Warren Ready to Go: "One More Time With the Boys"

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – A win on Saturday in the PlayStation Fiesta Bowl over Notre Dame will have a huge impact on the perception of this Oklahoma State football season. For those of us in the middle of it, the season will always be special whether it is 11-3 or 12-2. However, the difference in finishing with a win over Notre Dame and tying for the most wins in school history versus losing the last two games of the season. It’s huge!

Marshall Levenson - Pokes Report

That play!

The lament for Oklahoma State players, coaches, broadcasters, and fans will be for a long time the several inches between the ball in Dezmon Jackson’s hand and the pylon at the corner of the goal-line in AT&T Stadium in Arlington. Most everybody believes if the Cowboys leading rusher Jaylen Warren with 1,134-yards rushing, a 4.8-yards per carry average, and 11 touchdowns had been toting the rock on that final offensive play against Baylor that Oklahoma State would be Big 12 Champs, in New Orleans, and preparing to play Mississippi.

That can’t change. I was on the sidelines, and I saw how Warren was begging the Cowboys doctors and medical staff for a shot to numb his ankle and let him roll. Head coach Mike Gundy said no. He wasn’t going to let Warren, who he believed could not protect himself with the bad ankle to play. Warren still thinks about it, but he thinks about this Saturday and the PlayStation Fiesta Bowl more.

“I’m pretty fortunate,” Warren told me.  “I look at this as a redemption round, I guess. It gave me another chance to help the team and play with my guys, so I am fortunate to have this opportunity.”

Pat Kinnison - Chief Photographer

Warren is healthier than he was for Bedlam.

Offensive coordinator Kasey Dunn feels fortunate too. Today was a light day as head coach Mike Gundy put a special teams practice in the middle of the week giving most players a lighter day of work with practice just being an hour long. Dunn’s not saying his top offensive producer is full speed, 100 percent, but he’s back!

“He’s up and been running around,” Dunn said. “I’m not going to go out on a limb and say he is 100 percent healthy, but he has been held back for awhile and I think that helped him get rolling again. Obviously, he is the most productive guy that we’ve got on offense, so it will be great to get him back.”

It is the final time for the super senior and transfer from Utah State. Some of us could tell he was special on the practice field, long before he really started lighting up opponents like he did with 218-yards and two touchdowns on the blue turf of Boise.

“I just play ball with the boys and that is how I have always looked it. I don’t … ‘Oh my gosh, Jaylen’ see myself as that person they say they look up too. I don’t see myself that way. I’m just like it is crazy when people say I am the favorite running back and with all these other running backs then why am I your favorite running back.”

I told Warren that most of us are trying to figure out which super hero he most resembles when he is running the football, catching that screen concept put in for him, or doing what many backs won’t and sticking his head into a defensive lineman or linebacker to protect his quarterback Spencer Sanders.

“I just look at myself as all the other 11 guys (on offense),” Warren added. “I look at them as the guys I play with, and they are superstars and I kind of help them.”

In the end, it was too short. We all wish there had been more time, more opportunities to watch Jaylen Warren in orange and black, but

“I have enjoyed being here and the staff and players all say, ‘we wish we had you here for longer than one year,’” Warren expressed. “I got a year and things happen and I’m glad they happened the way they did.”

So are we, so are we, and really happy there is one more opportunity.