A Plea for Sanity in the Cowboy Nation

Bumped from FanPosts - Sam

I made a comment about my feelings after the game, to which samualbryant enjoyed, and suggested I write a fan post. So here we are. As you may have noticed, I removed my 15 reasons to hate OU post. Now, its not that I don't believe in what I wrote, I do. And I still really hate OU, but the negativity of the Nation has gotten kinda crazy here lately, starting with me. I'm going to try and do some soul searching and sunshine pumping, and try to make sense of this crazy ass season we just rode through. So join me and click the jum, if you will, and lets take a walk through the darkness and into the light. 

via i.cdn.turner.com

Time to say good bye to Kendall Hunter and 15 other seniors. It's been a hell of a ride boys, see y'all on the other side. 

After the game, the game thread yesterday devolved into a pit of despair, where after one of the single greatest games I've ever witnessed, in person or on TV, we spent no time talking about it and simply tried to insult people. Things were said that were beyond good taste, or even bad taste, with people taking shots at hurt players. I will admit, I was one of them. I went and apologized to the OU fans, more as part of my own changing mentality, but I did regret some of the things I said. I do not, however, excuse the OU fans response. While they were jumped on, they did not respond in a classy manner, and so I chalk that up to some Bedlam rage. Now, I'm in no way asking people to like or respect OU, I still hate them more than is sane. I'm simply asking the Chosen One's to rise above the mindless name calling and insults (but not the mindless cursing, god damnit).

The next thing I'm here to ask of the Nation is to start enjoying the wins. We have reached the point were the fear and disgust of losing is stronger than the joy of winning. We, at least until a few years ago, were one of the top party schools in the nation. I remember friends from high school who went to different schools visiting me because our party's raged. For several reasons, including the police, our famous parties may be a thing of the past. But, and this is important, that doesn't mean the fun is behind us. We can still tailgate our ass's off, and we can still throw a bash after a game. I just think that the culture around our football team has gotten out of control. We are told by the administration, that the only way to be successful is to pay outrageous prices, not have games on pay per view, and make some games "premium". I will return to this later, back to enjoying the wins.

Myself and samuelbryant had similar thoughts during the game, remembering the motto "win or lose, we still booze". Back in those days, loses rolled off our backs, and we celebrated every win like it was the last one we may ever get. I'm not asking the Nation to ignore losses, they should, and do, hurt. Before the game yesterday there was a huge emotional buildup, of both fans and players. This led us to believe that Nebraska was a fluke, that we were done losing close games. Unfortunately, that's not true yet, though I believe the days of us laying down in the 4th quarter are gone. But this build up made yesterdays loss devastating, to the point one loss has led some of us to believe the season was a bust. Well, thats fucking bullshit, we won 10 games, fair and square, after everyone thought we would finish last in the South. We are co Big 12 South champs, and will get a pretty sweet bowl game out of this season. We won 10 games in the regular season for the first time ever, and have a shot at an 11 win season. That's a successful season even by the toughest standards. We need to celebrate this. 

Back to the culture the administration has fostered, and I believe that this has a lot to do with why the fun is leaving football. Certain facts, that the administration (by administration, I mean Mike Holder) has tried to ignore, are making football less fun.

Fact number 1: We will probably never sell out an 80,000 plus capacity stadium. We don't have the graduates to do it. Does this mean we can never be successful? Hell no, look at what TCU is doing. This also means that keeping fans out of the stadium because they are not "with it" enough to by season tickets is ridiculous. The administration also believes that casual fans are the problem, and I say this is crap. Holder only wants the fans who can pony up 500 plus donation or more per ticket. He doesn't seem to care that for a family of 4 thats a minimum of $2200 after tax, and thats a lot a green. That doesn't include travel expenses, lodging expenses (if you can get a room) and food before, during, and after the game. We keep hearing that this is the "cost to compete", but I just don't believe that means forcing people to buy season tickets to get tickets to a single game. 

Fact number 2: Until we actually do it, Oklahoma State fans should not expect, or demand, championships. In the history of this conference, only 2 teams besides OU and Texas have won it (Texas A&M the first year, and Kansas State in 2003). If that doesn't tell you what an uphill battle we face, I don't know what will. This doesn't mean we shouldn't expect excellence from our players and coaches, it means we shouldn't demand perfection. There were several coaching moves and strategies from Saturday which deserve questioning, and I hope they will be. This also, is not a loser attitude. All we should want is for our boys to play their dicks off, and leave it on the field.

Fact number 3: Boomer Sooner is still the worst song in the history of the universe, and hats off the the sound guy who played that song over them every time they played it. I did not have to listen to that travesty of a song one time. I must ask, though, who the hell approved allowing the OU band to take our field. I say screw them, stay in the stands. 

I recognize that Mike Holder has done great things for this University, but its time to send him a message. We need to stop taking his abuse, and his price hikes. We pay more for season tickets than Alabama fans do, and thats insane. Hell, we're not even selling out. It seems we would get more money if we sold the stadium out for a lower price than to keep 15,000 seats empty. 

The last thing I want to discuss with the Nation today is our reaction to this season. Let's not spoil it by calling for coaches heads. I know there is already a fan post calling for a couple coaches skulls on pikes, and I hope that was out of rage after the loss than a truthful wish. Yes, there were many times this year that special teams, for lack of a better word, fucked up big. Yes, the defense made a few mistakes yesterday that, while not totally costing us the game, really put us behind the 8 ball. And yes, the offensive play calling was unimaginative and simple. But, Chosen One's, the Nation, Cowboy fans, there is no reason to want a single coach fired. Until yesterday we were the 3rd best offense in the FBS. Our defense was not great, but we have so many young (but badass) players on the team. And as far as yesterday, OU's defensive scheme was spectacular, this can't be denied. They had a plan to contain the screen game, and our offense is based around that. Combine this with Justin Blackmon's injury, and Kendall unable to get free, and I'm damn impressed we scored as much as we did. Now, I do believe there was a better way to utilize Blackmon than those dink and dunk passes, relying on him cutting on a bad wheel, but he somehow still got 100 yards and a score. 

In conclusion, my brothers, I'm asking to bring the fun back to football. We have transitioned from being those crazy, hard partying, shit talking, good time guys, who celebrate the good times, to a bunch of whiny OU type fans who don't give a shit about a win, but call for blood after a loss. We are better than this, and this season should only give us hope. Look ahead to next year. Go ahead, look. I did, and it gave me wood. We were supposed to be terrible this year, and we sit here at 10-2, with wins over the entire states of Texas and Kansas. Our young defensive players will be experienced defensive players, Blackmon will be back, so will Weeden and most of our O line. We have stud running backs ready to take over, and receivers who can play. So, Cowboys and Cowgirls (if there are any of you here), lets get our fucking game faces on, get to San Antonio (or where ever the bowl is), get drunk, and cheer our collective balls and ovaries out for these boys as they fight for win number 11. 

LETS GO POKES, BEAT THE HELL OUTTA (insert bowl opponent here)