Photo Attribution: Corie Brianne

I guess this is what the driver’s seat feels like? For years we’ve always been the petulant child relegated to the floorboard in the back of the station wagon, left to wrestle for a window view with the Clemsons and Pittsburghs of the world.

So yeah, you could say this feels pretty good. LSU definitely has the steering wheel (the thought of the Hatter with college football’s proverbial steering wheel in his meaty hands is as scary as it is hilarious), but we’ve got Google maps pulled up and we’re shouting out coordinates while everybody else looks on.

Yeah, 45 South and hang a left near Houston, it’s about 3 hours from there.

(I guess that means we’re in “the passenger’s seat” but somehow that doesn’t have the same ring…)

I think we were all at least peripherally aware that all of this was a possibility. We believed in it the way the Reds bought into Josh Hamilton after years of falling short and not meeting expectations. As if buying into the fantasy in our head was enough to sustain what was actually unfolding in real life.

Except now not it’s like OSU is having its HR Derby in Yankee Stadium moment and we all have no freaking idea how to act.

What do fans of teams in these situations do? Should we book hotel rooms in New Orleans? Should we even talk about anything beyond Iowa State? Should we go to Bedlam even though we’ve watched every other game in our living room in a faded Brian Montonati jersey t-shirt with a six-pack of Boulevard and our Twitter account set for “refresh every 30 seconds”?

I have no answers, I have no idea what we should do, how we should act. All I know is that the stage is set and the final scene is going to be something straight out of Red Sox nation, my question is what that scene will look like:

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Photo Attribution: @eknielsen

It’s pretty safe to say that Mike Gundy, since he took over, has exceeded every reasonable expectation we, as Oklahoma State fans, burdened him with.

The miracle-worker who had taken over for Bob Simmons had just been hired at one of the top ten programs in the country and even he could only muster a 9-4 Cotton Bowl season.

So surely the backyard kid with the ironic hair and tucked-in rain jacket couldn’t be held to a higher standard than that, could he? Well he was by Boone Pickens and, by proxy, Mike Holder.

And he has delivered.

Sure, he’s been lucky and he’s stumbled into some gems (one of his favorite recruiting tidbits to point out is that Weeden was a walk-on), but the trajectory of the program since he gutted it clean in 2005 has been right there with the likes of all of college football’s big boys. They have the 8th most wins in the country since 2008.

Because of where we were, we appreciate where we’re at. And he does too:

I would prefer to be here for a long, long time and hopefully the powers (that) be will make that decision for me,” Gundy said. “I really enjoy the people here, I enjoy the situation. We’ve obviously gotten to a level here that has not ever been accomplished. I don’t know that anybody … would have ever thought it could have happened.

No, nobody did. And if someone tries to tell you otherwise, he or she is either A.) inhaling recreational drugs somewhere with Tommy Devereaux or B.) running PR for the university.

Jeff Latzke goes on,

Gundy is making $2.1 million this season under a contract that runs through 2015, and he’s the fifth-highest paid coach in the Big 12, just behind Missouri’s Gary Pinkel and Texas A&M’s Mike Sherman.

Gundy should have some grad assistant splice the second halfs of A&M’s games against OSU, Arkansas, Missouri, and OU from this year, walk into Holder’s office, throw it in his DVD player, and just point at Mike Sherman’s blank stare the entire time before saying “this guy makes more than me, fix that”, and walking out.

Gundy also stands to get a $500,000 bonus if Oklahoma State — which is second in the BCS standings — wins the national championship.

I’m sure Boone is kicking in a bit more above that.

The contract has a $3 million buyout if Gundy were to take a job elsewhere. “It’d be hard to get me from here. It’d be really hard,” Gundy said.

There’s two things that have kind of gone against what most coaches at my level would call smart: One would be to say that this is your New York Yankees job and then two to say that you want to stay here forever and be committed to this program,” Gundy said.

“Most coaches in my position at our level would say that those would be the two dumbest things a guy could ever say for your future as a coach. So, I’m obviously not very good at handling those situations.”

Clearly, maybe Dez has an agent to lend him.

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It was a big weekend for football-playing (and watching) Cowboys around the country. Here’s a roundup of

The Past – Dez doing Dez things here, and how fast does Kendall Hunter look?!

The Present – I guess one of these guys is kind of the future, but lucky for us he’s also the present. And I have a feeling his role over the next three weeks is going to be bigger than it’s been all season.

One more after the jump.

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When you roll a team 66-6, pretty much everything is a superlative, but here were some of the best from Saturday.

Best play: I don’t know if it was the best, but Weeden2Stewart for 66 and a TD at the end of the third was definitely the prettiest.

I’m really glad: Tech already got their “how int he world did that happen” W out of the way this year.

Strangest sideline report: Shelley Smith reporting that Justin Blackmon had to put a band-aid on because he scraped his knee.

Best uniform (part I): Justin Gilbert for his David Wright orange-sleeves-under-the-jersey impression.

Best uniform (part II): Cooper Bassett for having a small to medium-sized child hidden under his shoulder pads and calling it a “neck roll.”

How does he do it: What’s with Sharp being able to boot it out of both endzones? Did OSU just have the most fortuitous wind situation ever, or what?

“No, no, no, no” play: Weeden trying to horsecollar a Tech defensive player after Randle coughed it up in the second half. Just let it go, B-Weeds, just let it go.

Quote of the game: Gundy on how long he should keep the starters in to keep them sharp – “If I knew I’d bottle it up.”

Best move: Joseph Randle’s stutter step break-it-down move when he gets into the second level is devastating.

Wait, WTF: Josh Stewart has an upper ear earring?

I’m lol: At Monken saying they weren’t going to run then running it on the first three plays of the game.

Stat of the game: OSU has 1 defensive shutout, LSU has 0.

Stat OSU fans should love: Only 3 penalties for the Cowboys. It’s been one of the most underrated stories of the year, especially after they finished 108th in this category last year.

Picture the Texas Tech admissions office can’t be happy about:

A pair of non-OSU videos you really need to watch: