Oklahoma State and Texas A&M will square off on Wednesday December 26th in the TaxAct Texas Bowl in a game that features two teams who did exactly the opposite of where they started their season.
For Texas A&M, they started the season 4-1 with wins over Auburn and Arkansas, before hosting Alabama in a game that many felt would propel the Aggies back into the Top 10 and save Jimbo Fisher’s job. However, the Aggies lost to the Crimson Tide and ultimately ended up losing four of their final six SEC games.
Oklahoma State started the season 2-2 with a loss to Iowa State and a mind-boggling 7-33 loss to South Alabama. Then Ollie Gordan emerged. The Cowboys ended up finishing out the season 7-1 including wins against Oklahoma and Kansas State. Their only setback was a loss to UCF in a game that was a hangover from beating Oklahoma the week before.
Players Not Playing in the Bowl Game
Oklahoma State will be without a few offensive weapons, but none greater than wide receiver Jaden Bray who entered his name in the transfer portal. Aside from Bray, there won’t be any significant contributors missing unless injuries start to stack up and depth becomes an issue.
Texas A&M on the contrary will have reportingly less than 55 scholarship players with at least 16 players in the portal. It’s so bad that interim head coach Elijah Robinson said the following:
“If we go into this thing with 22 players, we are going to have 11 guys on the field at a time,” said Robinson about his truncated roster. “There are guys who show up every day. They deserve to play this game. So if we’ve got 11, and we can show up with 11, we will show up with 11. If we’ve got 85, we will show up with 85. Whatever we have.”
In other words, Texas A&M may have the most depleted bowl game roster in the history bowl games.
How to Watch:
Wednesday, December 27th, 9:00 PM ET on ESPN or ESPN+
Prediction for Texas A&M vs Oklahoma State
Despite the opt-outs and coaching drama around Texas A&M, the Aggies still have talent all over the field. Pound for pound, Texas A&M still outmans the Cowboy’s. Luckily for Oklahoma State, recruiting rankings don’t win games, and it won’t for Texas A&M this game.
Texas A&M may have enough natural talent to keep up early, but by half-time this game will be well over.
Final Score: Texas A&M 13, Oklahoma State 42