Looking Back: Fans, Students Showed Out in Biggest Game of the Season

Saturday’s Bedlam game was my first to ever cover in Boone Pickens Stadium. It was also as loud as I’ve ever heard that place.

I’ve been to a lot of games at BPS — most as a student/fan, a few as a writer/fan. There have been some doozies. The 2004 Bedlam loss was incredible. The 2008 Bedlam loss and 2010 Bedlam losses were equally incredible. The 2011 Bedlam win was immense. The 2009 Georgia game was lit. And on an on we can go.

But last Saturday was as good as an Oklahoma State football crowd has ever been in the Mike Gundy era. Part of that had to do with The Villain, I’m sure. Part of it had to do with the stakes. Part of it had to do with the weather. It was the perfect elixir for a show.

And that’s what we got.

“The gameday environment … was fantastic,” said Mike Gundy. “Fifteen years ago as an assistant, even as a head coach we had a goal to make the game day environment in Stillwater like it is at a SEC school. We like to talk about Big 12-SEC, their gameday environments are through the roof. We’ve tried to get that environment here. Our fans were fabulous.”

Gundy said last week that he wanted OSU fans to show up early and be loud as hell. The student section was pretty much full an hour before the game. Nobody moved until Mason Rudolph’s final hail mary. Every Baker Mayfield sack was greeted with an uninhibited joy only someone who chirps at literally anyone can elicit.

And @baker_mayfield6 getting into it with #Okstate fans citing the lopsided #Bedlam record in #Sooners favor pic.twitter.com/mxNJMkTaCW

— Jeff Kolb (@JeffKolbTV) November 4, 2017

I told Mrs. Pistols this on the ride home on Sunday night, but I have felt a sort of purgatorial sense of fandom. I did yelp 2-3 times in the press box on Saturday evening and openly pumped my fist on one of the Tyron catches, but I’m more removed than I used to be from the throes of the arena.

So for me now, it’s all about atmospheres. Going to Texas this year, despite their crowd generally being overrated, was incredible. It was loud on the field at the end of that game. This crowd on Saturday, though, was every bit its equal (and probably better).

And it was a perfect night. Cool and clear but not cold. Waking up, it felt like football season. Walking out of the stadium, it felt like football season. It was exactly what you want from every big game your team plays.

“One of the few times I’ve ever run out of the tunnel and looked at the crowd,” Gundy said. “When I got halfway on the field and looked out and saw everything. It hit me in how far we’ve come. We get tweets from Mr. Pickens, and he started the thing. He’s always said ‘I want to compete,’ and that’s what we did.

“The overall concept of what we — Mr. Pickens, Coach Holder, myself and the organization — have been striving for, that’s what we got Saturday.”

These videos don’t even really do it justice, but we caught some orange power chants in the 4th quarter as well as Chad Whitener’s interception. Being at that end zone with our backs to Gallagher-Iba Arena, drinking it all in as Baker tossed the pick right down our line of sight, well, it was pretty incredible.

From the full stadium at the opening kick to the heart-quivering flyover to the noise you could hear through the press box glass on the A.J. Green interception of Mayfield on the first possession to the fireworks blasted off the top deck to the way the students willed themselves back into it even after OU put up 38 quick ones to the feeling that you were watching history as the final quarter unfolded, it was as good as college football gets.

And I think that was the main part of it for me. The first three quarters were great, but that 4th quarter felt historical. You knew you were watching the shaping of legacies and a narrative that would either intersect the primary story coming into the game or pile onto it. I have to give the crowd credit, too. There was never an overwhelming sense of doom. They didn’t pack it in even after Rudolph threw the pick to end the third quarter. They were all in. And that’s why it stings so much every year. There’s just enough time between the last Bedlam loss to be fully bought in again.

So I picked a hell of a first one to cover in Stillwater. I’m guessing Kansas over Thanksgiving won’t quite live up to this.