Cowboys Hit Road For Battle With Missouri

Oct. 2, 2000

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OSU Returns to Missouri
Oklahoma State enters week two of its Big 12 Conference football schedule headed for a Saturday afternoon contest against Missouri in Columbia. The Cowboys will travel to Missouri looking to snap a two-game losing streak in 2000 and a two-game losing streak to the Tigers. Kickoff at Columbia is scheduled for 1 p.m. (CDT). Missouri will enter this week's action with a 1-3 overall record and an 0-1 Big 12 record.

Last Week
Oklahoma State opened its league schedule with a 42-7 loss at Texas. The Cowboys led 7-3 until the 4:23 mark of the second quarter when the 'Horns scored to take a 10-7 advantage. UT scored 16 points in the third quarter and 16 more in the fourth to ice the victory. Missouri opened Big 12 play last week in Lincoln against the top-ranked Cornhuskers. NU won by a 42-24 score, but the margin of victory is deceiving. MU was competitive throughout the contest.

Hello, Again
Missouri is the first of three-straight opponents OSU will face from the Big 12's North Division. Iowa State will come to Stillwater next week before the Cowboys travel to Colorado on Oct. 28. OSU and Missouri will meet for the first time since 1997 and for the first time in Columbia since 1996. The last Cowboy-Tiger matchup in Columbia was Oct. 26, 1996, and the Tigers won in overtime.

Cowboys on the Road
Oklahoma State will travel to Columbia via air charter early Friday afternoon and return to Stillwater immediately following Saturday's game. In Columbia, the Cowboys will headquarter at the Holiday Inn Select. OSU will hold a light and brief walk thru at Memorial Stadium Friday afternoon. OSU Head Coach Bob Simmons is available just prior to OSU's walk thru. OSU players are not available on Friday. Please contact the OSU Media Relations Office, in advance, if you want to arrange an interview with Coach Simmons on Friday.

The Memorable
Memorial Stadium has been the site of some memorable and forgettable moments over the past six seasons. The Cowboys' first trip to Columbia in the Simmons era produced a monumental win. OSU's 30-26 victory that day snapped a 20-game winless streak in Big Eight games. The Cowboy hero was tailback Andre Richardson, who rushed for 171 yards and scored a pair of TDs. Tight end Alonzo Mayes had five catches for 60 yards in the OSU victory.

The Forgettable
Oklahoma State's last game against Missouri produced one of the most thrilling finishes in Cowboy football history. Oklahoma State went into the 1997 Missouri game with a perfect 6-0 record and ranked 12th in the country. The Cowboys took an early 7-0 lead only to watch the Tigers put 30 unanswered points on the board and appear to be headed for an easy win. OSU overcame that deficit with 30 straight points of its own and a 37-30 lead with less than two minutes remaining in regulation. Missouri came back to tie the game and send it to overtime. In the second overtime period, OSU was stopped on a two-point conversion run and Missouri escaped Lewis Field with a 51-50 win. The 1997 game still represents the most points OSU has ever scored in a losing effort.

A Respite from the Ranked for Both
For the first time in two weeks, Oklahoma State will be facing a team that is not ranked in the major polls. Southern Miss and Texas, OSU's last two opponents, both wore national rankings. Texas is ranked 11th this week after defeating OSU on Saturday and Southern Miss is 17th. The same can be said for Missouri, who has faced three-straight opponents who are ranked, or very close to being ranked, in this week's polls. Clemson, Missouri's week-two opponent, is ranked fifth in this week's Associated Press Poll, while Nebraska is No. 2 and Michigan State just a few votes from joining the elite group.

On the Air
Saturday's game at Missouri will be broadcast live on the Cowboy Sports Network. KWTV Sports Director Bill Teegins is the radio voice of Oklahoma State football and basketball and is joined on the broadcast by Tom Dirato. The Cowboy Sports Network is produced and syndicated by Cowboy Sports Properties, a division of Learfield Communications. The OSU-Missouri radio broadcast will begin at noon with an extensive pregame show and end with a live postgame report from the OSU lockers. The broadcast can be heard in Oklahoma City on KOMA (FM 92.5), in Tulsa on KRMG (AM 740) and in Stillwater on KSPI (FM 93.7).

Watching Reggie Run
Oklahoma State tailback Reggie White turned in another solid performance Saturday. The Liberty, Texas, junior registered 104 yards on 15 carries against Texas. It was White's third 100-yard rushing performance of the season. After four games of the 2000 season, White has rushed for 486 yards on 86 carries. He has scored three touchdowns and is averaging 121.5 yards per game and an impressive 5.7 yards per carry. White is on a pace that would give him more than 1,300 yards rushing.

Reggie's Season Rushing Statistics

Opponent	Att-Yards	TD	Long
at Tulsa	25-187	1	35
Southwest Texas	23-130	1	22
Southern Miss	23-65	0	15
at Texas	15-104	1	69

Levels Steps Up
Junior linebacker Dwayne Levels had 10 tackles in OSU's loss at Texas on Saturday, but has asserted himself as one of the leaders of OSU's defensive effort in 2000. Through four games, Levels has 31 total tackles and is tied with Chris Massey for the team lead. He also has five tackles for minus-10 yards, one sack, one pass deflection, one quarterback hurry and one fumble recovery. His 31 total tackles leaves him 14 tackles from establishing a single-season best personal best. He had 44 stops a year ago.

Number Two in the League, 13th in the NCAA
Four games into the 2000 season, OSU's tailback is the number two leading rusher in the Big 12 Conference. Only Iowa State's Ennis Haywood (4th in the NCAA) has better numbers through four games. In addition, he is number four in the league in all-purpose running with an average of 122 yards per game.

OSU Defense Still Stingy vs. the Rush
Oklahoma State did allow a season-high 205 rushing yards at Texas on Saturday, but most of that came in the second half. OSU limited the Longhorns to 65 yards on the ground in the first period. OSU's rushing defense is still one of the best in the country. After four games, OSU is eighth nationally in rushing defense, allowing an average of 74 yards per game. The Cowboys went into last week's game at Texas the top-ranked team in the country against the rush.

More on the Defense
Two weeks ago, Oklahoma State's defense allowed Southern Miss minus-seven yards rushing, the lowest opponent rushing total of the season. It was the third-straight week Oklahoma State has held its opponent to fewer than 100-rushing yards and the 19th time in the last 36 games OSU's opponent has been held to less than 100 yards on the ground. The performance against USM ranked among the all-time best in OSU football history. Southern Miss' minus-seven yards equals the sixth-lowest ever allowed by a Cowboy defense. Iowa State had the same rushing total against Oklahoma State in 1981. Southern Miss becomes the 10th OSU opponent to be held to minus rushing yards. Three of Oklahoma State's top 10 all-time efforts against the rush have come during the Bob Simmons era of Cowboy football.

Juqua Keeping Pace
Senior defensive end Juqua Thomas has started the 2000 season just like he ended the 1999 season ... with All-America type numbers. Through four games of 2000, Thomas has 20 total tackles. Eight of his tackles have been behind the line of scrimmage, and he has 3-1/2 sacks. Through four games, Thomas is more than halfway to his season-long total of 13 tackles for losses in 1999.

Coach Bob Simmons
Saturday's game at Missouri will mark the fifth game of Bob Simmons' sixth year as Oklahoma State's Head Football Coach. The 52-year old Simmons has guided the Cowboys into the first season of the new millennium after spending the last five-plus seasons strengthening the overall foundation of the O-State program. There's little doubt the foundation is stronger now than when he became head coach in December of 1994. Simmons will carry a career record of 29-32 into this week's game against the Tigers.

More than Ready
When Bob Simmons arrived at Oklahoma State late in 1994, he was more than ready to be a Division IA head coach. His coaching resum? included seven years with Bill McCartney at Colorado, including two seasons as assistant head coach. He was an integral part in the process of building Colorado into a national power. His seven years in Boulder included seven bowl appearances, including two Orange Bowls and a national championship. Prior to arriving at CU, Simmons spent eight seasons at West Virginia with Don Nehlen. At West Virginia, he helped guide the Mountaineers to four bowl games, including the 1987 Sun Bowl opposite Oklahoma State.

Tough Schedule
In the five seasons of the Bob Simmons era, the Cowboys have faced some of the most demanding schedules in school history. Over the past five seasons, OSU has faced 21 teams that were nationally ranked, including non-conference opponents Tennessee (#12) in 1995 and Mississippi State (#25) in 1998 and Southern Miss (25) in 2000.

Serving Notice
It didn't take long for Bob Simmons to put his mark on OSU football and serve notice that football fortunes were improving. In his very first season (1995), the Cowboys snapped a lengthy road losing streak in conference games by claiming a 30-26 win at Missouri. The same season, OSU lost to No. 8 Kansas State by just six and to No. 15 Kansas by five. Simmons' first OSU squad blanked Oklahoma at Norman and finished the season with a 24-20 win at Hawaii.

Bowl Bound
Success came in a big way in 1997. The Cowboys started fast, winning their first six. It was an overtime loss to Missouri that kept the Pokes from winning the first seven. The ?97 Cowboys upended 23rd-ranked Texas and 24th-ranked Colorado and also claimed a 30-7 win over Oklahoma at Norman. The 1997 success was rewarded with a trip to the Alamo Bowl in San Antonio.

Game of Inches
The last two seasons saw the Cowboys on the brink of even more success. The '98 Pokes finished 5-6, but included a seven-point loss to second-ranked Nebraska and a three-point loss at 20th-ranked Texas on a last-second field goal. The '99 Cowboys duplicated the 5-6 record, but spent the first half of the season without QB Tony Lindsay, who suffered an injury in the season opener.

Tough D
The Bob Simmons era at OSU has been marked by outstanding defensive squads. The '97 defense was ranked 14th nationally in total defense while the '99 unit was ranked 10th, allowing just 297.5 yards per game. The '97 defense was 20th in the country in scoring defense and was sixth in turnover margin. Both 1997 and ?98 defenses were ranked 20th nationally in defending the rush. This season, OSU's defense is currently ranked eighth against the rush.

Note-ing the Cowboys

For Starters
Several Cowboys on both sides of the football should extend streaks of consecutive starts this week against Missouri. Senior offensive lineman Josh Lind tops the list. Lind will make his 26th-straight start and the 28th of his OSU career. The preseason all-conference selection started all 11 games in 1999, 10 games in '98 and two in 1997. Senior defensive tackle Zac Akin will be making his 16th-straight start and the 19th start of his OSU career this week. Like Lind, Akin started all 11 regular-season games last season. Quarterback Tony Lindsay has more total starts than any other player on this year's roster, and he will add to that number this week. Lindsay's start against Missouri will be the 31st of his Cowboy career. He started six games in '99, 11 in '98 and nine in 1997.

Lindsay One of Three
Oklahoma State entered the 2000 season with a luxury few teams can boast ... a senior quarterback who is a four-year starter and been in the program five years. The Denver, Colo., product proved the last two weeks he is up to the challenge. Tony Lindsay is now one of three OSU quarterbacks who have started four seasons. Mike Gundy was a four-year starter from 1986 to 1989 and Ton? Jones started from 1993 to 1996.

Lindsay's Career Passing
OSU's senior quarterback remains No. 3 on the Cowboys' career passing chart. His 73 yards against Texas gives him 3,879 for his career. He moved past Rusty Hilger into the third spot two weeks ago, and will go into the Missouri game trailing No. 2 Ton? Jones by 933 yards. Mike Gundy is OSU's all-time leading passer with 7,997 yards.

Lindsay's Career Total Offense
Lindsay could move up on another career list this week. He is currently third on the career total-offense chart, and might be second by the end of his work day on Saturday. His 81 yards of total offense against Texas Saturday night boosted his career total to 5,254 yards. He is just the third player in OSU history to have 5,000 or more yards of career total offense and, barring injury, is likely to finish his Cowboy career with the second-most in this category. He will go into this week's game against Texas trailing No. 2 Ton? Jones by 49 yards.

Fobbs Re-emerges As Receiver
Throughout Jamaal Fobbs career at Oklahoma State he has proven to be a multi-talented player at a variety of positions. With the emergence of junior running back Reggie White, Fobbs has transferred his athletic talents to the receiver's spot. In the first two games, Fobbs had two receptions for 18 yards and four carries for 10 yards. He emerged as a receiving threat in the Southern Miss game with four catches for 60 yards and followed that up with three catches for 30 yards against Texas last Saturday. He also contributed two rushes on reverses for 28 yards in the game against the Longhorns. On the season, Fobbs leads the Cowboys with nine receptions for 108 yards, and is averaging 4.1 yards a rush on seven carries.

Additional Player Notes

Chris Massey, DB
Tied with Dwayne Levels for the team tackle lead. Through four games, Massey has 31 tackles, including 22 solo stops. He has one interception and two additional deflections. He also registered a blocked kick against Texas.

Aso Pogi, QB
Redshirt freshman is the primary backup to Tony Lindsay. Has played in three games so far, completing 12-of-27 passes for 137 yards. Pogi also has seven rushes for 12 yards. Has a strong arm and a great future in a Cowboy uniform.

Tatum Bell, TB
True freshman who has played in two of OSU's four games. He has carried the ball 10 times for 32 yards, an average of 3.2 yards per carry. Bell is a young Cowboy with lots of promise and should see more playing time as the years go on.

Elbert Craig, DB
Number three on the tackle chart after four games. He has been credited with 30 tackles, including one behind the line, a quarterback sack. He has forced one fumble and has one pass deflection. Would have had his first career interception against Texas, but it was called back after a penalty.

Chris Carter, LB
Has been solid in the early season and will go into the Missouri game No. 4 on the OSU tackle board. His 26 total tackles includes four for minus-19 yards and 2-1/2 sacks. He also has two pass deflections and a quarterback hurry. He registered nine tackles at Texas last week.

Marcellus Rivers, WR/TE
Number two on the team in receiving yards (126). His four-game statistics include eight catches for 126 yards and one touchdown. He is averaging 15.8 yards per catch and 31.5 yards per game. Suffered a shoulder injury against Texas last week and his status for Missouri is unknown.

Seth Condley, K
OSU's leading scorer with 28 points. He's perfect on seven PAT tries, but has slumped in the last two games in field-goal tries. Has missed three straight after successfully converting seven of the first eight he attempted in 2000.

Michael Cooper, DB
Has played extensively in all four games and produced. His season totals include 12 tackles, all unassisted. he also has a team-leading six pass deflections and one fumble recovery. He had three tackles against Texas last week.

Next Week
After two straight weeks on the road, Oklahoma State returns to Stillwater for a Homecoming battle against Iowa State. Kickoff for the game is scheduled for 7 p.m. After the Iowa State game, Oklahoma State will face an open date before an Oct. 28 game at Colorado. After the CU game, OSU has three of its final four on Lewis Field. About Missouri Missouri is 1-3 on the year and 0-1 in Big 12 play after falling to No. 1 Nebraska, 42-24, in Lincoln last Saturday. The Tigers are riding a three-game losing streak after winning their season opener over Western Illinois, 50-20, on Sept. 2. All three of the losses have come at the hands of Top-25 teams, including Clemson and Michigan State. Missouri recorded back-to-back winning seasons in 1997 and 1998, the first time the Tigers had done that since 1980-81. Last season, MU regressed to a 4-7 finish and head coach Larry Smith made some changes on his offensive staff, hiring three new coaches, including co-offensive coordinator Bill Cubit from Western Michigan.

Who To Look For
Missouri has seven offensive and seven defensive starters back from last season, but was hurt by the loss of quarterback Kirk Farmer who suffered a broken collarbone against Nebraska last week. He was 13-of-25 for 214 yards through the air and had nine rushes for 83 yards and a touchdown against the Cornhuskers before suffering the injury. His backup is redshirt freshman Darius Outlaw who is 8-of-15 for 61 yards with a touchdown and an interception in three games this season. He was 5-of-11 for 34 yards last Saturday. The Missouri offense is averaging nearly 342 yards of total offense, 209 of it coming via the air. Redshirt Zack Abron is the leading rusher on the team with 210 yards on 66 carries (2.9 avg.) while junior tight-end Dwayne Blakely leads the Tigers with 13 receptions. Sophomore wide receiver Justin Gage is the top deep threat for Missouri with nine catches for 184 yards (20.4 avg.) and two scores. Preseason All-Big 12 defensive end Justin Smith is the leader of the MU defense with three sacks this season and eight tackles for losses. The junior had eight sacks last season and is a Bronko Nagurski candidate, the award given to the nation's best defensive player.

The Head Coach
Larry Smith is 31-41-1 in his seventh season as the leader of the Tigers. In 1994, he took over a Missouri program that had not had a winning season since 1983 and produced back-to-back winning seasons in 1997 and 1998. Smith has an overall record of 141-121-7 in 24 seasons, including successful stops at Tulane (1976-79), Arizona (1980-86) and Southern Cal (1987-92). He is the 11th-winningest coach on the active coaching list and has led all four teams to at least one bowl game in his tenure, including a stretch of four straight in his first four seasons at USC. He is 3-1 all-time against the Cowboys.

The OSU-Missouri Series
The Tigers own a 25-18 advantage over the Cowboys in a series that dates back to the 1915 season. The two teams played annually in the Big Eight Conference from 1961-1995 before moving into the Big 12. Missouri has won five out of the last seven meetings between the teams, including a 51-50 double overtime win in the most recent contest in 1997. The Cowboys went 7-0 against the Tigers from 1984-1990 after Missouri had dominated the series, capturing 15 of the first 17 matchups on the gridiron. MU has a 16-7 series advantage in Columbia, including a 35-28 win the last time Oklahoma State visited Faurot Field in 1996, a single-overtime game. OSU won the final Big Eight contest between the teams in Columbia in 1995 by a 30-26 margin.

OSU-Missouri Memory:
The last time Oklahoma State and Missouri played was on Oct. 25, 1997, when a failed two-point conversion attempt in the second overtime popped the Cowboys' bubble in a wild, 51-50 loss at Lewis Field.

A crowd of 33,000 saw the Tigers jump out to a 24-7 halftime lead, then expand it to 30-7 on their first possession of the third quarter as the heralded OSU defense offered little resistance.

Inexplicably, though, the Pokes did a 180-degree pivot and dominated the final 12:30 of the third quarter and the first 13 minutes of the fourth. OSU scored 30 straight points with four touchdowns to take a 37-30 lead with 1:57 left in the game.

It appeared the Cowboys had won their seventh-straight game of the season, but Missouri was not through. The Tigers covered 80 yards in eight plays, including pass completions of 18 (on fourth-and-12), 26 and finally 38 yards for the score with 18 seconds left.

The teams traded touchdowns in the first overtime to make it a 44-44 game, and Mizzou scored first in the second overtime, kicking the conversion to lead 51-44.

Quarterback Tony Lindsay got the Pokes' TD on fourth-and-three from the 6-yard line to make it 51-50. OSU lined up in a swinging-gate type of formation, similar to a two-pointer they picked up on a direct snap in the Texas game. But this time, Lindsay took the snap from center, looked to Nathan Simmons, who was covered in the right side of the end zone, and then was dropped at the 2 as he scrambled for the goal line.

Following the game, the Pokes were 6-1 overall and 3-1 in the Big 12 Conference. Missouri, searching for its first winning season since 1983, improved to 5-3 overall and 2-2 in the Big 12.

It was Oklahoma State's third overtime game. The Pokes defeated Southwest Missouri State in the previous season's opener, and lost a 35-28 decision at Missouri.

Tight end Alonzo Mayes, who caught eight passes for 126 yards, suffered a third-degree shoulder separation when he hit the turf early in the fourth quarter and didn't return to the game until the Pokes faced 3rd-and-8 from the Missouri nine-yard line. He outwrestled a Tiger defender in the end zone for a touchdown pass, his second of the day, to give OSU its 37-30 lead with less than two minutes remaining in regulation.

The Cowboy defense, which had limited five of its first six opponents to fewer than 100 yards on the ground, gave up 221 yards rushing to the Tigers, including 86 on 12 carries by option quarterback Corby Jones. Jones also hit 13-of-25 passes for 231 yards as the Tigers picked up 452 total yards.

Between its second half-opening and regulation-closing TD drives, the Tigers had just one first down and 29 yards over five possessions. The most yardage the OSU defense had given up previously was 390 to Colorado two weeks previous.

O-State's offense, which had little going for it in the first half beyond some exquisite catches by Mayes, rolled up 531 total yards, including 319 passing. Lindsay hit 10-of-18 for 210 yards for four touchdowns while being intercepted once.

Reserve quarterback Joe Phears had a 50-yard toss on a flea-flicker, throw-back to Lindsay that carried to the Missouri 11-yard line and set up the game-tying touchdown, an eight-yard Lindsay-to-Mayes connection early in the fourth quarter.

A Few Extra Tidbits
Both Bob Simmons and Larry Smith are graduates of Bowling Green ... the 50 points Oklahoma State scored against the Tigers in 1997 is the most scored under Bob Simmons (its also the most for Missouri under Larry Smith) ... MU's schedule is the fourth toughest in the country according to the Sagarin ratings ... the Tigers have five players from the state of Oklahoma (Josh O'Neal-Ada, Julian Jones- Midwest City, Jonathan McCoy-Moore, T.J. Leon- Norman, Pat Marsonek- Lutz) ... senior tackle Josh Lind (St. Charles) is the only OSU player from Missouri ... Marcellus Rivers has a streak of 11-games with a reception ... receiver Rashaun Woods has changed jersey numbers from 42 to 82.

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