STILLWATER, Okla. (AP) — Oklahoma State has gone from not winning a single Big 12 game the previous two seasons to a meaningful November conference game at home against No. 10 Texas Tech, the alma mater of first-year Cowboys coach Eric Morris.
There are some Big 12 title game implications Saturday night.
The defending conference champion Red Raiders (8-1, 5-1 Big 12, No. 12 CFP) are alone in second place behind No. 2 Utah and control their own fate,
assured of making the league championship game again if they win their final three regular-season games. Oklahoma State (6-3, 4-2, No. 25 CFP) is part of a four-way tie for third place in the Big 12 standings and would match Texas Tech with a win.
“Whenever you get in this business the thing you want is the opportunity to play in big games,” Texas Tech coach Joey McGuire said. “One of our big goals was to play in games in November that were meaningful and set you up for success. We get to do that.”
That was a realistic expectation for the Red Raiders going into this season. That wasn't exactly the case for the Cowboys, who lost 49-21 to Texas in the 2023 Big 12 title game and didn't win another conference game until the league opener in late September.
“We’ve all been doubted, told we’re not good enough, not big enough, all that stuff,” Cowboys quarterback Drew Mestemaker said. “We aren’t supposed to be here technically. Like, why not just let it rip now?"
Thomas Castellanos, the former Boston College and Florida State quarterback who got a fifth season of eligibility through a temporary restraining order, has won both starts for Texas Tech since replacing Will Hammond.
Mestemaker, the Big 12 passing leader (329 yards passing per game, 29 touchdowns), came with Morris from North Texas. He was the FBS passing leader as a freshman last season, then was among 91 newcomers at Oklahoma State this year.
Castellanos last week became the first power conference QB since Miami’s D’Eriq King in 2020 with 350 yards and five TDs passing in the same game with 100 yards rushing.
“He makes you defend everything,” Morris said.
Oklahoma State has the league's top offense with 44 points and 534 total yards a game, and coming off a 66-28 win at Kansas State that followed a 51-49 loss at Iowa State.
Texas Tech won 53-48 at home over West Virginia in a game that finished after midnight in the same late-night TV slot as this week's game.
There have been a combined 70 points in 10 of the last 13 meetings between the Big 12 rivals.
One exception was Texas Tech's 42-0 win over a much different Cowboys team last year. That was one of two lopsided shutouts last season for the Red Raiders, who also won 49-0 over West Virginia.
As a Texas Tech receiver and offensive coordinator, Morris was 0-4 in games played at Boone Pickens Stadium. That included the 2007 game when he had a 12-yard TD catch in Tech's 49-45 loss at Oklahoma State, a night remembered by many for former Cowboys coach Mike Gundy's infamous “I’m a man, I’m 40” rant he made defending a player during his postgame availability.
During a home game in his senior season in 2008, Morris matched his career high with 10 catches for 97 yards and a touchdown in a 56-20 win over the Cowboys.
Oklahoma State has won its last three home games against top 10 teams. Only Georgia (12), Ohio State (4) and Texas (4) have longer active streaks. ... Mestemaker has thrown for at least 300 yards in eight consecutive games, a school record. That is also the longest active FBS streak, as are his 24 consecutive 200-yard games in a row. ... Oklahoma State's eight consecutive 30-point games is one short of matching the single-season school record set in 2011.
___
Sign up for Top 25 poll alerts here, visit the Top 25 here and see AP’s full college football coverage here
