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Outside the team meeting room, a sign issued a series of reminders for No. 6 Oklahoma State leading into a game against Kansas that seemed on paper to be a mismatch of mammoth proportions.
The last two: ''NO AMBUSH'' and ''NO REGRETS.''
No problem.
Brandon Weeden threw for 288 yards and five touchdowns before being pulled out of a lopsided game before halftime, and Oklahoma State matched its highest scoring total from the last 94 years in a 70-28 rout of the Jayhawks on Saturday.
''It was pretty efficient,'' coach Mike Gundy said. ''Some days, things just work, you know? You hit a golf ball and it hits a tree limb and bounces back in the fairway.''
Everything the Cowboys did was working.
Jamie Blatnick recovered a fumble and leaped to tip an interception to himself for two of the Cowboys' four first-half takeaways, and Oklahoma State (5-0, 2-0 Big 12) scored touchdowns on all eight of its possessions before halftime against the nation's worst defense.
''I've never been a part of anything like that,'' Weeden said. ''We scored every time we touched it.''
Kansas (2-3, 0-2) came in allowing a Bowl Subdivision-worst 44.3 points per game, and Oklahoma State had already surpassed that total with 4 minutes left in the second quarter on Weeden's second TD pass to All-American receiver Justin Blackmon.
That score made it 49-7, and backup Clint Chelf tacked on a 3-yard TD pass to Hubert Anyiam with 12 seconds left before halftime to give OSU 56 consecutive points.
Chelf added 206 yards on 14 for 21 passing with two TDs. The 494 yards passing allowed were the most ever for Kansas, surpassing the 481 by North Carolina State - mostly by Philip Rivers - in 2003.
''It's hard to stop. They have a great tempo and it's run by a very veteran quarterback,'' Jayhawks offensive coordinator Chuck Long said. ''I think he's like six months younger than (Green Bay Packers quarterback) Aaron Rodgers.
''Being in that position, when you have a mature guy like that running things, when you call plays you know he can fix it. He's at the point of his career where he'll turn a bad play into a good one.''
There weren't many bad ones.
Weeden had the most accurate performance ever by an Oklahoma State quarterback, completing 24 of 28 passes for 85.7 percent. That was just a few percentage points better than Zac Robinson's 85.3 percent mark against Baylor two years ago.
Weeden, who turns 28 this week and is actually about two months older than Rodgers, came in as the nation's second-leading passer, trailing only Houston's Case Keenum with 398 yards per game, and will drop off in that category despite a brilliant performance. Of his incompletions, one was dropped by Blackmon on a screen pass and he purposely threw one away out the back of the end zone.
By halftime, he was already wearing a black ballcap backward on the sideline.
The Cowboys scored their most first-quarter points in the modern era with 35 and tied the school mark with 56 points in a half.
That doesn't include early blowouts, including a 117-0 shutout of Southwestern Oklahoma State in 1916 that was the last time the program scored more than 70 points in a game or a 134-0 win against Phillips that represents the school scoring record.
The only time OSU has reached 70 points since 1916 was a 70-7 win against Southern Illinois in 1973.
''We have some work to do on that side of the ball,'' Kansas coach Turner Gill said. ''Or on all sides of the ball, for that matter.''
Jordan Webb completed 25 of 36 passes for 316 yards with two touchdowns, two interceptions and a fumble lost in the 11th straight road loss for the Jayhawks, with the last six under Gill.
The Pokes came in as the nation's sixth-highest scoring team (46.8 ppg), second in passing (415.5 ypg) and third in total offense (571.8 ypg) and seemed to have a clear advantage.
The biggest thing they had to fear coming into the game was that it could be a trap, following a come-from-behind win at then-No. 8 Texas A&M and ahead of road games at No. 11 Texas and Missouri the next two weeks.
Weeden said he was starting to get nervous because ''everybody was just kind of moping around'' before the game in the locker room, but then senior defensive end Richetti Jones delivered a pep talk to get everyone fired up.
''Somebody had to say something. We can't just allow these guys to go out there lackadaisical and not have their minds right,'' Jones said.
''That's how you let a team like that ambush you.''
The Jayhawks followed that with their own wake-up call, receiving the opening kickoff and then driving 80 yards to go up 7-0 on Jordan Webb's 10-yard touchdown pass to tight end Tim Biere. Toben Opurum sped around left end to sack Weeden on the Cowboys' first snap.
Oklahoma State needed less than 2 minutes to respond with seven straight passes by Weeden, the last one a 12-yard TD toss to Josh Cooper. Blatnick then recovered Tony Pierson's fumble on the Jayhawks' next offensive snap, and OSU cashed it in three plays later on Weeden's 24-yard screen pass to Blackmon.
Anyiam also caught two scoring passes, Michael Harrison and Isaiah Anderson caught one apiece and Jeremy Smith rushed for a touchdown in his ninth straight game for Oklahoma State.
The Cowboys' eight drives for touchdowns in the first half averaged 84 seconds.
Gundy pulled his starters before the final one and didn't flinch when Kansas blocked a punt and scored just over 2 minutes into the second half.
''I like Turner Gill and, not that we have to give mercy to anybody, but there's no reason to leave (Weeden) and Blackmon and those guys in when you're ahead by (42).
''There's just no reason to do it.''
