STILLWATER (AP) — Mack Brown’s mastery of Oklahoma State has been uncanny.

Eleven years, 11 wins — all the while keeping the Cowboys from becoming a true contender in the Big 12 South. Texas has done it with big-time blowouts and, more recently, with massive comebacks that have provided OSU with a glimmer of hope, only to rip it away in crunch time.

“Everybody will talk about the past,” Brown said. “These kids won’t. It will not be about the last 11 years. It will be about the team that plays better (tonight).”

The No. 3 Longhorns (7-0, 4-0 Big 12) visit Boone Pickens Stadium trying to avoid the same Halloween weekend pitfall that cost them a chance to play for the Big 12 and national championships last season: a road game against a divisional rival on the rise.

Last year, it was Texas Tech that spoiled the run for Colt McCoy and his fellow Longhorns. This year, Oklahoma State gets a shot. And the 13th-ranked Cowboys (6-1, 3-0) have yet to get past Texas.

The Longhorns overcame deficits of 16-7 in 2003, 35-7 in 2004 and 28-9 in 2005 before erasing OSU’s 35-14 lead with 12 minutes left to win in their last visit to Stillwater two years ago.

In last year’s 28-24 loss in Austin, OSU mounted a second-half comeback but had to settle for a field goal on one promising fourth-quarter drive and then couldn’t mount a game-winning drive on two late possessions that started inside its own 10-yard line.

“We’ve been really close, and it’s been frustrating we haven’t been able to finish it off,” quarterback Zac Robinson said. “But I don’t think we’re going to put too much pressure on ourselves. We’re just going to keep having fun and staying loose. That’s been the main thing the last few weeks is we’ve just been playing loose.”

Oklahoma State has gone 4-0 without injured tailback Kendall Hunter and ineligible All-America receiver Dez Bryant, who this week was ordered by the NCAA to sit out the remainder of the season. Hunter could return, although coach Mike Gundy said it would only be on a limited basis — perhaps eight to 10 carries — if he plays.

The absence of those two players and a series of other injuries and defections have overshadowed a promising season that started with a landmark win against Georgia.

“It’s something that gets talked about all the time now,” Gundy said. “At some point as a coach, you’d like to say I don’t want to talk about injuries or adversity anymore. I want to talk about the future and the upcoming game. But I think that we’re kind of out there in a society now where that becomes a topic.”

The winner of the game, which features the only two Big 12 teams without a conference loss, takes control of the South Division. Texas hasn’t played for the conference title since 2005, and Oklahoma State has never done so.

No matter what, the Cowboys have made it a habit to at least give the Longhorns a scare in recent years. OSU was in the midst of a 4-7 season in 2005 when it built the 19-point lead on a Texas team that would go on to win the national championship.

“It just makes us want to focus on the task at hand and focus on finishing, because we haven’t done that against them in previous years,” said Keith Toston, who has filled in for Hunter as the Cowboys’ starting tailback.

“Of course, that would be huge for the program and the fans,” OSU tight end Cooper Bassett said. “But all that aside, beating Texas this year would be awesome just because Texas is such a great team, it would elevate us to a good chance at winning the Big 12 South and just be awesome for our season.