accomplishes something — there’s a belief of ‘I’m that guy. I can do this.’ I think the team feels that, particularly offensively.”
The teams last met two years ago in Waco with Oklahoma State winning 36-25. The Cowboys hold a 23-19 lead in the series and have won three of the past four meetings, with the exception being the 2021 Big 12 Conference championship game won by the Bears.
Oklahoma State is refocusing following a heartbreaking loss against conference leader BYU.
The Cowboys gave up a game-winning touchdown pass with 10 seconds left that extended their conference losing streak to five games dating to last year’s Big 12 championship game.
But OSU also came out of the defeat with even more questions at quarterback. Garret Rangel started his first game of the season but broke his collarbone and is done for the season after surgery. He joins redshirt freshman Zane Flores (leg) on the sideline for the remainder of 2024.
That puts the Cowboys’ offense back into triage. Rangel was in the lineup to replace inconsistent starter Alan Bowman. It’ll be Bowman back under center at Baylor. He played the final 42 plays for the Cowboys at BYU and completed 11 of 19 passes for 85 yards with a touchdown and an interception.
“In college football nowadays, guys will say ‘I’m not going in. Y’all didn’t like me. I ain’t playing.’ They can do anything they want nowadays. But he was awesome,” Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy said Monday. “He jumped back in, he buckled up, got loose, went in, started playing. And I thought he was competitive when he played.”
The Cowboys must win three of their final five games to extend their streak of 18 consecutive seasons of playing in a bowl game.
“We would love to play to the best of our ability this week and find a way to get one more notch closer, but we also have to try to continue, I’m going to use the word again, to grow as a program to where we are each week,” Gundy said.
Despite averaging over 30 points per game, the Cowboys are coming up short consistently. Oklahoma State’s defense has been a big issue. The Cowboys are giving up 237.9 rushing yards per game — which ranks 129th out of 133 FBS teams — and have allowed 15 scores on the ground.
Last week, the Cowboys lost despite amassing 421 yards on offense and averaging 6.4 yards per play. Oklahoma State also ran for 269 yards and two touchdowns.
