It's starting to look like Oklahoma State's inexperience and sub-par offensive line are going to wind up ending the program's school-record bowl streak at eight seasons.
After struggling through a 28-7 loss to Texas Saturday night in its final home game of the season, the Cowboys (5-5, 3-4) have dropped four in a row, all of them by at least 21 points.
With road games at No. 6 Baylor next week and rival Oklahoma Dec. 6, the Cowboys' chances of becoming bowl eligible are disappearing.
"When you play with young players that lack experience, they're going to make mistakes and they're not going to look as good as you want them to," OSU coach Mike Gundy said of his team that has a number of first-year starters at key positions. "They'll continue to get a little better, though, and they'll make some plays."
Texas (6-5, 5-3) won its third straight contest to become eligible to participate in a bowl game for fourth consecutive year and the 16th time in the last 17 seasons.
"It was a great team win," said Texas coach Charlie Strong. "In the locker room, they're just so happy. I said to 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."
That feeling that people are writing you off is one that Oklahoma State is getting used to, but they're not going to give up.
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"We've just got to keep our heads up and look forward to next week," said tight end Blake Jarwin, who made two catches for 29 yards. "We've got two tough opponents coming up, but we can still do good things around here."
Tyrone Swoopes did a lot of good things for Texas, completing 24 of 33 passes for 305 yards and two touchdowns.
Johnathan Gray rushed for 81 yards and a touchdown for the Longhorns. Nick Rose connected on field goals of 34-, 44- and (a career-long) 51-yards.
The Texas defense limited the Cowboys to a season-low 192 total yards and forced them into three-and-outs on six of their first eight offensive possessions.
James Washington scored on an 8-yard shovel pass with 9:02 remaining, allowing Oklahoma State to avoid the shutout.
"The guys are giving effort, but there are a couple of spots where we're not as strong and experienced," Gundy said. "When you run into guys that have as good of a defensive front as they've got, it makes it difficult."
The Longhorns dominated in just about every aspect of the game, carrying a 22-0 lead into the fourth quarter, more than doubling the Cowboys in total offense, and nearly doubling them in time of possession. Texas converted seven of its first eight third-down situations and 11 of 19 overall, while holding Oklahoma State to just 2 of 13 on third down.
"That's really key; you have to win on third down," Strong said. "Just looking at it defensively, it's great that we just get stops and get pressure on the quarterback and turn them into sacks. We just knew how critical third down is."
Texas has now won 24 of 29 games in the all-time series between the schools, although Oklahoma State had won three of the previous four.
The Longhorns scored touchdowns on each of their first two possessions, while forcing OSU into two three-and-outs, to take a 13-0 lead late in the first quarter.
On third-and-10 from the OSU 19-yard-line, Swoopes lofted a pass to the back right corner of the end zone that John Harris came down with for the first touchdown. A botched snap on the PAT left the Longhorns with an early 6-0 lead.
Texas began its next drive on its own 19 and Gray's 6-yard TD run gave the Longhorns a 13-0 lead - and 138 yards of total offense to OSU's total of -6 - with 2:33 left in the first quarter.
"It was a good start, there's no doubt about it," said Shawn Watson, Texas' assistant head coach for offense. "I thought Tyrone played exceptional tonight, he did some really good things, he handled a lot of things at the line of scrimmage, and a couple of times made some big throws throughout the whole evening."
