No. 21 Cowboys move on after missing out on BCS, start preparations for Cotton Bowl

No. 21 Cowboys move on after missing out on BCS

STILLWATER, Okla. — Linebacker Patrick Lavine thinks he could take the disappointment a little easier if Oklahoma State’s BCS dreams had ended in a gentler way.

To see his team lose to its biggest rival with its most uninspired performance of the season didn’t settle so well.

“If we came to play and they came to play and at the end of the game they beat us, but we were able to say, ‘We did all we could,’ that wouldn’t have been frustrating at all,” Lavine said Tuesday as the No. 21 Cowboys turned their focus to the Cotton Bowl. “But we weren’t able to say that because we just didn’t step up.

“No one made plays. We were doing things that we hadn’t done all season, and it showed.”

Going into the regular season finale at Oklahoma, the Cowboys (9-3) had positioned themselves to appear in the Bowl Championship Series for the first time if they could defeat a Sooners squad depleted by injuries to Heisman Trophy winner Sam Bradford, four starting offensive linemen and others.

Instead, Oklahoma State lost 27-0 — getting shut out for the first time since 2005 — and settled for the Cotton Bowl on Jan. 2 against Mississippi (8-4) at the Dallas Cowboys’ stadium.

Coach Mike Gundy said that “if you’re in it for the right reason, you’ll never get over those games.”

“You have to move forward, and that’s something that we had talked about after the game,” Gundy said. “I think the coaches have to be enthusiastic about getting back on the practice field and the chance to go to the Cotton Bowl and spend time together. That’s the way we’ve approached it.

“Getting back to work for the coaching staff, for me personally, it’s what I enjoy doing. And then getting back on the field, it’s like somebody pours cold water over you.”

The defeat hasn’t been easy for everyone to wash away, though. The Cowboys got two weeks off after the regular season before beginning preparations for the Cotton Bowl, time to focus on final exams but also to dwell on what could have been.

“That’s just something you can’t get off your mind,” Lavine said. “The OU game, that was something that was on everybody’s mind for a week.”

Oklahoma State rose to No. 5, its highest ranking since 1985, after a season-opening win against Georgia but followed that landmark victory with an upset loss at home against Houston. Their other chances for defining wins ended up as 27-point blowouts against Texas and Oklahoma.

Now, the Cowboys hope to save face with a victory against Mississippi — another one of the four teams featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated in the preseason as potential BCS contenders.

“Another opportunity to get out there and show the country that we are the real deal and we’re not a joke,” linebacker Andre Sexton said. “Even though OU did make us look pretty bad, we can come back and still salvage some stuff from this season.”

Quarterback Zac Robinson injured his ankle on the Cowboys’ first offensive series against Oklahoma but remained in the game until the fourth quarter. He has returned to practice, although he said he isn’t completely healthy. He said he expects to be back at 100 percent in time for the game, still 2½ weeks away.

“We forgot about it quickly and we had a couple weeks off to kind of rest our bodies and kind of just get ready for the bowl practices,” Robinson said. “We’ve come back, everybody’s fresh and there’s been a lot of enthusiasm. I think guys are ready to play a game again and kind of get that out of the way.”

Gundy said middle linebacker Donald Booker should return to practice next week after injuring his knee against Oklahoma but confirmed that backup cornerback Andrew McGee won’t play in the bowl game due to injury.