Oklahoma State Seems Unaffected by Its 12-Game Winning Streak

I was reading through the Monday presser notes on quotes today and I was struck by how … bored everybody seemed with the 10-0 start. That’s a testament to where Mike Gundy has this team and its mindset, but it’s still striking to hear 19-year-olds so unimpressed with this thing they’ve accomplished that only one other team in 114 years of Oklahoma State football has accomplished.

Jordan Sterns’ comments were a sort of summary of what everybody else said. “It’s a great opportunity,” said Sterns. “It’s a lot of fun for our fans to get to come out and see us. We just have to go this week and play hard.”

That’s something a starting safety on a 5-5 team says. Not a 10-0 team.

“I think there’s been a lot of scenarios and a lot of experience, not only for me but for this team,” said Mason Rudolph. “There’s been a lot of adversity that we’ve had to fight through—a lot of games that were kind of close at the end. I feel like as a team we’ve come so far and have come together as a group and we just play well together.”

That’s something a starting QB on an 8-2 team says. Not a 10-0 team.

These aren’t just quotes I pulled to prove a point. I’ve read pretty much everything everyone has said for the last five years and this is the general sense you get from everyone this year. Ho hum, we’re 10-0. Amilian texted me earlier this week and said, “we’re 10-0 and it doesn’t seem like a big deal to anyone.”

The reason for all of this, for the grounded attitude of this team while the rest of us are losing our minds is the head ball coach.

“You know, it hasn’t been mentioned,” Mike Gundy said on Monday of the undefeated season. “The players don’t say much about that when they’re around us at practice and at meetings. They have matured and stayed fairly focused on what we’re doing. I don’t really hear them saying much. Do they mention that when they’re hanging out with their buddies? Probably, but I don’t hear anything about being undefeated, and I haven’t really heard much about the rankings.

“They need to embrace this moment. All of us do. That’s one thing that I’ve been able to do this year. I really enjoy the team, and I think they’re maximizing who they are as individuals. As a team concept, we’re getting what we can get out of our football team. We put a lot of work in and buy into the system, and then you go home at night and go to sleep.

“It has been really fun for me. I’ve said this to our coaches multiple times over the last four or five weeks, but I’ve told them to enjoy the time that we’re having and to embrace being with these guys. In today’s society, life moves too fast. You look back and you think, ‘I didn’t even enjoy that ride.’ So, I think we’ve stressed that to them, as well as the importance of the next game.”

That’s some good stuff. I’m going to save that for when my kids are old enough to change their own poo and read it to them. You get the sense that, for the players anyway, this season has turned into a 14-week business trip. Go out, beat who’s on the schedule, go home and do it again the next week.

That’s the only possible way you can go undefeated. You can tell they want to talk about it (badly), but there’s no point. Not yet anyway. “This is — I don’t want to say a dream season yet,” David Glidden told ESPN on Saturday. “Hopefully we can look back at the end and say that it was.”

Hopefully in 11 days the dream will be a reality.