Oklahoma State's deliberate search for Mike Gundy's successor targets innovative AAC coaches like USF's Alex Golesh and North Texas' Eric Morris to revive Cowboy football
If you ask the average Oklahoma fan about Missouri this week, you’ll probably get a shrug.
The Sooners are focused on making the College Football Playoff in their second SEC season, while a rivalry that largely died when Mizzou bolted for the SEC in 2012 doesn’t exactly dominate the message boards in Norman.
Cross the state line into Tiger Territory, however, and the temperature is very different.
That contrast was on full display this week on The Jones Report when Roundtable Oklahoma publisher Tyler Jones and Roundtable Oklahoma State editor Thomas Bridges welcomed St. Louis Sports Central’s Luke Slabaugh for a true “behind enemy lines” segment ahead of Saturday’s renewal of Oklahoma-Missouri at Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in Norman.
Slabaugh believes it is a massive game for Mizzou. He pointed out that while OU fans treat it as just another November matchup, Tiger fans still carry scars from decades of being the little brother in the old Big Eight.
The series dates back to 1902, and Missouri’s last win in Norman came all the way back on November 12, 1966 — 58 years ago.
Ending that drought on Oklahoma’s home field would be the kind of signature win that Eli Drinkwitz could hang his hat on for years.
The guys also dug into the matchup itself. Missouri’s sensational freshman running back Ahmad Hardy has burst onto the scene with 1,300+ yards already, but Slabaugh warned that Saturday could be a rough day for him, as the Sooners have a top four run defense in the country.
This is probably the worst possible matchup for Hardy to try and put up PlayStation numbers.
The Drinkwitz conversation took an interesting turn as well. With rumors swirling that Penn State, LSU, and even Florida could come calling this offseason, Slabaugh pushed back hard on the idea that Drinkwitz is leaving.
Slabaugh believes Mizzou fans should expect 10-win seasons and playoff trips to be the floor, not the ceiling, with him.
Meanwhile, on the Oklahoma State side of things, Thomas Bridges provided the latest on Stillwater’s head coaching search. The early buzz around Atlanta Falcons OC and former Cowboy QB Zac Robinson has cooled considerably — Atlanta’s offense has struggled mightily with rookie QB Michael Penix Jr., and Robinson’s total lack of college coaching experience is reportedly a major concern for athletic director Chad Weiberg.
Instead, Bridges believes the job has narrowed to two younger, high-energy names: USF’s Alex Golesh and North Texas’ Eric Morris.
Both are considered rising stars in the Group-of-Six ranks with up-tempo, explosive offenses that would excite the Boone Pickens Stadium crowd.
Jones and Bridges also touched on bigger conference storylines:
- Lane Kiffin’s future at Ole Miss (consensus: he’s probably gone after this season)
- Why Desmond Howard’s take that Steve Sarkisian could bolt Texas is “borderline ridiculous” (Sark doesn’t fit the NFL and he is building exactly what he wants in Austin)
- The newest College Football Playoff rankings, which treated both the SEC and Big 12 kindly this week
- A lookahead to a loaded Week 13 slate across both leagues
- Reaction to the noise that Arizona State QB Sam Leavitt, one of the surprise stories of 2025, might already be portal-shopping only one year into his Sun Devil tenure
All told, it was a jam-packed hour that perfectly captured where both fanbases are mentally heading into a rivalry that — at least on one side of the border — still very much matters.
Catch the full episode of The Jones Report wherever you get your podcasts, and buckle up for what should be a rock-fight Saturday afternoon in Columbia.