BCS Rankings Out, But Gundy's Not Peeking

Very little has changed during the four weeks the Oklahoma State Cowboys have been in the polls. But the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) standings were announced Sunday for the first time during the 2008 season, shortly after Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy's Sunday teleconference ended.

Gundy, who always has to be informed where his team is in the polls, was asked if he would take time out to watch the Fox Sports circus of Charles White and Barry Switzer, along with some of the Fox Sports NFL crew including former OSU and Dallas Cowboys coach Jimmy Johnson and current Thackerville, Okla., resident Terry Bradshaw discuss the first look at the BCS. Gundy said no.

The Cowboys are sixth in the BCS and this week, no surprise, they get to play everybody's number one in undefeated Texas. The game will kick off after 2:30 p.m. Saturday and be televised to part of the nation on ABC.

Here is the top 10 in the BCS:
1. Texas; 2. Alabama; 3. Penn State; 4. Oklahoma; 5. USC; 6. Oklahoma State; 7. Georgia; 8. Texas Tech; 9, Ohio State; 10. Florida.

Oklahoma State is ranked seventh in the AP poll, and eighth in the USA Today and Harris polls. In the computer polls they are ranked fifth or higher by every one of the BCS computer polls except the one programmed by OU Sooner fan Richard Billingsley, which has OU fourth, higher than any of the other computer polls and has OSU outside the top 10.

Gundy was more than informed on his team but admitted he watched less than 15 plays or so of Saturday night's win by top-ranked Texas in a 56-31 win over Missouri. He was unaware that Texas quarterback Colt McCoy had an All-World night against the Tigers completing 29 of 32 passes.

"That is pretty good," commented Gundy on McCoy's accuracy and efficiency numbers.

Gundy had family time after the Cowboys' 34-6 win over Baylor. H had one son that was playing a youth league football game and two other boys to rough house with a little on a Saturday evening. This was a recruiting weekend too as top defensive back prospects like Jenks' Gabe Lynn and Garland (Naaman Forest), Texas safety Terrance Bullitt were in town. On top of that there was video to grade from Saturday.

"Nothing," said Gundy when asked if anything appeared different to him on video than it did in person on Saturday. "It was all the same. The (offensive) linemen played pretty well. We did not have nearly enough explosive plays on offense. Number 21 (Jordan Lake of Baylor) made a lot of open field tackles that kept those explosive plays from happening. We have to have more explosive plays. Defensively, we played pretty well and the defense met every goal they had on the board except forcing turnovers."

Asked about his team and how they are handling their new spot in the college football hierarchy and Gundy was fine with them.

"They are doing okay," he said. "They are handling it pretty well and their practice habits remain very good. We talk about our goals in the preseason and then the players kind of take it from there."

Going into the season there was no secret that there were three games that stuck in the craw of Oklahoma State players from last season> They were the debacle at Troy, the blown 17-0 halftime lead at Texas A&M, and then the blown 21-point lead going into the fourth quarter against Texas.

Two of those have been exorcized in runaway wins over Troy and Texas A&M earlier this season. Now, as if any is needed, could a little extra motivation come in handy against Texas.

"That's hard to tell nowadays," said Gundy. "I really believe in coming to the facility and working hard to prepare for the game. How much the other factors in I don't really know."

It probably factors some, it's a certainty, although this group of players won't talk about it much this week. Then again, who needs any more motivation than the kind the Cowboys have, a huge chance to stay alive in winning a Big 12 and even a national championship. That is pretty high in the motivation category.