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Which coach won over OK3 on ‘The Voice’? Here’s the music icon the Oklahoma trio picked

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Which coach won over OK3 on ‘The Voice’? Here’s the music icon the Oklahoma trio picked


EGOT winner John Legend won over OK3 following the Oklahoma pop group’s attention-grabbing blind audition on the new season of “The Voice.”

On the Monday, Feb. 26 “The Voice” Season 25 premiere episode, the Oklahoma City-based vocal trio achieved a coveted four-chair turn with their charming cover of the Meghan Trainor hit “Made You Look.”

The Season 25 coaches — Oklahoma Country Music Hall of Famer Reba McEntire, who is in her second season as a “Voice” coach; Legend, who’s in his ninth season; three-time Grammy winner Chance the Rapper, who is returning for his second season; and three-time Grammy-winning country duo Dan + Shay, who are first-time coaches on “The Voice” and sharing a double chair this season — vied fiercely to convince OK3 to choose their team as the blind auditions got underway.

But Monday’s episode ended on a cliffhanger, so viewers had to wait until the opening moments of Tuesday’s installment to find out which coach the OKC trio will be working with this season.

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“I’ve never had a trio before (on Team Legend); this will be fun,” Legend said after OK3 picked him. “I love how vibrant and tight OK3’s harmonies were, and I just felt like they’re going to be so much fun to work with — and so much fun for our audience to watch.”

Which previous ‘The Voice’ contestants inspired OK3 to reunite?

As the group’s name indicates, OK3 consists of three singers from Oklahoma.

The new season of the NBC singing competition is just getting started, but the Sooner State performers are already gaining a lot of attention for their stellar vocal harmonies, sassy stage presence and coordinated choreography they showed off in their blind audition.

Sierra Sikes, who was 23 when the trio auditioned for “The Voice,” is a University of Central Oklahoma alumnus who earned her bachelor of music degree in musical theater in 2021.

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Kenna Fields, 22, is a senior at the Academy of Contemporary Music at UCO who is majoring in contemporary music.

Courtney Hooker, 25, is an ACM@UCO graduate who received her bachelor of applied technology in commercial music in 2020. She also earned an associate’s degree from UCO in performance in 2019.

The singers met through their vocal coach, Amanda Earhart, whom they brought onto “The Voice” stage to help them pick their celebrity coach for the show.

The Oklahomans revealed on the series that they have been best friends and musical collaborators since they were teenagers, performing together at various shows and competitions.

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They broke up in 2017 because they were in different phases of their lives. After not seeing each other for four years, they were inspired by successful “The Voice” runs for groups like Girl Named Tom and Sorelle to reunite at the Oklahoma Opry and then audition for the NBC music contest.

Coaches battle hard to win OK3 for their team

OK3’s blind audition set off a fierce and funny battle among the Season 25 coaches, who all proved eager to add the trio to their team.

Fellow Oklahoman Reba pushed her button about seven seconds into the group’s performance, followed quickly by Dan + Shay and Legend. Chance the Rapper didn’t turn his chair until late in the trio’s blind audition.

“I loved your performance. … I grew up arranging songs for groups, and then, when I went to college, I was an award-winning a cappella arranger. If there’s nothing else that I do, I do this,” Legend said. “I feel like there’s a lot of space for a big pop girl group right now, and I would love to be your coach.”

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Dan + Shay’s Shay Mooney gushed that the trio’s singing made his heart race and declared OK3’s audition “my favorite performance that we’ve seen so far.” He noted that Trainor is a good friend.

His musical partner, Dan Smyers, added, “I don’t want to bash John too bad early. He was saying he’s an award-winning arranger for groups. We’re an award-winning group. We have a double chair.”

“We have two (chairs). We could get a third,” Mooney added with a grin. “I have two sisters. I grew up singing in the church and doing exactly what you guys are doing right now. Your voices are phenomenal.”

To neutralize what he called Dan + Shay’s “unfair advantage,” Legend introduced his “partner,” pushing a button to deploy a blue inflatable tube man emblazoned with the words “Pick Team Legend.”

Despite claiming that Legend’s inflatable tube man had “taken all of my spirit away, it was so loud and distracting,” Chance the Rapper also praised OK3.

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“You guys did great. A couple seasons ago, I worked with a trio, and I have a lot of fun working with harmonics, with arranging for groups. I could kind of expand your palette in terms of what genres you want to play around with,” he said, adding that his signature “3” cap matched the trio.

Reba addressed OK3 as “fellow Okies,” reminded the group that she started out performing in her family band The Singing McEntires and praised the trio’s harmonies.

The Oklahoma Hall of Famer also brought props to bolster her argument, pulling out one of her three Grammys as well as a sparkly scepter.

“I would love to have you gals on my team. We’d have a blast,” Reba said. “I am the Queen of Country Music. I’m just saying, I would love to have you in my kingdom.”

Ultimately, OK3 opted to become the first act this season to join Team Legend

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“I got my first artist, and it was a four-chair turn. Usually, you see these inflatable guys at the car wash. They’re like, ‘Come get your car wash.’ And I’m like, ‘Come to Team Legend.’ And it worked,” Legend said on Tuesday’s episode. “I’m back: my mojo has not gone anywhere.”

“The Voice” airs at 7 p.m. Mondays and Tuesdays on NBC. Episodes stream the next day on Peacock on-demand. The streaming service offers full episodes from the show’s previous 24 seasons, too.





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Baylor looks to bounce back on the road in game against Oklahoma State

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Baylor looks to bounce back on the road in game against Oklahoma State


WACO, Texas (KXXV) — To say the least, it has been a memorable four games for Baylor football so far this season.

A walk off field goal by Arizona State at McLane Stadium brings the Bears to 2-2 for the season and now they are heading to Stillwater looking to bounce back against Oklahoma State.

Watch the full story here:

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Baylor looks to bounce back in road game against Oklahoma State

“Saturday’s game was a tough one,” head coach Dave Aranda said. “But, I think the message there is that hey, you can prepare, you can practice, you can do all of the things — that doesn’t mean you’re gonna win. There’s still more things that you gotta do.”

“There’s no participation trophy for preparing right and staying late and doing the extra all these details matter and so we’re really focused on that,” he added.

The Bears enter Stillwater following the firing of Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy after 21 years on the job. While the Cowboys are reeling, the Bears understand that they still have a talented roster.

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“They play hard, you know. They get after the ball, their record doesn’t reflect the kind of team they are. They got a lot of talent and they’re gonna be ready to play,” safety Devyn Bobby said.

“Same thing we always talk about — respect all, fear none. We take that into every week, you know they’re still a great program. They have great coaching staff, great athletes on the field, so we gotta be prepared and ready for them,” wide receiver Kobe Prentice said.

After the Arizona State game, head coach Aranda spoke about complimentary football. While the defense had a great game last week, the offense struggled — and they are looking to find that balance.

“Obviously we didn’t get the win, so we got to get better so you know a lot of people might say we had a great game but we didn’t get to win — we could have had more stops, had more turnovers, but you know we’re still having to attack everyday mindset and we’re trying to get better,” Bobby said.

“The higher level than all of that is the team is that you know if one side’s down the other side picks it up. We need to be able to have that, you know, when we’ve played at the level that we need to play, we play that way and so we’re going to continue to aim for it,” Aranda said.

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Baylor vs Oklahoma State is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. this Saturday.

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Oklahoma State football fires coach Mike Gundy after 21 seasons, school announces

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Oklahoma State football fires coach Mike Gundy after 21 seasons, school announces


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Oklahoma State football has fired head coach Mike Gundy after 21 seasons, the program announced on Tuesday, Sept. 23.

Gundy, previously the second-longest tenured head coach with one program in college football, led the Cowboys to a 1-2 start this season, including a 19-12 loss to in-state foe Tulsa on Sept. 19, which was OSU’s first at home to Tulsa since 1951. Oklahoma State also lost to Oregon 69-3 in Week 2.

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“Cowboy Football reached an unprecedented level of success and national prominence under Coach Gundy’s leadership,” OSU athletic director Chad Weiberg said in the announcement. “I believe I speak for OSU fans everywhere when I say that we are grateful for all he did to raise the standard and show us all what is possible for Oklahoma State football.”

Oklahoma State is amid its longest losing streak to Power Four teams in program history, having lost 11 straight against such teams. The Cowboys went 3-9 last season and were winless in Big 12 play. Gundy leaves the program with a 170-90 career record and has the school’s winningest coach of all time. He has 108 more wins than Pat Jones, who ranks second in program history with 62 wins.

Gundy is owed a $15 million buyout from the school due to be fired prior to Dec. 31, 2027, according to his contract obtained by the USA TODAY Network.

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Gundy said after the Tulsa loss that he had no interest in 2025 being his final season with the program, and was swarmed with questions about his future with the school.

“In 21 years it’s a different position than I’ve been in,” Gundy said. “As I say every week, my job is to evaluate the overall program, players, the systems … And then I have to make a decision on where we’re at based on what we have. That’s what I do. We’ve certainly been in a different situation a lot of years in a row, but currently we’re not in that situation.” 

The 58-year-old coach helped build Oklahoma State into a perennial Big 12 title contender after taking over for Les Miles in 2005. He nearly led the Cowboys to the national championship in 2011, and was Big 12 Coach of the Year in 2010, 2021 and 2023.

The fall from grace was fast for the program, as the Cowboys earned a spot in the Big 12 championship in 2023, and also beat archrival Oklahoma in the final Bedlam for the foreseeable future.

Gundy, a former Oklahoma State quarterback and Midwest City, Oklahoma, native, has only coached four seasons at other schools in his career, serving as passing-game coordinator at Baylor in 1996 and receivers coach at Maryland from 1997-99. He was an assistant at Oklahoma State from 1990-95, and again from 2001-04.

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Oklahoma State will turn to a new coach for the first time in over 20 years for the 2026 season, and they’ll look to lead the program back to the heights of Gundy’s prime in Stillwater.



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AP Top 25 Continues Troubling Trend for Big 12, Oklahoma State’s Future

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AP Top 25 Continues Troubling Trend for Big 12, Oklahoma State’s Future


The Big 12 is still having a rough time in the national landscape.

Over the weekend, the Big 12 had some interesting matchups as it secured an unbeaten record in nonconference games. While a couple of matchups between Big 12 teams on Friday kept the conference from having a perfect record, the 12 teams in action combined for a 10-2 mark, which is the best they could have achieved in Week 3.

However, that didn’t mean a whole lot for the Big 12 in the AP poll, which dropped on Sunday. The conference had only three teams in the top 25, with No. 12 Iowa State, No. 16 Utah and No. 17 Texas Tech representing the Big 12.

In terms of how bad that is for the Big 12, the conference’s most recent departures in Texas and Oklahoma came in at Nos. 8 and 11, respectively. Meanwhile, the other three power conferences have at least one team in the top four and multiple teams in the top seven.

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Of course, the AP poll is only good for discussions, as evidenced by winless Notre Dame’s inclusion, with the independent program riding the coattails of last season’s runner-up performance. The real rankings won’t come until the final weeks of the year, with the College Football Playoff’s top 25 ultimately being all that matters in the end.

To put it simply, the AP poll is unlikely to have any impact on OSU this season. The Cowboys’ loss at Oregon will keep them from receiving a single vote for quite some time, even if they could somehow put together a sizeable winning streak starting with the Tulsa matchup.

Of course, if the Cowboys could find a way to put together any sort of streak, perhaps in a similar fashion to 2023’s winning streak, they might be able to break through anyway, given the Big 12’s status nationally. Sure, the Cowboys won’t be any sort of contender at the national level any time soon, but a 5-1 start would probably be good enough to get them into the polls and the Big 12 title conversation.

In terms of the long-term future, the Pokes might not even be saved by any type of resurgence. Considering the Big 12 is easily the laughing stock of the Power Four, it needs a program to essentially save it from becoming irrelevant in the national landscape. 

With OSU being the laughing stock of the Big 12, there’s no reason to expect the Cowboys to be the saviors the conference desperately needs.

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