Cowboys Insider: Oklahoma State Must Handle Success as Big 12 Play Arrives

The Oklahoma State Cowboys have bigger goals than 2-1. But learning how to handle good vibes is the next logical step for this team under Eric Morris.

Oklahoma State 's Drew Mestemaker high fives fans following a game. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

STILLWATER, Okla. — Being new to this beat I didn't quite understand the gravity of what happened postgame on Saturday against Murray State.

Oklahoma State players and coaches gathered in front of fans and the band to sing the alma mater. That's standard across college football. There was a throng of photographers and reporters taking photos and video the moment.

I was standing on the sideline watching and it dawned on me — this didn't happen last week against Oregon. It wasn’t because the band didn't play the alma mater but because the ending of that game was so chaotic that nobody took the moment to stand there and sing it.

Then I started thumbing through my notes and realized that was the first time the Cowboys have stood as a team like that and sung the alma mater after a win at Boone Pickens Stadium since they beat UT Martin last year. That was Aug. 28, 2025. This was also the Cowboys’ first winning streak of any kind since winning the first three games of the 2024 season.

Oklahoma State’s Next Big Goal

Oklahoma State head coach Eric Morris sings the alma mater. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

I've covered the Big 12 Conference for a decade for other sites, and I've always been used to Oklahoma State being consistently good. That's what Mike Gundy built. I almost took it for granted. That’s what crumbled the last two seasons.

That’s the joy that these Cowboys have brought back to the fan base. Now, they must handle it. Oklahoma State must learn how to handle success again after two years without it.

That’s the next big task this week as Oklahoma State prepares to head to Morgantown to face West Virginia.

“Handling success is going to be the next step in this thing,” Morris said. “Then obviously we're still two years without a Big 12 win So what a great opportunity for us to go attack that this week.”

It seems Morris has had to reset his team each of the first three weeks. After the Tulsa game he and the players had to eat a huge plate of humble pie. He talked about “tell the truth Monday” being painful for everyone. No one was immune.

Then the Cowboys beat Oregon. It was the program’s biggest win since the final Bedlam game with Oklahoma in 2023. Before Morris took his second question after the game he was talking about how he would have to keep his players from thinking they were “all that” after that massive a win.

On Tuesday he said he was happy with practice. He was happiest with how his veterans led and kept the other players on track. That focus was evident on Saturday. The defense neutralized what Murray State did best, an intricate screen game that can give teams fits. The offense rolled for more than 600 yards. The few mistakes that were made were corrected during the game.

Now, it's Morgantown. It's a whole new set of expectations. Like Morris said, the Cowboys haven't won a Big 12 game since they beat BYU in the season finale in 2023. After that, they lost to Texas in the Big 12 title game and since then it's been a steep decline into irrelevancy.

I've covered games in Morgantown. I've covered games in Morgantown at night. It's an elite atmosphere. And this has the potential to be an extremely fun game.

The Cowboys have their offense humming exactly as we thought they would. The defense has looked much better the past two weeks. The Mountaineers entered the game 3-0 and have their own Top 25 victory having upset No. 25 Virginia on Saturday. If you didn't notice, West Virginia quarterback Michael Hawkins had a huge game. And WVU has a great running back in Cam Cook.

Meeting Oregon was great, but it does nothing for the program's future if the Cowboys go into Big 12 play and don't meet their own expectations. If Oklahoma State wants to make noise nationally it must do it by winning conference games. The Cowboys are far better positioned to do so than they were a year ago. But handling that success and funneling it into momentum — a word Morris loves to use — is harder than it sounds. Especially when you must go to Morgantown to keep things rolling.

It’s a 6 p.m. game for the second straight week. It’s the first plane ride of the year. It’s a hostile environment. It’s the next step in OSU’s evolution under Morris — and he knows it.

“All the things that we can't control are things we’ll preach as a staff,” Morris said. “Distractions are going to be a real thing with this team and the better we can avoid those distractions, just continue to work on ourselves and get one week better, it's going to give us an opportunity to win some ball games.”

Let’s be honest — learning how to handle success is far better than the alternative, which is what Cowboys fans have dealt with for two years. After 2024 and 2025, those fans will accept the learning curve.