{"id":468919,"date":"2026-10-17T16:08:18","date_gmt":"2026-10-17T16:08:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/468919\/"},"modified":"2026-10-17T16:08:18","modified_gmt":"2026-10-17T16:08:18","slug":"oklahoma-state-houston-football-kickoff-tv-time-and-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/468919\/","title":{"rendered":"Oklahoma State-Houston Football: Kickoff, TV time, and more"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Jonathan<\/a>\"Default<\/p>\n

The No. 18 Oklahoma State Cowboys are riding high following their latest win in Big 12 play, and they look to stay hot when they head to No. 20 Houston on Saturday. <\/p>\n

Below is what you need to know about the Oklahoma State-Houston game. <\/p>\n

Game Day Basics When: 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 17Where: TDECU Stadium in Houston, TexasTV: FOXRadio: 96.1 KXXY and The Varsity Sports Network<\/a>Oklahoma State Record: 4-1 (2-0 Big 12)Houston Record: 5-1 (2-1 Big 12)<\/p>\n

>> Video Below: Sooners and Cowboys prepare for matchups against top 25 teams<\/p>\n

Oklahoma State\u2019s fast turnaround sets up a huge Big 12 test at Houston <\/p>\n

First-year Oklahoma State coach Eric Morris has already matched the team\u2019s win total from the last two seasons combined with four victories this year to give him 50 in his head coaching career.<\/p>\n

As the 18th-ranked Cowboys prepare to visit No. 20 Houston on Saturday, the 40-year-old Morris knows his accomplishments are nothing compared to those of Cougars\u2019 coach Willie Fritz, who is in his 34th season as a collegiate head coach.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has\u2026 200 and some odd wins — 266 or something — and there ain\u2019t no way in hell I\u2019m going to get to 266,\u201d Morris said with a laugh. \u201cI can tell you that right now. I\u2019ll be retired and doing something else at that point in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 66-year-old Fritz has orchestrated a turnaround at Houston the last two seasons and Morris is off to a strong start doing the same at Oklahoma State this season. <\/p>\n

The Cougars won just four games in Fritz\u2019s first season before going 10-3 last year and getting off to a 5-1 start this season. <\/p>\n

>> Watch Crashing the Boards Below: Cowboys make elite second-half adjustments in win over UCF<\/p>\n

\u201cAll he\u2019s done is build programs and win everywhere he\u2019s been,\u201d Morris said. \u201cHe does it with different schemes, but he always has the same key ingredients to it \u2026 and you see it when you turn on the tape.\u201d <\/p>\n

The Cowboys opened the season with a disappointing 24-10 loss to Tulsa before upsetting then-No. 6 Oregon in the home opener to start a four-game winning streak. They\u2019re 2-0 in Big 12 play after going 0-18 combined in the last two dreadful seasons that cost Mike Gundy his job at his alma mater.<\/p>\n

These coaches last met in 2023 when Fritz was at Tulane and Morris was in his first year at North Texas. Tulane held on for a 35-28 win after North Texas rallied from a 21-point deficit to tie it late. Fritz was impressed with Morris then and continues to be a fan of how he does things. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s identical,\u201d Fritz said. \u201cHe does a very good job. I\u2019ve got a lot of respect for Eric and the way he runs his program. He\u2019s hired a very, very good staff.\u201d<\/p>\n

BYU, Texas Tech and Utah are all undefeated, but Oklahoma State and Houston are still very much in the Big 12 race with just one loss each.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a big game,\u201d Fritz said. \u201cIt\u2019s a big game for them. It\u2019s a big game for us. This has a lot of implications for the Big 12 race, so this is a huge game. We\u2019re very excited about the challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Quarterback matchup<\/p>\n

The game features two high-powered offenses led by star quarterbacks. The Cowboys top the Big 12 and rank sixth in the nation by averaging 521.4 yards a game. Houston ranks third in the conference and 12th in the nation with 481.8 yards a game.<\/p>\n

Oklahoma State\u2019s Drew Mestemaker, who followed Morris from North Texas, leads the Big 12 by averaging 315 yards passing a game and Houston\u2019s Conner Weigman is fifth in the league with 238 yards. Weigman\u2019s 15 touchdown passes are second-most in the league and Mestemaker\u2019s 13 rank third.<\/p>\n

Mestemaker doesn\u2019t run very often, with just 15 carries for 108 yards. But he did have a 75-yard scramble in the win over Oregon and Fritz knows it.<\/p>\n

\u201cOklahoma State\u2019s quarterback runs it better than you think, and you\u2019ve got to play that part of it, as well,\u201d Fritz said. \u201cI was watching their film and saw a particular down-and-distance and formation, and I was like: \u2018quarterback draw.\u2019 Boom, that\u2019s what they ran. You don\u2019t do that unless you have confidence in your quarterback being able to run the football.\u201d <\/p>\n

>> Video Below: No. 18 Oklahoma State surges past UCF 42-28 after a fumble-return turning point<\/p>\n

Weigman runs a lot more than Mestemaker and had 700 yards rushing with 11 touchdowns last year in his first year with the Cougars after spending three seasons at Texas A&M. He has 177 yards rushing with six TD runs this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey list him at 6-3, 210, but he runs with strength behind his pads,\u201d Morris said. \u201cAnd he\u2019s somebody we\u2019re definitely going to have to work on getting on the ground, because they\u2019ll do some designed runs for him.\u201d <\/p>\n

Imploring the fans<\/p>\n

The Cougars have had a tough time filling their stadium this season and have averaged just 27,757 in three home games. Their worst turnout came in their last home game with an announced crowd of just 25,593 in the 40,000-seat TDECU Stadium for a 27-17 win over UCF with an 11 a.m. kickoff.<\/p>\n

Fritz knows that in a city like Houston there are plenty of other things to do, but implored fans to come out for Saturday night\u2019s game.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to get as many Coogs out there as humanly possible,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be a great game. … It won\u2019t be hot. It\u2019ll be nice and cool.\u201d <\/p>\n

>> Get more top headlines<\/a> | Download the KOCO 5 App<\/a> | Subscribe to KOCO 5\u2019s YouTube channel<\/a> | Sign up for KOCO 5\u2019s Morning Newsletter<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The No. 18 Oklahoma State Cowboys are riding high following their latest win in Big 12 play, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":468920,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[159501,159500,227,9197,1044,9353,4459,56,58,57,159502,11774,430,544,9738,79236,28968],"class_list":["post-468919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-40-year-old-morris","tag-66-year-old-fritz","tag-big","tag-cougars","tag-cowboys","tag-drew-mestemaker","tag-game","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-late-win","tag-no","tag-north-texas","tag-oklahoma-state","tag-season","tag-star-quarterback","tag-yard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468919\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/468920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}