Tre Lamb didn’t wait for Saturday to believe Tulsa could do it again.
Months before the rematch with Oklahoma State, and well away from the glare of H.A. Chapman Stadium, the Golden Hurricane coach was already making his feelings plain to a crowd at a Tulsa basketball game in the adjacent Reynolds Center. According to the Tulsa World, Lamb told the fans, “We’ll beat their (butts) again.”
He was right.
Tulsa backed up the talk with a 24-10 win over the Cowboys, and the final score hardly captured how thoroughly the Golden Hurricane controlled the afternoon. Lamb said afterward that the margin should have been even larger.
“It should have been worse,” he said in the postgame press conference. “It could have been 30-10, 37-10.”
That wasn’t just bravado after the fact. Tulsa left points on the field, missing two field goals and throwing an interception inside the OSU 10.
Even so, the defense carried the day, forcing four turnovers and limiting the Cowboys to 2-of-6 on fourth down. The result spoiled the debut of OSU coach Eric Morris and highly sought after transfer quarterback Drew Mestemaker.
The biggest reason Tulsa felt in control was Baylor Hayes.
Hayes, who followed Lamb from East Tennessee State when the coach took the Tulsa job after the 2024 season, had already been part of the Golden Hurricane’s 19-12 win at Oklahoma State last year. On Saturday, he was sharp again, finishing 17-of-24 for 227 yards and a touchdown. He also nearly delivered another score late in the first half, when he floated a deep ball over the middle that Jimmy Calloway hauled in acrobatically before being ruled down at the OSU 1-yard line.
A snap later, Damari Alston punched in a 1-yard touchdown to break a 3-3 tie, and Tulsa never let the game drift back toward the Cowboys.
The lead grew to 17-3 early in the second half when Hayes hit Oran Singleton on a 21-yard touchdown. Then came the stretch that finished Oklahoma State off.
With less than nine minutes left and Tulsa clinging to a 17-10 lead, the Cowboys went for it on fourth-and-short at their own 34. Zach Williams and Sam Stone teamed up to stop a short pass, handing the ball back to Tulsa.
Two plays later, Alston turned the corner and raced 29 yards around the left side for another dagger. After that, Williams and Tyson Williams sealed it with interceptions on Oklahoma State’s next two possessions.
The win gave Tulsa back-to-back victories over Oklahoma State for the first time since the Golden Hurricane won three straight from 1950-52. It also came one year after Tulsa’s breakthrough win in Stillwater - the program’s first there since 1951, when the school was still known as Oklahoma A&M - was followed by four straight losses and a 4-8 finish.
Lamb clearly isn’t interested in repeating that script.
Tulsa goes to Sam Houston State next week, and the Bearkats are coming off a 2-10 season. After that, the Hurricane return home to face Football Championship Subdivision team East Texas A&M. If they get through those two, Sept. 25 brings a bigger test at Arkansas, where Tulsa has not won since 1976.
If this team keeps stacking wins, the possibilities start to open up fast. The American Athletic Conference schedule will tell plenty, and Lamb’s Tulsa could even enter the conversation as a darkhorse Group of Six team with a shot to crash the College Football Playoff picture.
Of course, that kind of success usually attracts attention elsewhere, too. If you’re a strong coach in the American, Power Four schools tend to notice - and Lamb would know that pattern as well as anyone.
But he wasn’t looking that far ahead on Saturday night.
“We’ve got to get some things cleaned up in a hurry, because we’ve got to go win a big game next week on the road,” Lamb said postgame. “I told them, celebrate it (Saturday night), the 24-hour rule and we’ll be back in the building (Sunday) at 1 (p.m.) ready to go to beat Sam Houston.”
He also pointed to the danger that comes with enjoying a win like this too much. Last season, after Tulsa beat Oklahoma State, the next few weeks went sideways. Lamb said his team has to learn from that.
“I talked to the team about handling success; last year, we won this game and I know we had some tough opponents, but we did not play well in the weeks after that,” Lamb said. “So we’ve got to learn from our mistakes.
“We’re getting closer. We haven’t arrived yet and we’re not anywhere close to where we want to be; this team’s got to continue to get better, and we need to play better in Game 12 than we did (Saturday), and that’s the head coach’s job.”
In Other News...
Oklahoma States Eric Morris Debut Raised Concerns Fans Cant Ignore
The early part of Eric Morris Oklahoma State debut quickly turned into a reminder that opener jitters can look a lot bigger when they pile up all at once. Tulsa walked away with a 24-10 win to snap the Cowboys 11-game streak in season openers, and Oklahoma State spent much of the afternoon chasing a game that kept slipping in the wrong direction as turnovers mounted and fourth-down chances went nowhere.
The concern went beyond the scoreboard, too. Left tackle Jacob Sexton was injured early and had to leave the field on a cart, leaving another ugly question hanging over a day the Cowboys needed to feel like a reset. Tulsa created the games most damaging explosive plays and used them to keep Oklahoma State under pressure, which made the loss feel less like one bad bounce and more like a warning about how much work still sits ahead. [Read more 🡒]
Oklahoma State's Week 1 Decisions Already Put Roster Spots Under Pressure
Oklahoma States first week of the season already came with roster pressure beyond the usual depth chart churn. Head coach Eric Morris said only 76 or 77 players would make the trip for the Tulsa game, a reminder that even before the schedule tightens, there are real decisions to be made about who is dressed and who is left behind. He framed it as part of the challenge of managing a roster on game day, especially with the staff still sorting out where the best fit lies for the opening stretch.
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Oklahoma State Is Already Facing Heat After Eric Morris Debut
Eric Morriss first game as Oklahoma States head coach did not offer much of the clean reset the program hoped for. In a 24-10 loss to Tulsa in the opener, the Cowboys looked out of sync on offense, struggled to create big plays and got beaten in the areas that usually decide early-season games, all while trying to blend a roster that featured a record 91 new players.
The night also quickly turned into a test of depth and composure. Starting left tackle Jacob Sexton went down with a leg injury early, and Oklahoma State never found much rhythm afterward as the mistakes piled up and Tulsa kept hitting more timely gains. For a staff trying to establish a new identity, the concern now is not just the result, but how much fixing has to happen before the Cowboys can look like a team ready to compete in the Big 12. [Read more 🡒]