Oklahoma State finally had a chance to do something it hadn’t done in a while on Saturday night: stand together after a win at Boone Pickens Stadium, gather in front of the fans and the band, and sing the alma mater.
That might sound routine. In Stillwater, it wasn’t.
The scene after the Murray State win underscored how much has changed for the Cowboys. It had been since Aug. 28, 2025 - the UT Martin game - that Oklahoma State last finished a home victory with that kind of postgame moment.
And it had also been a while since the Cowboys had any sort of streak to celebrate. This was their first winning streak of any kind since winning the first three games of the 2024 season.
For a program that used to treat consistency as the standard, that kind of reset matters. Now the challenge is turning two straight wins into something more durable, because Big 12 play is here and the margin for comfort disappears fast.
That’s the next step for Oklahoma State as it heads to Morgantown to face West Virginia, and coach Morris said the message is already clear.
“Handling success is going to be the next step in this thing,” Morris said. “Then obviously we're still two years without a Big 12 win So what a great opportunity for us to go attack that this week.”
Morris has spent the first three weeks of the season trying to steady his team after each result. After the Tulsa game, he said the Cowboys had to swallow a “huge plate of humble pie,” and he described “tell the truth Monday” as painful for everyone involved. Nobody escaped that conversation.
Then came the upset of Oregon, the program’s biggest win since the final Bedlam game with Oklahoma in 2023. Even in the middle of that celebration, Morris was already warning about what could happen if his team started believing too much of its own hype. Before he even got to his second question after the game, he was talking about keeping players from thinking they were “all that.”
This past week, he said practice went well, and he credited the veterans for keeping everyone pointed in the right direction. That showed up against Murray State.
The defense took away the screen-heavy attack the Racers rely on, while the offense piled up more than 600 yards. When mistakes popped up, they were cleaned up on the fly.
Now the test gets tougher.
West Virginia entered the matchup 3-0 and added a Top 25 win by upsetting No. 25 Virginia on Saturday.
West Virginia quarterback Michael Hawkins had a huge game, and the Mountaineers also have a dangerous runner in Cam Cook. The setting only adds to it: Morgantown at night is a real atmosphere, and this one has the ingredients to be a fun game.
Oklahoma State’s offense is rolling the way it was supposed to. The defense has looked sharper over the last two weeks.
But none of that means much if the Cowboys can’t carry it into conference play. Beating Oregon was a statement, but it won’t reshape the season unless Oklahoma State backs it up in the Big 12.
That’s the point Morris keeps coming back to. The Cowboys are in a better place than they were a year ago, but momentum has to be protected, not assumed.
“It’s a 6 p.m. game for the second straight week. It’s the first plane ride of the year.
It’s a hostile environment. It’s the next step in OSU’s evolution under Morris - and he knows it.
“All the things that we can't control are things we’ll preach as a staff,” Morris said. “Distractions are going to be a real thing with this team and the better we can avoid those distractions, just continue to work on ourselves and get one week better, it's going to give us an opportunity to win some ball games.”
After the last two seasons, Cowboys fans have seen the other side of this story. So yes, learning how to handle success is a new assignment. But it’s a much better problem to have.
In Other News...
Oklahoma State's Rout Came With One Encouraging Sign Fans Needed
A lopsided afternoon at Boone Pickens Stadium still gave Oklahoma State something it had been missing for a while, even beyond the throwback uniforms and drone show that helped set the tone for the tribute to the 1976 Tangerine Bowl team. The Cowboys rolled past Murray State 59-0, and the defense spent most of the day dictating everything while the offense mixed in enough explosive play to keep the margin growing.
Mo Horn was active from the start, getting into the backfield early and helping the Cowboys establish control on that side of the ball, while Ayo Adeyi gave the run game a lift as a backup with 67 rushing yards. Miles Coleman also added 168 all-purpose yards, giving Oklahoma State a few useful signs to go with a result that, for one Saturday at least, looked a lot more like the kind of complete performance the program has been searching for. [Read more 🡒]
Oklahoma State Faces An Early Road Test That Will Say A Lot
The 59-0 win over Murray State gave Oklahoma State a clean start to the week, but the focus has already shifted to a much less forgiving setting. Eric Morris is lining up for his first Big 12 game as the Cowboys head coach, and the trip to West Virginia offers an early chance to see how this team carries itself once the competition jumps a level and the setting gets louder.
Morris pointed to a penalty from the opener as the kind of mistake that has to be cleaned up before conference play, which is the sort of detail coaches notice quickly even after a lopsided win. The matchup in Morgantown has its own built-in edge, with both sides offering enough scouting intrigue to make it a useful measuring stick, and Oklahoma State will find out plenty about where it stands without needing the full picture quite yet. [Read more 🡒]
Oklahoma States Poll Push Suddenly Feels A Lot More Real
After the 59-0 rout of Murray State, Oklahoma States upward drift in the national polls got a little harder to ignore. The Cowboys picked up 36 votes in the USA Today coaches poll, a clear jump from the week before, and they had already been sitting at 36 votes in the AP poll last week, which put them fourth among the teams receiving votes.
It is still early, but the shape of the resume is getting easier to explain. Oklahoma State backed up its 39-31 win over Oregon with a dominant all-around showing against Murray State, giving the program something it has not always had in recent seasons: a stretch of convincing results that poll voters can point to without much debate. [Read more 🡒]