No. 8 Oklahoma State beats Tulsa 59-33; game ends at 3:35 a.m.

Published 2:14 pm Sunday, September 18, 2011

TULSA, Okla. — As the time kept ticking away, quarterback Brandon Weeden began to wonder if it was getting too late for Oklahoma State to play its game against Tulsa.

Midnight was approaching, and surely they wouldn’t start a game that late, would they?

Turns out they would.

Tulsa’s Kevin Fitzpatrick kicked it off 16 minutes after midnight and the Cowboys — who moved up a spot to No. 7 in the rankings this week — didn’t finish their 59-33 win until 3:35 a.m. Sunday.

And the all-nighter was mere minutes away from getting canceled.

Tulsa athletic director Bubba Cunningham and Oklahoma State counterpart Mike Holder had agreed to call off the game if lightning struck near H.A. Chapman Stadium after 11:30 p.m. Saturday. The last strike recorded was at 11:23, and players were able to get back on the field just before midnight to warm up for the game.

“After going through it, I just don’t think it’s the best thing for student-athletes,” Cowboys coach Mike Gundy said. “They’ve got to go to class Monday, and it’s going to take a couple, three days to get over an evening like this for all of us. It was very unusual.”

To say the least.

Tulsa’s band had already played the national anthem and kickoff was just minutes away when fans were encouraged to clear the stands and seek shelter. Rain started falling around 9:15 p.m. and it soon became a downpour.

NCAA rules suggest waiting at least 30 minutes after a lightning strike to resume a game, and Cunningham and Holder — after failing to get through that half-hour window several times — eventually had to decide when they had reached a point of no return.

“We just felt from a reasonable standpoint that midnight was kind of our point of distinction,” Cunningham said.

An NCAA bylaw prohibits athletic activities from starting between midnight and 5 a.m., but Cunningham said it’s his understanding the rule is intended to prevent coaches from punishing players with an early morning practice after a game — and not to stop games from starting after a weather delay.

“I think everybody felt that way; they thought the game might get called,” Oklahoma State defensive coordinator Bill Young said. “But what are you going to do? Everybody’s here. The fans are here, the players are here and if you can get it in, you try to get it in.

“Obviously, we’re all happy we did get it in.”

Weeden said players were practically waiting at the door 2 minutes after being told the game would go on. More than half of the paid crowd of 24,563 stayed for the game.

“For us to come all the way here and have to go right back would have disappointed a lot of us,” said Oklahoma State cornerback Justin Gilbert, who had a 96-yard kickoff return for a touchdown and an interception.

“We wanted to get this win under our belt and continue on down the road.”

Gundy had some regrets, though. He had questioned even starting the game around 9 p.m. because of a later-than-usual television window in the Fox Sports television package. Then he was concerned players could get hurt by playing at a time when they’re used to sleeping.

Tulsa quarterback G.J. Kinne hurt his knee in the first quarter after he was hit late out of bounds and went careening into the bench area, forcing him from the game.

“You can’t control the weather but when you start at 9 you put yourself in that situation. You’re asking for it,” Gundy said. “Anything can happen. And so I just don’t think it’s the best thing in the world to do.”

“At some point, we have to have some thought put into student-athletes,” he added. “I know everybody’s got to go along with it. You can’t control it. But it’s just not the best situation.”

He even questioned why there needed to be extended television timeouts, keeping play going even deeper into the moonlight.

“I guess somebody paid for that, so we have to,” Gundy said, “but at some point you think, ‘Who’s really watching at 3 in the morning?'”

The Cowboys bused the 70 miles or so back to Stillwater afterward and got back around 5:50 a.m. Gundy was still planning to have a light practice to start preparing for their Big 12 opener Saturday at No. 8 Texas A&M.

“I think you have to stay with the schedule that you have,” Gundy said. “Because Monday is their day off, they have classes set up at certain times on Mondays … so you can’t adjust practice because then they’ll miss class. I don’t want them to do that, so I think you stay with the scheduling and the coaches have got to come in and do the best they can.”

Tulsa coach Bill Blankenship said one of his main concerns was players ate dinner around 5 p.m. and he wanted to keep them nourished. Both teams made peanut butter sandwiches to keep going, and Blankenship said his team also munched on fruit and energy bars.

“We got the kids off their feet. They took their pads off and tried to relax and tried not to use a bunch of nervous energy,” he said. “No matter how many times you say that, it’s still hard not to burn up nervous energy when you’re geared up and ready to play.

“We were right to the point of kickoff when they decided to delay it.”

Weather had been clear throughout the day in Tulsa right up until game time, and there likely wouldn’t have been any issues if it had been scheduled at a more conventional time.

“We picked the worst time to kick off because that’s when the storm moved in,” Holder said. “It was a perfect storm — for a storm.”