Oklahoma State University Athletics
Cowboys Set To Open 2006 Season Against Missouri State
September 04, 2006 | Cowboy Football
The 2006 Oklahoma State football season gets underway Saturday night when the Cowboys host the Missouri State Bears at Boone Pickens Stadium. Kickoff is set for 6 p.m. There is no live television for the game.
The ‘06 season marks the second for the Cowboys under head coach Mike Gundy. The former OSU player, former assistant and former offensive coordinator is a fixture on the Stillwater campus. The OSU grad is nearing the 20-year anniversary of his Cowboy debut. On Sept. 20, 1986, against Houston (a future 2006 opponent), Gundy was summoned off the bench by head coach Pat Jones and inserted at quarterback. He got his first career start the following week against Illinois State and held the position through the 1989 season.
Gundy will be coaching against Missouri State for the first time. The Cowboys and Bears have not played since the 2003 season (a 42-3 OSU win on the Cowboys' road to the Cotton Bowl).
Missouri State is under the direction of former Kansas head coach Terry Allen. He is 0-3 vs. Oklahoma State while coaching at Northern Iowa and Kansas.
Missouri State, formerly Southwest Missouri State, is coming off a 4-6 season. The Bears return 16 starters, including 10 on defense. The Bears are winless in four tries against OSU, but pushed the Pokes into overtime in the 1996 opener (10 years and two days prior to this year's meeting).
The 6 Factor
The year 2006 could mean something significant to the OSU football program, judging by the past.
In 1956, Oklahoma A&M competed in the Missouri Valley Conference for the final time (with a 2-1-1 record).
In 1966, the Cowboys were just 4-5-1, but carved out a 4-2-1 record in the Big 8, their best mark in the league since joining the conference in 1960. That squad also knocked off Oklahoma for the second straight year (15-14) and had a near miss at No. 5 Arkansas (14-10).
In 1976, the Cowboys shared the Big 8 title under Jim Stanley, posted a 9-3 overall record and won the Tangerine Bowl.
In 1986, Mike Gundy launched his OSU playing career and helped bridge the gap between Pat Jones' first two teams (10-2 and 8-4) and his powerful 10-win squads of 1987 and 1988.
In 1996, Oklahoma State competed in the Big 12 Conference for the first time. OSU closed the season with a 37-17 win over Baylor. That win may not have had much bearing on the standings, but it was the first victory in what would become a seven-game OSU winning streak. In fact, that streak was interrupted by overtime losses at Missouri and Texas A&M or OSU could have been looking at a 10-game winning streak.
Opening Numbers
The Cowboys are opening a football season in Stillwater for the second straight year, but it is still somewhat of a recent rarity. The 2006 Missouri State game will mark just the second time since 1999 and the third time since 1996 that the Cowboys have opened a season in Stillwater. Last season Oklahoma State opened the year with a 15-10 home win over Montana State.
