Four years ago the Oklahoma Sooners and the Oklahoma State Cowboys invaded the Valley of the Sun to participate in the Insight & Fiesta Bowls. Fast forward to 2011/12 and once again the Orange and black as well as the crimson and cream cover the greater Phoenix landscape. But this time, the Sooners played in the Insight and the Cowboys in the Fiesta. Unfamiliar roles indeed, as the Sooners have been BCS regulars while the Cowboys have been mired in lower tier bowls. But could the Cowboys find the elusive Fiesta win the Sooners were denied? Even Oklahoma State booster extraordinaire T. Boone Pickens commented that the rise of his Cowboys was two years earlier than even he thought.

The Insight scoring was started the same way a lot of Oklahoma scoring was all year. Quarterback Landry Jones would lead his team downfield and then once in the red zone back up quarterback Blake Bell would get the nod for the score and the Sooners would lead the Iowa Hawkeyes 7-0 after the first quarter. The scoring was similar for the Stanford Cardinal, as they too led the at the end of one with a beautiful 53 yard Oliver Luck pass to wide out Ty Montgomery. The appearance of sleep from Iowa and Oklahoma State was not more evident than the Cowboy’s one yard rushing, 27 total yards and zero first downs in the first fifteen minutes. But unlike Iowa, Oklahoma State decided to make it a game in the second quarter.
While Blake Bell scored his second touchdown in the second quarter to lead the Sooners to a 14-0 half time lead over the still apathetic Hawkeyes, the scoring brigade gates opened widely in the Fiesta Bowl.

After a Jeremy Stewart 24 yard scamper to put the Cardinal up 14-0, it became the Brandon Weedden to Justin Blackmon show as they connected on touchdown passes of 43 and 67 yards. Not to be outdone, the Cardinal proceeded to march downfield and finished the drive with a four yard touchdown run by Stephan Taylor to put the Cardinal back up by seven. The Cowboys got the ball back with 2:18 left in the half which was plenty of time as quarterback Brandon Weeden called his own number with just :27 seconds left in the half to send the game into the half knotted up at 21.

Interestingly enough, in both games the third quarter was rather quiet with Oklahoma getting the only points in the Insight and only 10 total points scored in the Fiesta. But fear not, the fourth quarter is what makes games great, and both the Insight and Fiesta had a lot left to show.

It only took three quarters for the Iowa Hawkeyes to awaken and when they did, it proved exciting. Scoring early in the quarter, playing some defense and scoring again with just under seven minutes to play lit a fire under the Sooners behinds. But unfortunately the Hawkeyes couldn’t keep the Sooners off the board late and they gave up a field goal and a late touchdown to lose 31-14. The final 15 minutes in the Fiesta lived up to every game in recent memory. Both the Cowboys and Cardinal threw everything they had to close out this BCS game. With just mere minutes left on the clock, Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck drove his team 63 yards to set up a game winning field goal with no time left on the clock. Red shirt freshmen kicker Jordan Williamson then missed a 35 yarder to send the game into overtime. With Stanford getting the ball first, the Cowboy defense got stout when it needed it the most and Stanford had to rely on their kicker again with a 41 yard attempt which also went left for his third miss of the night. On the Cowboys second play from scrimmage in overtime Brandon Weeden hit fellow senior and overlooked wide out Colton Chelf for what appeared to be a game winning touchdown, but after further review it showed he was down on the one. Setting up a field goal, Weeden took a knee on the five yard line before his punter/kicker Quinn Sharp drilled the 22 yarder home to give the Cowboys of Oklahoma State their first BCS bowl victory and arguable their biggest win in football history.

In retrospect, Oklahoma and their storied football pedigree took care of business in the Insight and Oklahoma State didn’t wilt under the bright spotlight of the BCS to make Arizona one of the most popular places to be outside the great state of Oklahoma. The result of the 41st annual Tostitos Fiesta Bowl also sent the Pac-12 conference into the off season with a dismal 2-5 bowl record. Perhaps that’s why the conference will display four new head coaches in the 2012 season.