Cowboys in Manhattan, Tomorrow Starts What Pokes Need to Do for Big 12
MANHATTAN, Kan. -- It took right at four hours for the Cowboys eight buses to make the run from the West End Zone of Boone Pickens Stadium to the team hotel in Manhattan, Kansas. No. 14 Oklahoma State plays Kansas State at 3 p.m. tomorrow inside Bill Snyder Family Stadium. The weather is supposed to be excellent with 72 degrees for a high and sunny skies, but the wind is expected to whip up and gust at ove time over 30 miles-an-hour and that can be a factor in the north-south stadium on the edge of campus and the edge of town. Keep an eye on that in the kicking game, an area where Oklahoma State needs to be really solid against a program with a tradition of being stout in special teams.
This was just the second road game for the Cowboys this season and it is still a sight to see eight buses roll down the highway and then into a hotel parking lot. The players are spaced out and socially distanced and wearing masks the entire trip. Once they arrived, dinner comes quick. In fact, the hotel catering staff was loading up the dinner while the players checked into their rooms. Lots of green vegetables and cheesy and beefy lasagne. The chicken breasts and filet steaks were also part of the menu. Meanwhile, Zack Ramsey and his video assistant Michael Iven were setting up the video for meetings that will take place after the meal. After meetings the players will get time to relax in their rooms before lights out at bedcheck.
As Josh Sills explained back on Monday of this week the primary mission this week was to get past Texas and the overtime loss and realize how important it is to beat Kansas State. The big offensive tackle transfer from West Virginia knows the lesson and he learned it after a loss playing for the Mountaineers in Stillwater as the Pokes knocked off the No. 7 Mountaineers in 2018.
"The biggest thing that I said is you can't hang your head," Sills said to the media and expressed it was something he had already said to the team. "Obviously, everybody was disappointed, upset, and mad we lost as we should have been. You can't hang your head, you can't dwell on a loss, because the minute that you dwell on that loss, it carries over week to week to week.
"I was in a similar situation in 2018 when I was at West Virginia," continued Sills. "When I was on that team and we came here and that debacle happened in Stillwater... We went back to Morgantown, everybody hung their heads, couldn't get over it, didn't watch film and we went on to lose I think it was the next three games after that. That was my biggest message, if you dwell on the loss, then that's what can happen."
The next three weeks are critical. If the Cowboys beat Kansas State then they need to go home and use the open week to get healthy, get refreshed, and get ahead on Oklahoma. The Sooners are heating up and they to have an open week before Bedlam.
A win in Bedlam would essentially eliminate Oklahoma and put Oklahoma State in a three game schedule, Texas Tech, at TCU, and at Baylor to be in the Big 12 Championship. The path is right there, but it starts with Kansas State on Saturday.
"This is going to be a long ride," linebacker Amen Ogbongbemiga said earlier this week. "You've (OSU fans) got to stick with us through thick and thin. Obviously, you don't want any losses and you don't want any games like that. But this team is tightly knit, and we're still going for something special and it's not over yet. Just stick with us. Something special is coming. Just tough it out, because we're gonna keep grinding for yaw'll."
Oklahoma State needs to count to five and counting one starts Saturday at three.