Sooners Looking To Avoid Repeat Of 2011 In Stillwater

Saturday's Bedlam clash in Stillwater will be the Sooners first trip up north since 2011, a trip Oklahoma would just as soon like to forget.

With the school's first Big 12 championship on the line, as well as a possible berth in the national championship game, the Cowboys destroyed the Sooners in every way, running away with a 44-10 victory.

The stakes aren't as high this week as they were that night, but a Big 12 championship is on the line once again for Oklahoma State and the Cowboys are in line to win their second conference title in three years—after not winning an outright conference since 1948. Stakes are plenty high.

Even though the Sooners don't have a shot at the conference title themselves, they're not looking at themselves as spoilers.

"That may be the lowest form of motivation that a competitor can have," OU coach Bob Stoops said on the Big 12 conference call Monday. "So no, that has nothing to do with how we approach the game what so ever. That is a very, very low form of motivation."

Spoiler may not be a title the Sooners are looking to give themselves, but a little revenge may be on the docket for the beat down the Sooners received two years ago. They certainly remember it.

"People in my class and the class before that will know about it because it still hurts," offensive lineman Daryl Williams said.

Safety Gabe Lynn had nothing good to say about his experiences in Stillwater as a sophomore on Monday.

"It was bad," Lynn said shaking his head. "We got blown out; we didn't just get beat. We definitely want to go out there and get a win. We don't want to come back like we did last time on that trip. I just remember it was cold and it was a bad game. "

Thanks to the Cowboys' stunning loss to Iowa State that year, the Sooners were playing for a chance at a Big 12 title. Instead of Oklahoma claiming its eighth conference championship, it was the Cowboys storming the field to claim their first at the expense of their hated rival.

"It was terrible," OU center Gabe Ikard said. "You're playing for a championship and you go out there and lay an egg. It's a terrible feeling. I thought we had a great chance to win that game. We were playing pretty well at the time. We just didn't get it done on either side of the football and played pretty poorly as far as I can remember. That's one you try to forget."

That game won't be one talked in Norman for, well, ever, and the Sooners say they won't be talking about it this week as a form of motivation.

"This year is a new year," Lynn said. "We're just looking forward to this game. That was a different team but we're just going to prepare hard and be ready to go out there."

However, even though the Sooners don't want to bring that game up again, it's not hard to understand how different the circumstances are with Saturday's game.

"There's more pressure on them and less pressure on us," Ikard said. "They're playing for a conference title and we're not. When it comes down to it, we're playing to win the football game. We don't care about what's surrounding it.

"It's Oklahoma vs. Oklahoma State and every time you step on the field against those guys in orange and black, you want to beat them."

2011 will always be an historic Bedlam clash, but not for Oklahoma. The Sooners are hoping history doesn't repeat itself Saturday night in Stillwater, both the result and how the result comes about.