Oklahoma State football notebook: Senior night not so bright for Cowboys
The Cowboys saluted 18 seniors before Saturday night’s game.
As always, it was a well-received ceremony.
The game, however, left the night lacking, with Texas taking control early and winning comfortably 28-7.
For senior defensive tackle James Castleman, the whole evening came with a foreign feeling.
“It was different,” Castleman said of the pregame recognition. “It was something I wasn’t really expecting. All the fans out there, all my family out there, I just realized this was the last time I was going to step on the field with my brothers.
“You can’t prepare for it, it’s something you’ve just got to go with.”
Junior cornerback Kevin Peterson wished a win went with it.
“We wanted to win for the seniors,” Peterson said. “It’s their last game, and I want people to do the same for me in my last home game. It hurts that we have to send them off with a loss at Boone Pickens Stadium.”
Adding to the disappointment was an emptying stadium, with fans filing out early in the second half.
“Put yourself in their shoes,” Peterson said. “What if that was my last game and you look up there and everybody’s leaving in the stands? And the clock hits zero and you know you’re not going to be able to play here anymore.
“I took it to heart and went up to each one of them and told them I loved them and I wished I could play another year with them.”
TEXAS TAKES BOWL BATTLE
With both teams sitting on five wins, Saturday’s game was billed as a battle for bowl eligibility – likely the Liberty Bowl in Memphis.
Texas took the coveted sixth win, while the Cowboys are left to find one on the road, either at Baylor or Oklahoma, as a decided underdog.
“In the locker room, they’re just so happy,” said Longhorns coach Charlie Strong. “I said the seniors, ‘I’m just so happy for them to get to a bowl game, because a few weeks ago nobody thought we would be here; everybody just wrote us off.’
“And I tell them all the time, don’t let outside forces control this football team.”
OGBAH MOVES UP
A bright spot for OSU in the first half? Defensive end Emmanuel Ogbah reached a sack milestone. His first-quarter takedown of Swoopes gave him 10 sacks on the year. That’s the first double-digit total of the Mike Gundy era.
It moved Ogbah into sixth place on the all-time single-season list:
1. Leslie O'Neal (1984): 16.0
2. Gary Lewis (1981): 14.0
3. Greg Richmond (2003): 12.5
.. Jason Gildon (1991): 12.5
5. Leslie O'Neal (1983): 12.0
6. Emmanuel Ogbah (2014): 10.0
EXTRA POINTS
* Former Cowboys assistant and current Texas offensive line coach Joe Wickline did not speak to the media following Saturday night’s game. He doesn’t do media interviews during the week, either.
* Saturday’s loss snapped OSU’s 26-game winning streak against unranked opponents in Boone Pickens Stadium, a streak that began in 2009.
* OSU captains were Ogbah, Ofa Hautau, David Glidden and Teddy Johnson.
* The Cowboys sacked Texas quarterback Tyrone Swoopes three times. OSU now has at least two sacks in 10 of their 11 games. They also racked up 11 tackles for loss, resulting in a season-best 62 lost yards.
* Senior safety Larry Stephens returned to action for the first time since Sept. 25, but cornerback Ashton Lampkin remained out.













































John Helsley grew up in Del City, reading all the newspapers and sports magazines he could get his hands on. And Saturday afternoons, when the Major League Game of the Week was on, he'd keep a scorecard for the game. So the sports appeal was was... Read more ›