Remember, remember the 5th of November,

Gunpowder, treason and plot.

I see no reason

Why gunpowder treason

Should ever be forgot.

The Cowboys second bye week falls during the week of the 5thof November, and, in a way, this season feels similar to that poem. Britain celebrates the foiling of a 400-year-old terrorist plot by setting light to things and blowing them up on the 5th of November each year for Guy Fawkes’ Night. Though, in this case, the Cowboys season is a bit more like “what the Fawkes?”

Nonetheless, Oklahoma State is on a bye this week and I thought it might be a decent time to reflect on the season, what I’d like to see with three more gridiron contests remaining, and what I hope to see moving forward while the Pokes begin to settle down for a long winter’s nap. 

Ever rushed around to get ready for an event, looked in the mirror, and didn’t like the fit? So, then you throw back open the closet, attempt 12 different outfits, realize none of them feel right, but hurriedly settle on one because you’re already gonna be late? That’s how I can best describe my feeling for this Oklahoma State football season. And I’m about to be very late. 

August 28th, Friday night, in Boone Pickens Stadium. The leaves hadn’t begun to change color. Hauss Hejny trots on the field as the starting quarterback for the Oklahoma State Cowboys. There is hope. And after Hejny and Pokes cap the first drive off with a touchdown, there is promise. 

10 plays, 71 yards. With ease. Do you remember that feeling? Sit with it again for just a moment. Look at that outfit in the mirror. I need not remind you that that mirror fell off the wall, shattered, and now you’ve had 8 straight games of bad luck. Sorry, Cowboy. 

There are three games left in the 2025 Cowboy Football season. Home, against Kansas State. At the Bounce House, against UCF. Home, against Iowa State.

Can Oklahoma State pull one of these out? I’m not betting on it. However, Zane Flores is to be commended for his efforts against Kansas this past Saturday. Despite the loss, Flores might’ve had his best showing yet. Can he continue that level of play or even improve it against the Purple Cats?

I am rooting for Zane. If he can level up just a bitand the coaching staff can limit the mismanagement, I believe the Cowboys can hang around for a bit in each of the three remaining games. I’d also like to see the ball be directly fed to running back, Trent Howland. He had four or five carries against Kansas?? Malpractice. 

Moving forward. Like a handful of millennial Cowboys, I’ve never really known a Gundy-less football program. It’s unchartered territory. I don’t know the man personally, but, in a way, Mike being gone is like a final proverbial sheetrock nail in a long football era’s coffin. I could get crazier with comparisons or hyperbolic similes, but I’ll refrain.

That said, I’ve never been more entertained by the coaching carousel. Like buying a Powerball ticket when the lottery jackpot gets over a certain amount and you daydream about what you’d do with the money, grasping your one single ticket. You can’t win if you don’t play and, for the first time in 20 years, Oklahoma State has punched their lucky numbers. All signs lead to the next Oklahoma State head coach being selected by December 1st. 

While the Cowboys are about to settle down for the aforementioned long winter’s nap, I, too, am ready to hibernate through the offseason. When I awake, I’ll, again, have the same glamour filled hopes and dreams I had after watching the Cowboys first drive against UT Martin.