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Expense Connelly, ESPN Personnel Author
College football provides us various kinds of competitions. There’s the match of bluebloods, the video games that have actually quite dependably played functions in title races through the years– video games like Michigan-Ohio State, Oklahoma-Texas or, back then, Oklahoma-Nebraska or Florida State-Miami. There are the many middleweight competitions in between regional groups that hire versus each other, think of one another continuously, grow to dislike each other with an enthusiasm and utilize a win over stated competitor as the No. 1 factor of an effective season. Think About Minnesota-Wisconsin (connected at 62-62-8 perpetuity) or, in another life time, Missouri-Kansas (57-54-9 Mizzou).
Then there are the uneven and irregular competitions, the ones including a huge canine and an actually irritated next-door neighbor. There are numerous blowouts in this kind of series, and the huge canine most likely holds a big lead in the all-time series. However when these video games do pop, they pop louder than any others.
These are the video games we might be losing in next year’s round of conference adjustment. Oregon has actually gone 35-12-1 over its previous 48 video games versus Oregon State, for example, however the Ducks’ losses in 2020 and 2022 (and their win in 2013) were amongst the very best video games of the previous years. And in the Apple Cup, Washington leads competitor Washington State by a 75-33-6 margin, however every Wazzu win, from 2021’s 40-13 blowout to 2008’s timeless 16-13 success that topped a 0-12 Washington season, has actually been exceptionally remarkable. With Oregon and Washington leaving for the Big 10 next year and leaving their in-state competitors behind, it’s uncertain when or how regularly these unbelievable competition video games will be played once again.
Chaos, the yearly fight in between Oklahoma and Oklahoma State, is the supreme example in this classification. OU leads the all-time series 91-19-7 and has actually won by 2 or more goals 10 times in the previous twenty years alone. However the other 10 video games because period were regularly impressive, from overtime fights in 2012 and 2014 to track consults with ratings like 61-41 in 2008, 47-41 in 2010 and 62-52 in 2017. Twist endings have actually been reasonably regular given that OSU got up and running under Mike Gundy in 2008.
On Saturday, these historical competitors will play each other for the last time for the foreseeable future. OU is leaving for the SEC, and Gundy and OSU do not have any instant interest in continuing the series They will undoubtedly play once again one day as soon as openings appear on future schedules and irritated sensations diminish. However for now let’s take a huge gulp of a Braum’s limeade, order some Eskimo Joe’s cheese french fries and celebrate yet another vanishing competition. Let’s take a look at 10 video games that have actually specified Chaos.
1904: Oklahoma 75, Oklahoma A&M 0
This was the very first conference in between what would end up being OU and OSU, which was called the Oklahoma A&M Aggies up until 1957. It may have been the best tone-setter possible for any competition. For something, OU won conveniently. For another, it produced among the most disorderly video games in the sport’s history.
In the middle of cold and breezy conditions, an Oklahoma A&M punter, standing near his objective line, punted a ball that got captured in the wind and blown in reverse and far from the field. As recorded by Charles F. Long in Sooner Publication, “This was undoubtedly a loose ball, and in those days it suggested something. The guidelines defined that if the kicking group recuperated it, then it was a touchback. If the other group got to it initially, a goal would be scored for it. Both gamers and crowd went wild. Both scuttled off the field, following the ball. When the ball landed it didn’t stop. Down a slope it went and right into the waters of Cottonwood Creek.” Gamers from both groups charged after the ball. “Pleased viewers based on coast cheering and chuckling,” the story continued. “The aquacade increased in size. 3 other gamers encountered the water, and, lastly, Ed Cook caught the ball, set out for the bank and shiveringly touched it down there for a goal.'”
We require to revive creeks and out-of-the-stadium ball chases after.
1958: No. 3 Oklahoma 7, Oklahoma State 0
OU controlled the early video games in the competition, however the Aggies struck back, winning 5 video games with 3 ties from 1924 to 1933. The Aggies won by a combined 75-6 in 1944 and 1945, too, declaring a share of the nationwide title in the latter season. However in 1946, the competition’s momentum altered back to the Sooners for excellent. OU worked with Hall of Famer Jim Tatum for one year, and when Tatum left for Maryland, the Sooners changed him with a young coach called Bud Wilkinson.
OU won 19 straight in the competition. From 1946 to 1957, the typical rating was Sooners 42, Aggies 7. However in 1958, with Wilkinson’s run of nationwide supremacy nearing its end, OSU almost pulled a stunner. In front of 40,000 in what the Daily Oklahoman’s Volney Meece called a “bruising, goo-covered 7-0 choice” in muddy Stillwater, Bobby Boyd raced 31 backyards for the video game’s only rating with about 5 minutes left. It was a missed out on chance for the Cowboys, who would beat Florida State in the Bluegrass Bowl a number of weeks later on to complete 8-3. They would need to wait another 7 years to lastly remove the Sooners once again– they won back-to-back one-point video games in 1965 (17-16) and 1966 (15-14).
1976: Oklahoma State 31, No. 5 Oklahoma 24
OU was susceptible over the back half of the 1960s, and the Cowboys almost scored another win in 1969, falling 28-27. Once the Sooners had actually copied (and mastered) Texas’ wishbone offense in the early-1970s, Chaos grew far less insane. In between 1970 and 1981, OU won 11 of 12 conferences by a minimum of 20 points, 4 by a minimum of 44.
When the Cowboys got a shot at an upset in Norman in 1976, nevertheless, they took complete benefit. Terry Miller hurried for a career-high 159 backyards, the OSU defense held OU to simply 68 overall backyards in the 2nd half, and down 24-13 with 7 minutes left, the Pokes scored two times to surprise the unbeaten Sooners. They were so shocked, in reality, that they lost to Colorado the next week also, before rallying to complete 9-2-1. In 1977, nevertheless, order was brought back with a 61-28 OU win.
1983: No. 15 Oklahoma 21, Oklahoma State 20
OU’s constant post-war radiance has actually undoubtedly played a big function in Chaos’s one-sidedness, however OSU’s own disparity has actually been an aspect, too. In between 1945 and 1983, the Cowboys ended up ranked simply two times– in 1958 and 1976– and were hardly ever up for an obstacle this stiff. That started to alter when very first Jimmy Johnson and after that Pat Jones took control of in Stillwater. After going simply 21-21-3 over his very first 4 seasons, Johnson rode a transcendent defense to a strong, 8-4 advancement in 1983.
After a 4-0 start, the Pokes almost beat an otherwise untouchable Nebraska group, falling 14-10, then took a 20-3 lead into the last 10 minutes versus OU. However Derrick Shepard scored on a 73-yard goal pass from Danny Bradley, Spencer Tillman scored to get the Sooners to within 20-18, and after OU recuperated an onside kick, Tim Lasher banged in the winner from 46 backyards. “Losing to OU is a little more difficult to take than Nebraska,” OSU linebacker David Webb informed the media after the video game, “specifically the method we lost. It harms so bad when you consume, sleep and consume football and have a loss like this.”
It would get back at more agonizing a couple of years later on.
1988: No. 8 Oklahoma 31, No. 12 Oklahoma State 28
In 1987-88, OSU boasted offending stars Barry Sanders, Thurman Thomas, Mike Gundy and Hart Lee Dykes and went 20-4 total– 0-4 versus OU and Nebraska and 20-0 versus everybody else. The Cowboys’ very first 3 losses because lot were by approximately 25 points, however the 4th was among the most agonizing in school history.
In front of a nationwide ESPN audience, the Cowboys brought whatever they had. Sanders hurried 39 times for 215 backyards, continuing what would end up being the finest specific season in the sport’s history, and Gundy tossed for 228 backyards, 123 to Dykes. OU rode a set of early Mike Gaddis goals to a 14-0 lead– the freshman would match Sanders with 213 backyards in simply 18 brings– however a set of Sanders ratings offered OSU a late 28-24 lead. Sooner quarterback Charles Thompson made it 31-28 with 2:33 left, however OSU still had time to take the video game. They were dealing with a fourth-and-1 at the OU 19 before fullback Garrett Limbrick was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct, however it didn’t matter. On what was now fourth-and-16, Gundy rolled right and discovered a broad open Brent Parker in the back of completion zone. Parker dropped it. The Cowboys needed to wait another 7 years to lastly snare another win over the Sooners.
2000: No. 1 Oklahoma 12, Oklahoma State 7
2001: Oklahoma State 16, No. 4 Oklahoma 13
At the millenium came possibly the 2 least most likely classics in series history. In 2000-01, Bob Stoops’ Sooners went a combined 24-2, winning their very first nationwide title in 15 years in 2000 and scoring another top-six surface the next year. OSU, on the other hand, went 3-8 in 2000 and fired Bob Simmons, changing him with previous OSU assistant and Dallas Cowboys tight ends coach Les Miles. They went simply 4-7 in his very first season in charge.
And yet, OU was fortunate not to go 0-2 versus the Pokes.
As almost four-touchdown favorites in 2000, the Sooners drove 99 backyards for a goal on their very first belongings however got simply 210 backyards afterwards. Tatum Bell’s 60-yard goal run in the 3rd quarter cut OU’s result in 5 points, and the Cowboys made a late drive to take what would have been the most significant upset in the series. On fourth-and-goal, nevertheless, Derrick Strait separated Aso Pogi’s lob to huge tight end Marcellus Rivers, and OU made a narrow win. A week later on, the Sooners would return on track with a Huge 12 National championship win over Kansas State.
3 hundred sixty-four days later on, the style was the very same, however the ending altered. OSU held another respected Sooner attack to 220 overall backyards, and another freshman quarterback– this time future baseball first-rounder Josh Fields– led the Cowboys on a possible game-winning drive. However the last pass didn’t strike the ground this time. After T.D. Bryant outwrestled all-world security Roy Williams for the ball on a 31-yard gain, Rashaun Woods outdueled Strait for the game-winner with 1:36 left. The win knocked OU out of the nationwide title race a year after the Cowboys had actually almost done the very same.
2014: Oklahoma State 38, No. 18 Oklahoma 35
After OSU’s huge upset, Oklahoma brought back order once again, winning 8 Chaos in a row. Some were close (38-35 in 2004, 27-21 in 2006), others not a lot (52-9 in 2003, 27-0 in 2009).
The 2010s were a various story. An almost nationwide title-worthy OSU unloaded years of disappointment in a 44-10 walloping in 2011, and OU made it through an overtime fight in Norman 51-48 in 2012. In 2014, the Sooners were finishing up a frustrating project– after beginning the year 4th in the preseason surveys, they lost 3 of 5 midseason and were ranked just 18th when a 5-6 OSU went to. OU eased to a 14-point lead, however a 43-yard Brandon Shepard goal cut the Sooners’ result in 7 with under 5 minutes left, and OU was required to punt. OSU encountered the kicker on a brief punt, and Stoops chose to punt once again to provide the Cowboys even worse field position.
Whoops.
Tyreek Hill fielded the ball at his 8-yard line with 56 seconds left and raced 92 backyards for the game-tying goal. The shocked Sooners missed out on a basket effort in overtime, and Ben Grogan’s 21-yard basket offered the Cowboys a surreal 38-35 win.
2017: No. 8 Oklahoma 62, No. 11 Oklahoma State 52
In retrospection, the start of the Lincoln Riley age at OU was the peak. In 2017, Riley’s very first season as head coach, Baker Mayfield tossed for 4,627 backyards and 43 goals, and the Sooners came achingly near to the nationwide title video game, falling in a heartbreaker to Georgia in the Rose Bowl. However before they might play in possibly the best video game of the 2010s, they needed to make it through among the most ridiculous track satisfies in Chaos history.
The Sooners and Cowboys integrated for 52 points in the 2nd quarter alone, and in a four-minute period in the 2nd half, we saw a 43-yard Rodney Anderson goal for OU, a 33-yard goal reaction from Mason Rudolph to Tyron Johnson and a 77-yard bomb from Mayfield to Marquise “Hollywood” Brown OU led by double digits on 6 various events, and in the end OSU was just able to cut the deficit 5 times. Trey Preaching‘s 53-yard rating with 42 seconds left clinched the win. Integrated overall backyards: 1,446. The extremely next year, the groups would play in another timeless, a 95-point, 1,342-yard impressive that needed OU to stop a 2-point conversion with a minute delegated win.
2021: No. 7 Oklahoma State 37, No. 10 Oklahoma 33
It’s tough not to desire another Chaos impressive before the series goes inactive. However if we need to opt for 2021 being the last timeless for a while, there’s alleviation in the reality that it was an all-italics timeless
Ranked 4th up until a loss at Baylor on Nov. 13, Oklahoma was attempting to work its method back into the Huge 12 and nationwide title images when the groups satisfied on Nov. 27. OSU was, too. The 10-1 Cowboys depended on seventh after winning their 4 previous video games by approximately 41-6. It would be similar to OU to trash the Pokes’ strategies, and when the Sooners took a 33-24 lead in the 3rd quarter after scoring by means of security and muffed punt return in a 2 minute-span, it appeared like that’s how things were going to play out. However OSU scored on a 37-yard goal run by Spencer Sanders, then took a 37-33 lead after OU muffed a punt of its own.
OU wasn’t going to make this one simple. Caleb Williams drove the Sooners to the OSU 39 however was stopped short on a fourth-down run with 1:16 left. After a fast OSU three-and-out, OU got one last opportunity. With 8 seconds left, Collin Oliver sacked Williams on another 4th to clinch a tiring OSU success and send out the Cowboys to the Huge 12 Champion.