STILLWATER, Okla. (AP) -When Oklahoma State’s current senior class arrived on campus, it was with the promise of better days.
All that existed at the time were blueprints and drawings of what would be built during a renovation of Boone Pickens Stadium and the dreams of what the team could do on the field.
Brick by brick, the stadium blossomed before their eyes. And win by win, the program has emerged, too, as one with national power.
Those seniors – a group that includes 15 starters – will play their final game in Stillwater as Colorado (3-7, 2-4 Big 12) pays a visit for No. 12 Oklahoma State’s first Thursday night home game since 1995.
u blink and then it’s gone. It’s been a fun ride, though.”
A handful of seniors – including Sexton and quarterback Zac Robinson – redshirted during OSU’s 4-7 rebuilding season in 2005, Mike Gundy’s first as the head coach. About one-third of the class joined the following year, playing immediately as the Cowboys lacked depth and needed impact players right away. The rest transferred into the program late, catching only the tail end of the program’s rise to three straight bowl games.
Over the past four years, the group has compiled 31 wins – the most for any class but those between 1985 and 1988 – and still has a chance to leave with the most in school history. They would need some help from No. 3 Texas, which would have to lose its final two regular season games to allow the Cowboys (8-2, 5-1) their first trip to the Big 12 championship game.
“It moves so fast, so there’s not a lot of time to really reflect,” Gundy said. “Most of that happens after we play our final game and start doing some recruiting and traveling around and have a little bit more time to think.
“You think and kind of reflect back on what certain players or the team was able to accomplish and the things that we need to work on and get better and change in the future and you continue to build and grow.”
se, passing yards and touchdown passes left last week’s 24-17 win against Texas Tech following a helmet-to-helmet collision with less than 2 minutes remaining.
Oh, and he happens to be from Littleton, Colo.
“He is a pretty tough guy,” Buffaloes coach Dan Hawkins said. “He will be back.”
Gundy thinks so, too. He has said the Cowboys’ training staff would continue to evaluate Robinson daily, but he passed an initial battery of tests to determine whether he’d be able to return.
Robinson had a season-low 90 yards passing in OSU’s last game, but he made up for it with his best rushing performance: a 99-yard outing, including several key scrambles in the second half. His coaches just wish he had that last carry back, when he refused to slide and instead tried to get a game-clinching first down – or touchdown – and wound up fumbling and getting hurt.
“Zac has been hit like that before. It’s not really a big surprise,” linebacker Patrick Lavine said. “He’s one of the toughest players on the team. I think he’s going to rally back from it.”
Without much at stake besides trying to avoid a last-place finish in the Big 12 North, Colorado is focused on its seniors, too. The Buffaloes have won six of its last seven games at OSU, including its last two.
e on,” Hawkins said. “Those guys have got to finish out their careers and we want to put our best people on the field and win games.”
The short week presents an even greater challenge to the Buffaloes, who were on the road last week at Iowa State and made a brief stop at home before leaving again. The Cowboys spent the entire time in Stillwater.
While Colorado has experience playing on days other than Saturday this season, those games haven’t turned out well – with losses on Thursday, Friday and Sunday already.
“There is always a trade-off and I appreciate all sides of it,” Hawkins said. “I have said publicly many times and privately even at Boise (State) I would love to play every Saturday at 1 o’clock. There are factors, though, that go into it and I think the exposure has been good for us both for the university and for our football program. … It’s not always exactly maybe the way you want it but it’s the way that it has to be.”
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