Oklahoma State football: Last year's loss still on Cowboys' minds as they prepare for Iowa State

Iowa State?

Yep. In a preseason poll of players, the Cyclones were a frequent answer to the question of “most anticipated game.” right along with the Sooners and Longhorns and Mountaineers.

Last year's lone loss, 37-31 in double overtime at Iowa State, remains attached to the grandest season in OSU history. As good as 2011 was — with a school-record 12 wins, a Big 12 championship and a Fiesta Bowl conquest of Stanford and Andrew Luck — that November loss in Ames lingers as an unavoidable blemish.

Still.

“To this day,” said safety Daytawion Lowe, “people come up to me and say, ‘If y'all would have just beat Iowa State…'”

The Cowboys have “if-ed” that game up and down and all around.

The five turnovers. The blown 24-7 lead. So many missed tackles. And dropped passes.

And of course the fallout: a .009 difference in the pre-bowl BCS Standings, leaving the Cowboys as the unwanted third wheel just outside of the national championship game, behind SEC kingpins LSU and Alabama at No. 1 and 2.

“So it's still kind of hard,” Lowe said. “But you've got to let it go. It's a new year. Last year doesn't matter.”

Except in all those weight room workouts.

And except maybe this week, with the Cyclones coming to Stillwater on Saturday for homecoming.

“We won't flood our minds with it,” said OSU wideout Charlie Moore, “but it's something that can maybe provide a little motivation for this game.”