Forget Year 1 Talk, Cowboys Chasing Championships Right Now

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STILLWATER — Last week, it felt like Oklahoma State was sent to the back of the line of Big 12 contenders.

Then came a chaotic Saturday, and just like that the Pokes (5-2, 3-1 Big 12) are back in the thick of it in a four-way tie for second place in the conference.

“Not aware, what happened? Tech and BYU both lost?” said Eric Morris when asked about the day following OSU’s 57-24 win over Colorado. “Yeah, we’re not to that place building this program.

“We’re so in the trenches right now and trying to control what we’re doing. We have so many issues that we gotta continue to grow and get fixed around here. Obviously, in this day and age where you have so much access to social media and things going on, I’m the biggest believer that as soon as we get ahead of ourselves in building this program right now, this is a humbling game. … We’ll try to keep them locked in as best we can and control it and keep chipping away at this thing.”

Morris doesn’t want to say it out loud, but the thing Oklahoma State is chipping away at is far bigger than a Big 12 title game appearance.

“In our first meeting here, we put up the College Football Playoff Trophy and said ‘this is our goal, don’t shy away from it,’” linebacker Ethan Wesloski said. “And so we’ve put ourselves in a decent position, but like I said, we’ve eliminated all margin for error (losing to Tulsa and Houston). And so I have full confidence in all of our guys across the team on special teams, on offense, on defense that we are right where we want to be. If we just go week-by-week-by-week and take care of what we need to take care of, we’re going to be looking up at confetti at the end of this.”

Saturday’s result wasn’t just impressive because BYU, Texas Tech and Baylor (playing Kansas) lost. In the first half, the Buffaloes (2-5, 0-4 Big 12) looked every bit the better-than-their-record team that had No. 8 Texas Tech and No. 10 Utah on the ropes during its last two games.

Instead, the Cowboys put their foot down, outscoring the Buffs 34-0 in the second half in a game Colorado led for almost the entire first half, including a one-point lead at the break itself.

“I mean, we’re aware of it, but you know we just got to take it week by week,” said quarterback Drew Mestemaker when asked about the Big 12 race. “And you know we don’t want to be in the situation where we’re hoping for losses and stuff like that. Like it’s early enough in the season, we still control our own destiny to the playoffs and to the Big 12 Championship, and so you just got to take it week by week and keep winning.”

That’s mostly true following the results across the conference on Saturday.

Oklahoma State doesn’t face BYU, Baylor, Arizona or Utah this season. Although that means the Cowboys can’t lose to those teams, it also means OSU can’t knock them down the standings either.

Theoretically, when the day began, the world existed where BYU and Houston ran the table, which would definitively leave OSU stuck at home on championship weekend.

Now the Cowboys can, at the very least, knock Texas Tech behind them, stay ahead of Baylor, Cincinnati (which demolished the Red Raiders on Saturday) and Houston (which fell to 3-2 in Big 12 play after a close loss to Utah).

Utah sits all alone in first place, but must still face both BYU and Arizona in back-to-back weeks to start November.

If the Cowboys win out, that leaves the worst-case scenario as some kind of funky three-way tiebreaker for two spots in the conference title game.

“I mean, I am, it’s hard not to,” said kicker Sam Keltner when asked if he’s aware of where OSU sits in the Big 12 race. “But like at the same point, it’s one game at a time mentality. And if we win all of our games, we’ll see what happens. This game did help us. Like that BYU one (the loss to UCF), at least I think it did. … It’s a lot. I don’t think Tech (losing) mattered, but the rest of them, yeah.

“I mean, it’s exciting, and we all want to go to that game. And a lot of us are Texas kids, so being able to play in AT&T [Stadium] would be sick, and playoffs and all that would be a lot of fun.”