The only thing wilder than last year's game between Oklahoma State and Texas Tech was probably each coach's post-game press conference, which quickly became the other "Mike and Mike Show."
Although OSU's Mike Gundy made most of the headlines, the YouTube videos of him and Tech coach Mike Leach after the game have more than a million hits.
Gundy attacked a local columnist for a story that highlighted a quarterback switch, while Leach, who was equally outraged, went after his players' dismal performance.
"Where are we at in society today?" Gundy said in that press conference. "Come after me! I'm a man! I'm 40! I'm not a kid, write something about me or our coaches."
Leach blasted his team, which allowed 610 yards in a 49-42 loss while its offense totaled more than 700 yards.
"We got hit in the mouth and acted like somebody took our lunch money," Leach said during his press conference, "and all we wanted to do was have pouty expressions on our face until somebody dobbed our little tears off and made us (expletive) feel better."
In the press conference on Monday, Leach revisited Gundy's epic rant in a way only the eccentric Leach could.
"I'm 47, I still haven't made man," he said. "Everybody's got their tirades. We're all in glass houses, so you may throw little stones, but not very big ones."
The two coaches will meet again this weekend under more pressured circumstances. For the third time in five weeks, No. 8 OSU will play a Top 5 team away from home and No. 2 Tech faces its second Top-10 opponent when the two teams meet at 7 p.m. Saturday at Jones AT&T Stadium.
The Cowboys (9-1,4-1 in Big 12 Conference play) have some experience playing top-ranked opponents on the road this season. They defeated then-No. 3 Missouri 28-23 on Oct. 11 but lost a close one to then-No. 1 Texas, 28-24, in Austin two weeks later.
Cowboys' quarterback Zac Robinson, whose
passer rating is second in the nation, said the win against Missouri and a close game at Texas - which came down to the end of the fourth quarter - proved to themselves that the Cowboys can beat anyone in the nation.
"The past few years we've struggled on the road," Robinson said. "The win at Missouri definitely helped us out a whole lot and gave us some confidence. Obviously, we played pretty well on the road at Texas in a tough environment and almost pulled it out there."
When Gundy was asked if he used the fact that Tech (9-0, 5-0 in Big 12 play) has not lost to the Cowboys in Lubbock since 1944 as a means of elevating his players' intensity, he said there are more important factors at hand than history.
"I think there's a lot on the line," he said. "We're playing in big games now in the national spotlight. I think there'll be enough motivation for them. I don't know that those things intrigue them that much."
Both teams have reached record setting heights. OSU has a chance to win nine games for only the seventh time while the Red Raiders have an opportunity to go 10-0, which has not happened since 1938.
After Tech's biggest win in school history against then-No. 1 Texas last week, Leach will go through what UT's Mack Brown did in trying to keep his team from slipping up through a dreadful four-game stretch.
After OSU, the Red Raiders get a bye week - a luxury the Longhorns did not have - before they travel to Norman, Okla., to play the Oklahoma Sooners.
"You worry," Leach said of his team not matching last week's intensity. "I just think we have to be disciplined and keep doing what we are doing and keeping pride in the process."
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