Oklahoma State takes a sizeable tumble after falling to Houston

I heard the warning, but I didn't listen. As I waited for Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy to break down his team's season-opening win against Georgia on Sept. 5, another writer leaned over and offered a chilling piece of advice. "You know," he said, "that Google will always remember what you write this week."

The reminder should have sobered me, but I continued to take long, deep pulls from the bottle of Cowboy Kool-Aid. Google the name "Andy Staples" and the phrase "elite team," and the second and third entries are the Web and mobile versions of my column from the Oklahoma State-Georgia game. In that column, I called the Cowboys an elite team capable of winning the national title. In these power rankings, which mirror my Associated Press poll ballot, I yanked them up to No. 5. Then they went out the next week and lost to Houston at home.

With all due respect to Cougars quarterback Case Keenum, an elite college team should only lose to one team from Houston: the Texans. But until the Internet explodes and we all go back to reading newspapers, I'll be the fool who jumped the gun and called Oklahoma State an elite team.
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Lesson learned. So now you'll understand why you have to scroll down so far to find Michigan today. I attended the Wolverines' coming-out party against Notre Dame at the Big House on Saturday. I was duly impressed with the poise of freshman quarterback Tate Forcier. But Michigan will have to keep winning to move up, because the Oklahoma State fiasco has taught me to be more measured in my praise.

And because Google never, ever forgets.

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