Oklahoma State’s offense has found its groove at exactly the right time.
The Cowboys have put up more than 40 points in three straight games, a stretch they hadn’t matched since 2018. If they get there again Saturday night at Houston, that would mark their longest such run since the end of the 2011 season.
And with kickoff set for 6:30 p.m. on FOX, OSU heads in as a 4.5-point underdog - a spot it has already handled well this year. The Cowboys are 2-0 when catching points after wins over Oregon and West Virginia.
That sets up a game that feels like a genuine test of where this team stands, especially against a Houston defense that looks stronger against the run than the pass. The Cougars are No. 13 in the Big 12 against the pass, but they sit No. 1 in the league against the rush, which could make life tricky for Oklahoma State’s ground game.
Still, the predictions lean toward another Cowboy breakthrough.
Ben Hutchens sees OSU pulling out a 33-30 win, with Drew Mestemaker throwing for more than 300 yards for the fifth straight game. In his view, running back Caleb Hawkins gets bottled up below 100 rushing yards by Houston’s front but still finds the end zone late to give OSU the edge.
Jenni Carlson has Oklahoma State winning 34-27, backing a late defensive stop to seal the result and calling the Cowboys a real Big 12 contender.
Joe Mussatto goes with a 31-28 OSU victory, though he notes the Cowboys’ success as an underdog makes the pick easy to imagine. He also points out that Houston’s home environment may not usually be a major factor, but this is the Cougars’ first top-25 home game in 11 years, and Willie Fritz has pushed fans to show up.
Jeff Patterson has it even tighter, with OSU escaping 31-30. He frames it as one of the weekend’s most compelling matchups, featuring Texas-born quarterbacks Conner Weigman and Drew Mestemaker both putting up points. Patterson says Caleb Hawkins could be the swing factor if he manages to break through against the Big 12’s top rush defense.
Jacob Unruh is even more aggressive on the scoreboard, taking OSU 37-35. His call centers on Mestemaker’s continued rise and a late game-winning drive, the kind of finish that would turn the Cowboys into CFP contender chatter and put Mestemaker into Heisman conversation.
However it plays out, the common thread is clear: Oklahoma State has momentum, a quarterback playing at a high level, and enough belief to walk into Houston expecting to win.
In Other News...
Booker T Finally Gets An Overdue Fix To Its 1971 Title Story
Booker T. Washington High School is finally getting a long-delayed correction to one of its proudest football moments. A new gold ball trophy is on the way to replace the one that sat as the schools championship keepsake for decades, after the original piece of hardware was linked to the wrong classification even though the Hornets earned the state crown they were actually playing for.
The school plans to honor members of the 1971 team during a halftime ceremony at an upcoming game, a fitting backdrop for a fix that has been overdue for years. For a program that still treasures that title run, the new trophy is more than a cosmetic upgrade. It is a cleaner version of the record, and a reminder that some old victories deserve to be told correctly. [Read more 🡒]
Oklahoma State Faces A Big 12 Test That Could Reveal A Lot
Oklahoma State is heading into a Big 12 matchup with Houston that feels like more than just another conference game. Both teams have winning records, and the stakes are clear for the Cowboys, who could learn plenty about where they stand in the league when they meet a Cougars team that has played well enough to make this a meaningful early barometer. The game will also be on national television, adding a little extra weight to a meeting that already carries conference implications.
Matt Galatzan of Houston On SI pointed to several names that could shape how this one unfolds, including Oklahoma State quarterback Weigman and Houston contributors Re'Shaun Sanford and Overmyer. He also broke down where Houston has looked sturdy and where it has been vulnerable, the kind of information that makes this matchup more than a simple checkmark on the schedule for the Cowboys. For Oklahoma State, it is the sort of test that can reveal a lot about how far this team has come and how much farther it still has to go. [Read more 🡒]
Baylor Faces A Huge Home Test With Early Big 12 Stakes
Week 8 in the Big 12 brings another round of separation games, and one of the more interesting ones for Oklahoma State is the trip to Houston. The Cougars return home after picking up a 35-16 win at Kansas State, and oddsmakers have already made them a 4.5-point favorite, a sign of how quickly the conference race can tilt when a team starts stacking results in October.
For the Cowboys, the matchup is part of a broader weekend that also puts Baylor-TCU and Cincinnati-West Virginia in the spotlight, with home-field edge and defensive standing carrying extra weight across the league. It is still early enough in Big 12 play for a good road performance to change how a team is viewed, and Oklahoma State will be watching closely to see whether its offense can keep pace in a setting where the margin for error is already shrinking. [Read more 🡒]