There was a time during the Mike Gundy era where Tulsa reigned over OSU when the games were at Skelly Stadium.

Unfortunately for TU currently, OSU's futility while playing in Tulsa coincided greatly when Gundy was a player and assistant coach. Not the Mike Gundy head coaching era.

Tulsa (1-1) is looking to turn back the clock to the 1982-1998 time period when Tulsa was 6-2 at home against OSU.

The Golden Hurricane will get their chance when TU hosts No. 13 Oklahoma State on Skelly Field at H.A. Chapman Stadium on Saturday at 11 a.m.

Gundy, who amazingly is in his 20th season as OSU's head coach, was 0-2 as a player (1986-1989) when the Pokes played at TU, including a 20-10 loss to TU in 1989 in his only game against TU as OSU's starting QB. He was 1-2 at TU as an assistant at OSU.

Still, Gundy is only 3-4 against TU at Tulsa in his career. He has only coached two games when the Cowboys have played at Tulsa, winning 59-33 in the midnight start game in 2011, and 40-21 in 2019.

Gundy took over at quarterback as a freshman very soon in the same season as Tulsa's 27-23 win in 1986 over OSU.

One thing that is similar between the different eras, starting this season, is that TU and OSU will be playing against each other every year for 8 seasons, starting Saturday. And it will be home and home. The two teams played every year from 1981-1996.

"I'm excited to play it. It's nice that we can continue," said Tulsa coach Kevin Wilson of the series with OSU.

This season's version of the rivalry has OSU (2-0) coming off two so-so home wins where they defeated FCS reigning champ South Dakota State 44-20, and last week's overtime win over Arkansas.

Without question, OSU is a quality team again in 2024. But the Pokes are clearly not a juggernaut, at least not yet this season. The Golden Hurricane has a chance if they play well.

Tulsa's 28-24 loss at Arkansas State last Saturday night was extremely disappointing for many reasons. Tulsa dominated ASU 17-7 in the first half, and it shouldn't have even been that close. But too many unforced mistakes led to Tulsa's loss against what appears to be a decent team from the Sun Belt.

"We have to eliminate the self-inflicted wounds," Wilson said.

The 20-point spread that favors OSU appears to be a decent pick by the oddsmakers, although the last two times OSU and TU have played, the games were very close. With both games at OSU, Tulsa led into the fourth quarter and fell 16-7 in 2020, and OSU escaped with a 28-23 victory in 2021.

Oklahoma State is a hard team to figure out. They can be really good, really average, or not very good at all, depending on the week.