How Dru Brown Fits the Bedlam Upset Mold of Past OSU Quarterbacks

Oklahoma State is probably not going to win Bedlam 2019. It wouldn’t take a miracle for it to happen, but it would take something pretty special for a defensively-centered OSU team to slay an OU team that does nothing but score points and win Big 12 titles.

However, the Dru Brown factor fascinates me.

It probably fascinated me more prior to the West Virginia game where we were exposed to him being a pretty-good-but-definitely-not-elite QB who clearly (?) doesn’t have the talent Spencer Sanders contains, but it still fascinates me.

And the reason Dru Brown going into Bedlam fascinates me is because half of OSU’s Bedlam wins this century (from 2000 to now) have come at the hands of a backup QB who didn’t start the year as OSU’s starter.

Obviously, Brandon Weeden in 2011 and Josh Fields in 2002 were entrenched as signal-callers for the Pokes. Two of the best to ever do it in Stillwater. They had good teams (ok, 2011 was a great team) and it made sense that they would notch victories over their rival.

But in both 2001 and 2014, OSU beat OU in monster upsets (which is what it would take this time around, too) with little-known QBs who didn’t begin where they ended.

In 2001, OSU played Aso Pogi until they didn’t. They went to a freshman named Fields at the end of that season, and he produced one of the great moments in Oklahoma State history in the back corner of Owen Field.

In 2014, OSU started the year with J.W. Walsh at the helm, moved on to Daxx Garman and then eventually to Mason Rudolph after Garman got assaulted against Texas in a home loss that was maybe the ugliest of the Gundy era. You know the rest.

Maybe this is all coincidental. Maybe not. It’s odd to me Rudolph never beat OU as the full-time starter. Neither did Zac Robinson. Clint Chelf nearly did it twice, and neither season started out with him at the helm. Again, maybe this is a fluke. Maybe it means nothing. Or maybe it’s a bit of hopeful foreshadowing for Brown and these Pokes.

Because while I think Spencer Sanders gives OSU a much better shot at taking down the Sooners, Brown’s attitude and decision-making could prove paramount come Saturday evening with Chuba Hubbard trying to put Alex Grinch on a bus back to Norman.

“I was really proud of him,” Gundy said of Brown’s first win as a starter last weekend over West Virginia in Morgantown. “To be honest with you, he played real good. … He didn’t get over-aggressive. He managed that game well. Quarterbacks that manage the game well give you a chance to win.”

Playing a backup QB doesn’t seem like a recipe for success in any season, but for Oklahoma State in this century, it has won just as many Bedlam games with backup QBs as it has with starters.

I don’t know if this is a good thing or not, but I do know that it’s true. And I hope this time next year we’re talking about how OSU’s record against the Sooners this century is actually worse with the QB who started a season than with the one who finished it.