#9 Oklahoma State

Stillwater, OK

Boone Pickens Stadium December 7, 2013 Oklahoma 33 – Oklahoma St 24 (ESPN Recap)

Bedlam!

A very cold get together with the core of the business school group from last year’s ND/Pitt trip, where we made the decision to do a game at a different stadium every season. Stephen is an Ok St grad and convinced Evan and I into thinking Stillwater in December is a good idea. He even convinced Erik to join. He sold it to us with “it might be 60 degrees or 0 degrees or anywhere in between…but it’s gonna be great!” Well, it ended up being much closer to 0 with the noon game time temp settling in at a solid 6 degrees.

Saw former UMass hoops coach Travis Ford on the walk to the stadium and dropped an "Amherst/Northampton" sound bite that got his attention. There were blocks of ice on all the cement aisle to go along with the metal bleachers. In addition to the 6 degrees, we were sitting on frozen metal and standing on ice. Gusts of wind would blow bursts of snow into your face. It was not only the coldest I have ever been at a college football game, but it was the coldest I have ever been in my life. I spent the entire halftime in a warm corner of the men’s room just sitting there trying to warm up. I did successfully answer a phone call from my boss during the game who in a startled voice asked “where are you right now?” after heard PA announcer and random music during Q3.

The game was excellent despite the Pokes not being able to pull off the rivalry win. I truly believe they were robbed.

Example A: Very first play of the game, Des Roland took it 75 yards for a touchdown…but it was called back for a very questionable and late holding penalty. Example B: With 1:30 left in the game and Oklahoma St winning 24-20, Blake Bell and the Sooners got the ball back on their own 34. On that drive, with under a minute left, it appeared that Ok St intercepted a pass down the left sideline. However, the review deemed it incomplete. OU went on to throw a game-winning touchdown pass to Jalen Saunders with 7 seconds remaining in the game for the win.

OU then scored on a recovered fumble during a lateral play on the last play of the game which was Bedlam!

Eskimo Joe’s after the game was a sea of sad orange and Chad Clay bought everyone a shot in the bar that was wearing orange…which was 95% of the people there. We took some syringe shots in a bar with Pandora with advertisements playing. Lots of cowboy boots in Stillwater. Line dancing at Outlaws. It was a fun and very cold weekend.