Oklahoma State Cowboys Not Concerned with Rankings

Originally Published: Oct 18, 2010 10:23 AM CDT

Gerald Goodridge
Oklahoma Sports Staff Writer

STILLWATER, Oklahoma -- The Oklahoma State Cowboys continue to roll this season and sit undefeated at the halfway mark of their regular season.

Their perfect 6-0 record is good enough to put them at No. 14 in the newly-released BCS Rankings. However, the playersdon’t concern themselves with what anyone is saying about them.

“Coach [Mike] Gundy said in the meeting the other day that if you start worrying about what people say, you’re going to start believing you’re better than what you are,” said quarterback Brandon Weeden. “It’s a privilege to be where we’re at and we’ve worked hard to get to where we’re at but we just want to continue to get better.”

As the head coach of one of the nation’s top teams, Gundy is not motivated by the national attention and hype, and more occupied by continuing to build the program in all areas – not just on the football field.

“When I go home Sunday night, my 14-year old tells me ‘Did you know you were ranked this?’ and I tell him every Sunday ‘No,’” Gundy said. “I don’t pay any attention to it because we’re going to play all of our games and I have a pretty good feel for what’s going on in our program. I’m more concerned with us, our preparation and getting ready to play Saturday’s game.”

The Cowboys’ matchup this week is one of the marquee games of the weekend, putting them on the national stage for their homecoming game against the Nebraska Cornhuskers. The nation-wide broadcast and the added media attention hasn’t phased the relatively young Oklahoma State squad.

“I don’t think it’s going to make a difference. Nobody’s really going to be listening to what [the media] is saying,” said sophomore receiver Justin Blackmon – who is currently the nation’s leading receiver. “We’re just going to try to stay focused and stay at the task at hand.”

OSU as a team is among the nation’s top teams and boasts players that rank in the top 15 nationally in more than 10 statistical categories, however they sit behind four one-loss teams in the BCS standings.

As a team that was labeled to be in a rebuilding year in the preseason, defying the odds continues to drive the players moving forward in the season.

“It’s a motivating factor for us,” said safety Markelle Martin. “Everything will take care of itself, just take it one week at a time and continue to get better.”

To the players, flying under the radar despite playing in one of the weekend’s top matchups will make it better once people outside of the program start to pay attention.

“We know how good we are and we know how good we can play,” said senior Andrew McGee. “We have a lot of room to improve, but we don’t mind other people thinking that we’re not good. We don’t mind being the underdog. We don’t mind being looked down on. That’s just opportunity for us to do great things.”