Oklahoma State football: Repeat of 2008 Missouri?

OSU, ranked but not high, goes into Big 12 North territory to face the No. 2 team in the land, seeking to turn the conference football race on its ear.

Saturday at Kansas State? Yes.

But also Oct. 11, 2008, at Missouri.

Reader Randy Lara emailed me, pointing out the similarities between the the Cowboys’ 28-23 upset at Mizzou and the opportunity that awaits Saturday at K-State.

“I’ve been an OSU fan for a number of years,” Lara wrote. “I’ve enjoyed the golden age with Gundy at the helm and seen some really good articles coming in.  Had a thought that came through my head as I am sitting here stressing out over the upcoming game with K-State. K-State is stout and by all means on paper it seems that we are in for a long night. However, one particular game came to mind from a few years back: Missouri 2008.

“Big time QB in Chase Daniel and at one point was a Heisman Candidate. No one gave us a shot to go up there and win with the defense we had and lack of star power on offense. At least that was the perception before the game.  More pressure on K-State here than on us. Do you think this is similar to what we are seeing today? For some reason I think this is very much the same.  Anyway I thought that would be a neat idea to write about.”

I like the similarities. I like them a lot. Lara is right about the Heisman correlation. Collin Klein is indeed a Heisman front-runner. But Chase Daniel was heavily mentioned for the Heisman in October 2008. In fact, here’s The Associated Press lead paragraph from that game:

“COLUMBIA, Mo. — Chase Daniel’s Heisman Trophy stock just plummeted. Missouri’s national championship hopes took a tumble, too. And how about them Oklahoma State Cowboys?”

So Daniel’s status was very high.

And OSU’s ranking that night in Columbia was No. 17. The Cowboys are 24th going into Saturday night at K-State.

Now, there are some differences. We are three weeks later in the season, so we know more about these Cowboys and these Wildcats than we did those Cowboys and those Tigers.

This K-State team is much more accomplished than was that Missouri team. That Mizzou team was ranked second for reasons that don’t make a ton of sense. The Tigers had beaten Illinois 52-42 in St. Louis and routed Nebraska 52-17 in Lincoln, in Bo Pelini’s first season. That Mizzou team went on to lose 56-31 at Texas, 40-37 to Kansas in Kansas City and 62-21 to OU in the Big 12 title game in Kansas City. Those Tigers beat Northwestern 30-23 in the Alamo Bowl.

This K-State team has beaten the Sooners 24-19 in Norman; West Virginia 55-14 in Morgantown, when the Mountaineers were ranked 13th; and Texas Tech 55-24 in Manhattan, when the Red Raiders were ranked 14th.

And this OSU team has more sores than that OSU team. In 2008, the Cowboys entered 5-0, with five blowout wins — 39-13 over Washington State in Seattle, plus home wins over Houston 56-37, Missouri State 57-13, Troy 55-24 and Texas A&M 56-28.