Lame duck Oklahoma will get first taste of Big 12 road hostility at Kansas State
Oklahoma is about to get a taste of what it feels like to be a villain.
For decades, the Sooners have earned respect from most of their conference brethren by repeatedly winning Big 12 championships and representing the league on college football’s grandest stage. But all signs of quiet admiration are sure to go out the window when Oklahoma plays its first road game as a lame duck Big 12 member against Kansas State on Saturday at Bill Snyder Family Stadium.
Much like a pro wrestler turning heel on his tag-team partners or Anakin Skywalker embracing the dark side of the force, Oklahoma is now hated ... at least in Big 12 country.
It’s an unfamiliar position for the Sooners. Texas is usually the team Big 12 fans love to hate. But now that they have both announced plans to leave for the SEC, opposing fans are unlikely to hold back any Boomer Sooner jokes.
Oklahoma will get its first taste this weekend in Manhattan.
“This is going to be a great environment,” K-State football coach Chris Klieman predicted. “We’re excited to play at home again. Our guys love running out of the tunnel and seeing the crowd with the band and the students. We need everybody to come back out, because I think we have a really good football team.”
History has shown us that road games tend to be difficult for Big 12 teams when they are on the way out of the conference.
Colorado lost all four of its conference road games in its final Big 12 season and finished the year 5-7. The Buffaloes’ worst defeat came at Kansas when it failed to protect a 44-17 lead in the fourth quarter and lost 52-45.
Missouri lost three of its four final Big 12 road games in 2011 before finishing 8-5. Its only road conference victory that season came against Texas A&M, which was also a lame-duck team.
Texas A&M lost four of its five final Big 12 road games, including a 50-43 defeat at K-State that lasted four overtimes.
Nebraska didn’t seem to have many problems during its farewell tour, until the bitter end. The Huskers crushed K-State 48-13 in their first Big 12 road game of 2010 and started 9-1. Then they suffered the most controversial loss of any of the Big 12’s former members.
Go to Lincoln or Omaha and you can still probably find Nebraska fans complaining about how the Huskers committed a school record 16 penalties for 145 yards in a 9-6 loss at Texas A&M. The Aggies, meanwhile, were flagged twice for 10 yards.
Any questionable call that goes against Oklahoma and Texas will be met with conspiracy theories until they join the SEC.
It will be interesting to see if Saturday’s atmosphere will help K-State against Oklahoma.
K-State players have said they aren’t using Oklahoma’s conference switch as extra motivation, as its unlikely to impact them while they are on campus. Conference realignment, they say, is something for administrators to worry about, not them.
On the flip side, Oklahoma doesn’t seem concerned about playing its first game of the season on the road. The Sooners might even be eager to leave home after OU fans booed starting quarterback Spencer Rattler last week in Norman during a lackluster 16-13 win over West Virginia.
“We have always been a team that embraces going on the road,” Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley said. “We are excited to go play.”
Perhaps the Sooners would prefer a hostile road environment to another critical home crowd, even if it means getting treated like Darth Vader.