Fiesta Bowl Champs!

"Oklahoma State football has come a long, long way." ~Mike Gundy's Trophy Presentation Speech

Y'all are probably shocked that I waited a whole entire week to post this blog....my Cowboys are Fiesta Bowl Champs! And I was there to see it in person. Here's how it went down.

It was so much fun to meet up with some of my favorite boys in the world to watch the game: BFF, Cousin Swiss Mister, Mr. Animal House Boy, and Ski Trip John.

And I got to see lots of other friends there as well....Brett-Brett, OSU Pres, and Miss Arizona.

We kicked off the fun with a little tailgating Oklahoma State style. That means lots of boots, beer, red dirt music, orange attire, and wine in a box.

There were also some awesome, creative signs. Here were three of my favorites....

Then we headed inside for the pre-game festivities. There were loads of famous people at the game. Thanks to our awesome seats, I got some great shots. Check it out.

Let me take a moment to trash talk the Stanford Band. At first, I think to myself, "Okay, this is just unorganized chaos...no uniforms, running around everywhere, making noise, stupid costumes. Very California." And then, between them talking trash about Oklahoma, our way of life, the fact that we raise animals, the people who would chose to live there AND then refusing to stop playing the fight song during our trophy presentation....I never thought I'd say this, but I hate a band more than OU's. BFF put it best when he said, "I swear, I'm so glad we beat them if for no other reason than I hate that damn band!"

And then, it was game time. I'm not going to give you a whole play by play (until the last 4 minutes), but I'll sum it up for you in two thoughts. (1) If I ever verbalized my thoughts that Andrew Luck was overrated, I take it back. That dude's the real deal. (2) Justin Blackmon is a man among boys. I swear, on that Monday I would have voted for him to be President, Miss America, the American Idol Winner, my future husband...whatever. He was unbelievable.

And now, for the play by play. We were down a touchdown with about 4 minutes to go. We get the ball. My boy Brandon Weeden drives us down and scores. Fast. With 2:35 seconds left. Everyone in America (including me) is thinking, we scored too fast and left too much time.

Stanford gets the ball. Drives down the field. For some reason I'll never understand (maybe because God is an OSU fan) instead of keeping the drive going, they waste about 15 seconds on a run to the middle of the field to set up a chip shot field goal with 3 seconds left. Things did not look good for the Pokes. I said to BFF, "Is there any chance we block this?" He said no way.

So Stanford kicks it. If you've been to a game before, you know you can't tell if it's good or not from the sides. But what you can see is the entire orange half of the end zone seats go absolutely crazy. That's right, ladies and gents, he missed. (Video here.) On the video, it happens in like a second. In real life, it felt like slow freaking motion!

For an idea of how the excitement level increased check this out. Exhibit A was in the 3rd Quarter. Exhibit B was right after the miss when I said we needed a "We didn't lose the game by some miracle!" photo.

And you know how it ends. In overtime we win the toss. Stanford's poor kicker misses again. And then we score a touchdown. By the walk on senior receiver. Everyone goes crazy and the team runs out on the field. We celebrate being the champions. And then they call it back. So we line up for a field goal. And hallelujah for our senior kicker, Quinn Sharp, we won the game and celebrated (again).

My favorite part of the night was when Coach Gundy dedicated the game to The Four. And he brought the widow of Coach Budke up on the stage, hugged her, and handed her the trophy. (Video here.) When we talk about the OSU family, those aren't just words. Those are actions, on a stage, at the Fiesta Bowl. So proud to be a Cowboy!

After the game we headed back to the hotel and hit up some college bar. We had deep discussions about life, watched Mr. Animal House head but a punching bag, discussed stealing a cop car (I convinced them to have a sandwich instead) and closed out the night with BFF yelling random colors out the window.

And then we nursed hangovers and slept until noon the next day. We can still hang with the college kids at night, but it's a different story in the morning!

I'm sad to see this year's football season come to an end. It's been a historic one for Oklahoma State--first Big 12 Championship, first BCS Bowl Appearance, and first BCS win. It's a great time to be a Cowboy! Go Pokes!