Just a handy reminder
Bracelets give Pokes a road map to success
Bracelets give Pokes a road map to success

By Scott Wright

Published: August 3, 2008

STILLWATER — When Oklahoma State tailback Keith Toston doesn't feel like he can run another wind sprint or lift another weight or go through another drill in practice, he looks down at his left wrist.

That's where he has his rubber orange bracelet with black lettering that reads: "Big 12 Champs, Dec. 6, 2008.”

"Every day, when we get tired, we can look down at our wrist and see that we're all working toward something,” said Toston, a junior. "It helps you push that extra yard.”

The bracelets represent a unified goal. Something specific. Something big. And something each player believes is attainable.

Nearly every member of the team wears one of the bracelets, which were produced as a combined effort of the players and the campus chapter of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

But the goal goes beyond the bracelets. A large sign on the wall of the main meeting room lists the team qualities necessary to win a Big 12 title. And it carries onto the practice field.

"Every time we break the huddle, we all say, ‘Big 12 championship,'” sophomore William Cole said. "We know that Washington State is the first team we've got to play. We look at one game at a time, but each one is another piece of us getting to the big goal.”

Taking a look at history, the goal might seem to lack substance.

OSU has won one conference crown since 1960 when it joined the Big Eight Conference, that being a three-way shared title with Colorado and Oklahoma. The Cowboys own nine Missouri Valley Conference titles, either outright or shared, but they never played more than four games to win one.

Is winning a Big 12 championship an unfounded goal for the Cowboys? Maybe.

But that's exactly why they have made it their focus this year.

"We don't talk enough around here about winning championships,” coach Mike Gundy said. "I think that's something that evolved over 50 years around here. Our players felt like they needed to talk more about winning a championship.

"(The bracelets are) more of a commitment to team and to a goal.”

And the goal is a vision toward the future, rather than a frustrated look into the past. There's plenty of positive growth within OSU football: the goals, the talent, the stadium, the budget.

And along with that, fan expectations are rising as well.

"We're gonna have to do something better than 7-6,” said Debi Golden, a longtime fan who came out early to watch Saturday morning's practice prior to the Fan Appreciation Day festivities. "We're gonna have to get up around nine-plus wins. I think the team's capable of that.”

A few close losses were demoralizing last season, but OSU players have turned those near-misses into hope for this year.

"We know if we do what we have to do and win the Big 12 championship, we have a good chance of playing for the national championship,” Cole said. "Last year showed a lot of our players that we were closer than we thought.

"If we would've beat Texas instead of letting them come back, and beat Texas A&M, we might have been playing for the Big 12.”

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