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Beating up on Savannah State in its opener gave No. 18 Oklahoma State a nice confidence boost, allowed everyone but the ball boys a chance to get into a game.
But can anything really be gained in beating a team 84-0? Probably not much. The Cowboys may have gotten more out of their spring game than by pummeling the overmatched Tigers.
''It's hard to really say where we are as a football team,'' Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy said.
That should change this week.
A week after their most lopsided win since World War I, the Cowboys get their first real test of the season in the desert against Arizona and new coach Rich Rodriguez.
The Wildcats may not have a lot of depth on defense, but they'll certainly put up more of a fight than Savannah State. Arizona also is athletic, plays at a snap-as-quick-as-you-get-it pace and has Rodriguez's unique offense, even if they are still trying to get the nuances down.
A team from a BCS conference, on the road, in the heat of the desert - yeah, this will be a much better gauge of where the Cowboys stand.
''This will be a good challenge for our guys to play on the road with some of the younger players to see how they handle being away from home,'' Gundy said. ''We definitely have our work cut out for us.''
It goes the other way, too.
The Wildcats are facing a big step up in competition after a so-so game against Toledo in their opener.
Arizona rolled up 624 total yards, second-most in school history, but didn't finish off the Rockets until Matt Scott hit Terrence Miller on a 10-yard touchdown pass in overtime and the defense held.
The Wildcats had three turnovers, two touchdowns called back by penalties and kicker John Bonano missed two short field goals, including what would have been a winning 25-yarder at the end of regulation. The miscues led Arizona to go 1 of 4 inside the 20-yard line, which won't work against a talented team like the Cowboys.
''It's going to be a great challenge for us,'' Arizona center Kyle Quinn said. ''They are a well-established program with great coaches and athletes.''
These teams will be meeting for the third straight year. Oklahoma State has dominated the series by jumping on Arizona from the start, outscoring the Wildcats 44-7 in the first half on the way to a 36-10 win in the 2010 Alamo Bowl and 37-14 victory last season in Stillwater.
But the Wildcats don't know as much about Oklahoma State as you might think.
The Cowboys lost some of their key players from the past couple seasons, including quarterback Brandon Weeden and receiver Justin Blackmon to the NFL.
Arizona didn't get much chance to see what the new players could do in the opener against Savannah State, since Oklahoma State had many of its starters on the bench before the first quarter was over after scoring 35 points.
''We won't take a whole lot from that game,'' Rodriguez said. ''You watch the first couple of series, but other than that they kept it pretty generic and let their backups play.''
One player both teams would have liked to see more of was quarterback Wes Lunt.
The true freshman looked good in his first game taking over for Weeden, completing all 11 of his passes for 129 yards. It was a limited test, though; he played just four offensive series and the Tigers didn't exactly put him under much pressure.
Lunt will face a much stiffer challenge this week, playing his first road game, against his first FBS opponent and some talented, athletic players.
''We would have liked to have gotten him to come out after half, and had to warm up again and play the second half, which we didn't get to do,'' Cowboys offensive coordinator Todd Monken said. ''I wouldn't say there's concern, but we would have liked to have had that happen. But the reality is there's nothing saying that he's not going to play well this week because of that.''
Lunt may not have played much, but it was enough to impress Arizona.
Weeden was superb against the Wildcats the past two seasons - he threw for 397 yards and a pair of touchdowns last year - and they saw nothing in the limited amount of film on Lunt not to think he isn't going to be the next great quarterback at Oklahoma State.
''It looked easy for him, but that's what you want from a quarterback, for them to look composed and make it look simple,'' Rodriguez said. ''He's a starting quarterback for a reason. They have some talented quarterbacks and he's a true freshman. They have a pretty high standard for quarterbacks. He's a really good guy for them.''
The Wildcats hope to make it tough on him and the rest of his teammates - certainly tougher than Savannah State did last week.
