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SOMEWHERE ALONG I-35 IN CENTRAL OKLAHOMA -- Google “Oklahoma” and “football” these days and the top search results aren’t going to tell you much about one of the state’s chief exports.

That would be actual football.

You’ll see video of Heisman Trophy finalist Baker Mayfield trying to outrun Fayetteville, Arkansas, cops. He didn’t get very far. 

You’ll get results about the Oklahoma State football coach’s love of wrestling. 

You’ll certainly get an inside look at Mike Gundy during a rattlesnake hunt. 

“If you get a six-footer, that’s like catching a 12 pound bass,” said Gundy, who just returned from such an expedition. “I want my 12 year old to get it and he can put up the skin on his wall.”

You’ll get a recounting of Brad Underwood’s one-and-done basketball season at Oklahoma State. The subject dominated public discourse usually reserved for spring practice.  

“I wasn’t comparing,” said Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops, the nation’s longest-tenured FBS coach at one school. “I should have said, ‘Until you’ve walked a mile in another man’s shoes, be careful.’”

But loyalty and permanence do mean something significant here. Gundy (12 years on the job) and Stoops (18) have been at the one and only head coaching jobs they’ve ever had for a combined 30 years.

Their excellence these days is overshadowed a bit by some lowest common denominator web oddities. In the case of Gundy, sure, some of it is self-generated.

But in the heartland, even social media can’t wipe away what long-term dedication has produced.

Oklahoma -- No. 7 in the final College Football Playoff Rankings -- should start at or near the top 10. Considering a load of returning offensive riches, Oklahoma State is top-15 worthy coming off Gundy’s fifth season in the last seven of at least 10 wins.

The last time the two programs started the season in the top 15 of the preseason AP Top 25 was six years ago.

The two coaches have never finished together in the top 10. For the schools separated by 80 miles on this ribbon of highway, this could be the year.

“OU has been the team,” Gundy said. “Nobody has taken it from them. It’s like preseason. You have to say, ‘OK, Alabama is No. 1 up until someone has beat them.’ It’s like [Muhammad] Ali: Someone is going to be the favorite until someone beats him.”

A more gruff Stoops was short when asked about that team up north. It was a reminder these two coaches are always trying to beat other’s brains in.

“We’ll pay attention like we did last year when that [Bedlam] week comes,” he said. “I don’t pay attention to anybody. What am I going to do about what [they are going to do]?”

But with Baylor having fallen into scandal, TCU having fallen off and Texas rebuilding, the Big 12 race begins here.  And it may be more than that.

Not only are the Cowboys and Sooners the top two teams, they could meet twice. That’s guaranteed of whoever finishes 1-2 as the league reinstitutes its championship game.

Those top two finishers will meet in a regular-season rematch in the only FBS league that plays a true round-robin conference schedule.

Their fabled Bedlam series could get doubly ornery. It’s not exactly Auburn-Alabama but nothing is the Iron Bowl. Stoops is coming off his 10th conference title attempting to win his third in a row.

It’s fair to label Oklahoma State a little brother. Its only Big 12 title came in 2011 when it missed a BCS title shot by .0083 of a point. But Gundy is numbingly consistent. Since 2008, the Cowboys have won between eight and 12 games every year but one.

For both, it’s a matter of breaking through this season. The Big 12 became the first Power Five league to miss the College Football Playoff twice. Considering the fruitless expansion pursuit last year, it’s hard to imagine what would happen if the Big 12 missed out three times in the first four years.

Gundy likes to point out that since 2010 only eight Power Five programs have won more games. But even with the loss of a Heisman finalist at receiver (Dede Westbrook) and its top two tailbacks (Samaje Perine and Joe Mixon), OU is likely to be favored again.

But there are reasons for an all-time race in the state. Oklahoma has returning Heisman finalist Baker Mayfield who is on track to become the most efficient passer in NCAA history.

Stoops has already heard all the jokes about Mayfield’s public intoxication bust: The elusive quarterback may have taken his toughest hit in that video.

“I’ve heard that one, too,” Stoops said. “I’m not laughing about it.“

But Oklahoma State is giddy over Mason Rudolph, the nation’s third-leading returning passer. In the Big 12, if you have a quarterback you have a chance.

“Players rally around him because he plays injured,” Gundy said. “He played in the [2016] Sugar Bowl with a broken foot. He wasn’t ready. He couldn’t practice. I put him out there. I shouldn’t [have].”

With the departure of Westbrook, Oklahoma will develop someone at receiver. It always does. The Cowboys have what they think is the deepest receiver pool in the country. James Washington might the No. 1 returning pass catcher in the nation.

The programs have been more involved in developing the league’s offensive culture than copying it.

“People don’t try to beat you,” Tulsa coach Philip Montgomery said of the Big 12. “They try to destroy you. You’ve got to score points to win.”

Montgomery spent seven years as Art Briles’ coordinator at Baylor. His Golden Hurricane open the season at Oklahoma State.

Where Stoops and Gundy go from here is an open-ended question. Stoops, 56, now has lived longer in Norman than his native Youngstown, Ohio.

He leads Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz by one day as that longest-tenured coach at one place. When Stoops took over at OU in December 1998, Iowa soon tapped Ferentz.

“Done the right way, you want it to be your whole career,” Stoops said. “How many teams sell out for 19 straight years?”

Not many under the same guy.

As for Gundy’s future, well, he would be the more likely to flake of the two. There is constant chatter about his ebbing and flowing relationship with Oklahoma State benefactor T. Boone Pickens.

But what else are Gundy and the Cowboys going to do? He’s the Steve Spurrier of Stillwater -- the school’s former quarterback now coaching his alma mater.

Oklahoma State has enjoyed unprecedented success in Gundy’s 12 seasons. Just not as much as Stoops.

The school would be stupid to get rid of him. And Gundy isn’t going anywhere. Not that he hasn’t thought about it.

“Ultimately, I’d like to do some TV stuff,” Gundy said. “My only concern is … you guys in the journalism profession work long days.

“Do I want to work a long day? If I do more wrestling stuff and rattlesnake hunts, my market value goes up.”