Throughout the season, it seems the football God’s have been smiling down on the orange and black all season.
That is, all season until the Cowboys traveled to Ames.
It all started when they traveled to College Station to face a high-ranked Texas A&M football team.
The game was played at Kyle Field, usually considered one of the toughest places to play in America due to the intensity of the Aggie student section, nicknamed ‘The 12th Man.”
Enter the Cowboy luck.
The game was in late September, which meant the weather was still very warm in South Texas.
Kickoff was scheduled for 2:30, and the acclaimed 12th Man had their energy stolen by an especially hot southern sun who smiled down on the stadium for four hours.
The lack of energy showed in the second half, as students chose to sit under the stands and chug water instead of yell until their throats went raw at those daing Oklahoma State Cowboys.
The luck continued.
The Pokes traveled to Austin for a 2:30 kickoff. Same story as Texas A&M, except half of the crowd didn’t even bother to show up.
Then, a trip to Columbia, Missouri and Lubbock, Texas to face Missouri and Texas Tech, both 11 am kickoffs at places that are usually considered death-traps by high-ranked Big 12 teams.
Oklahoma State rolled against Mizzou, and sent the crowd back to their tailgates before halftime in Lubbock.
But eventually, the luck had to run out – And it finally did in Ames.
“I don’t think the scheduling God’s did us any kind of favors on this one,” offensive coordinator Todd Monken said. “We have to travel home from Lubbock, then we have a short week to prepare and travel to Ames. Are you kidding me?”
Although Oklahoma State agreed to the Friday night kickoff back in April, they didn’t expect the week to unfold in the way it did.
When heading back from Lubbock, the Cowboy’s plane had problems that forced the team to sit at the airport for hours. That meant the coaches and players were getting home quite a bit later than expected.
“That threw us off a bit,” defensive coordinator Bill Young said. “It started the week off on a weird note. We weren’t expecting to get in bed that late that night, but that’s the way it happened.”
Add that to the already short week, plus news of the tragedy that hit Oklahoma State on Friday and the Cowboys had a recipe for disaster when they came out of the tunnel to face the Cyclones.
While the Oklahoma State community was down, the football God’s got a few kicks in with a double-overtime loss, and pictures of a jubilant Iowa State crowd rushing the field that just won’t go away.
With the events that unfolded around college football on Saturday, the Oklahoma State title chances aren’t exactly gone, and a win over the rival Sooners could solidify their legitimacy.
But they’ll probably need to get the football God’s back in their corner to down the Sooners for the first time in eight years.
After all, those God’s seem to have been wearing orange all year.
What’s another two games?
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