The exception, of course, is junior offensive lineman Caleb Etienne who played for the Cowboys before deciding to transfer to join the Cougars this year.

As he has known would happen all season, it’s time for him to cap the 2023 regular season campaign by returning to his former home.

“For me, it’s going to be a surreal moment going back out there where I was,” Etienne said Tuesday after practice. “It will be good to go back to see some of the guys I used to play on the team with. Now I’m going to be competing against them this Saturday. I think it’ll be a good game for me and for the whole team.”

He smiled when asked if he had been reaching out to any of his former teammates prior to this week’s showdown.

“Not right now,” Etienne said. “No one is talking right now.”

He said BYU needs to be ready to play in front of the pro-Oklahoma State fanbase in Stillwater.

“From my experience, it’s a great crowd, a great environment” Etienne said. “They have great people who will talk their trash to try and get you out of the zone. They’ll hit the seats and make noise. It’s a hostile environment but it’s good.”

He said he doesn’t feel like Oklahoma State has anything that is that different, although he talked about how the cowboy mascot comes out after the home team scores.

The bottom line, though, is that both the Cowboys and the Cougars are coming in needing a victory to reach their goals.

BYU needs to win its final game to finish at .500 for the season a get bowl-eligbile, while a win by Oklahoma State would likely put the Cowboys into the Big 12 title game.

“This is a great opportunity,” Etienne said. “We’ve both got something to play for. It’s going to be a good game. We’ve got to come out positive, ready to go out there and play.”

Etienne feels like his unit created a little bit of momentum heading into the season finale with how it played against Oklahoma, opening up holes for the run game.

“That’s what we’ve been looking for all season,” Etienne said. “It’s what we’ve been looking to see. We are finally getting somewhere. Hopefully we can do that again this weekend and it can carry on. We have good running backs who trust that we are going to open up holes for them. We’ve got to keep on doing that.”

But he knows it won’t be easy, particularly as BYU faces an excellent defender in Collin Oliver.

“He’s a key guy for them,” Etienne said. “We’ve got to be ready for them and keep preparing the right way.”

On the other side of the ball, Cougar defensive coordinator Jay Hill said his unit will need to be ready for a very good Oklahoma State offense, particualarly running back Ollie Gordon.

“He’s got a ton of yards and he’s actually a really great receiver too,” Hill said. “He has had a couple of huge games, including a couple where he had almost 300 yards. Their offensive line has a lot of veterans with a ton of starts. That’s how they open up their pass game. Their quarterback is very talented as well. We are going to have to be assignment sound. We have our work cut out for us.”

BYU head coach Kalani Sitake said he wants his team to give everything they have to finish the season strong, but to do it in the right way.

“We want to extend our season and be bowl eligible which means we need to win this one,” Sitake said earlier this week. “At the same time, you want to make sure you don’t jump just to the results but focus on the standard, the values you have, and you’ll get the results that you want.

“I’m looking forward to seeing our guys play this last game of the regular season and trying to find a way to extend our season so we can enjoy what comes with bowl games which is the extra practices and time together.”

THE WORD: This will be the third meeting between BYU and Oklahoma State, with the Cowboys winning both previous matchups which both came in bowl games. Oklahoma State beat the Cougars, 16-6 in BYU’s first bowl game, the 1974 Fiesta Bowl, then hammered the Cougars 49-21 in the 1976 Tangerine Bowl … The Cougars are 32-67-1 vs. ranked opponents. BYU is 7-11 against ranked teams under Sitake … BYU is playing one of its toughest schedules in history in its inaugural year as member of the Big 12 Conference. Oklahoma State will be the 10th of 10 consecutive Power 5 opponents — the most BYU has ever played in a single season in school history. During the Independence Era, the most Power 5 teams the Cougars faced in a season was seven (in 2021 and 2013) and only played more than five three times. The Cougars never played more than four consecutive Power 5 teams before 2023. ESPN ranks BYU’s strength of schedule at No. 24 this year, while compared to No. 73 in 2022 and No. 70 in 2021.