Even though Oklahoma State wasn’t as successful this season as in recent years, OSU coach Mike Gundy is looking forward to a Liberty Bowl match with former Big 12 member Missouri.

The game is at 2:45 p.m. December 31 at the Liberty Bowl in Memphis, Tennessee. The broadcast is on ESPN.

“I think it’s a cool game,” Gundy said. “This team is as good as any team we’ve played. This team is really good. They lost to Alabama, lost to Georgia, lost by two points to Kentucky and lost by two points to South Carolina early in the year.

“Offense is very explosive, defense is good, special teams are good. It’s a really good football team. This will be a great challenge for us, but I’m excited about playing it because I’m an old Big Eight guy.

“Back in the day, we played them, and I still think one of the tragedies that we’ve ever had around here is that we lost the old Big 12. We had 12 teams and it was pretty cool. We had a north and a south.”

Missouri quarterback Drew Locke has drawn a lot of attention.

“The quarterback is very accurate,” said OSU cornerback Rodarius Williams. “He is probably going to be one of the most poised quarterbacks we’ve faced. It’s going to be a huge task (to contain him).”

Part of Lock’s success is the play of Missouri’s offensive line.

“Based off the film, this is one of the best groups of offensive linemen that we will have seen in this particular season,” said OSU defensive tackle Enoch Smith, Jr. “We have been looking at things like their alignment, or someone who is looking down while they are in their stance. We have just been looking for those keys, to try to find anything that will help us get the win.”

• Oklahoma State running back Justice Hill was named the Big 12 Football Scholar/Athlete of the year. This is the first time an OSU player has won that award. Hill earned All-Big 12 First Team honors for a second consecutive year after rushing for 930 yards and nine touchdowns on 158 attempts this season. Hill will forego his senior year of eligibility and has declared for the 2019 NFL Draft.

• OSU wide receiver Tylan Wallace was a first-team selection in the Sporting News All-America team. Also a finalist for the 2018 Biletnikoff Award, Wallace led the nation with 59 receptions of 10 yards or longer, tied for the FBS lead with 25 receptions of 20 yards or longer and tied for the national lead with 18 catches of 25 yards or longer.

Wallace is adept at catching passes in a crowd.

“I feel like that’s really a big thing that we worked on coming into the season, knowing that there would be a lot of those,” Wallace said. “And then, being a shorter receiver, knowing you’d have to go up and make contested catches like that. Not being 6-2 or 6-4 or anything like that, there are going to be some catches like that you have to go up and make. That’s one thing we work on a lot in practice, is doing that.”

• OSU defender Jordan Brailford will forego his final year of eligibility to enter the NFL Draft.

“It was something I had been thinking about for a while,” Brailford said. “I just really thought, you know, I’m graduating, I’m walking this December. I’ve done what I originally came here to do, which was get a degree. I’ve made my family proud, I’ve done right by my mom, so the only thing left is for me to pursue what I want to do – my dream of trying to make it at the next level.”

Brailford will play for OSU in the Liberty Bowl.

“It’s another game to show off what I can do,” Brailford said.”We’re playing against an SEC team who has a pretty good offensive line, so hopefully we can do some things to disrupt them and have a good game and end on a win.”

• Missouri coach Barry Odom (19-18 at Missouri) got a $600,000 raise and a contract extension through 2024 after the Tigers went 8-4 this season. Missouri has won more games in each of the last three years and is going to a bowl for the second year in a row.