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When the time is right, Richetti Jones breaks out the ring Oklahoma State players got for sharing the Big 12 South title for the first time.
Maybe when he's going to church, out to a nice dinner or on a date. There's a special meaning to the accomplishment that came during the first 11-win season in the program's history.
Yet he and his Cowboy teammates, no longer motivated by being overlooked and underestimated, have no interest in being satisfied with what they have done.
''We're trying to get the big boy, the biggest one of all,'' Jones a defensive end, said Saturday at the team's annual media day. ''I want to go meet President Obama in the White House. I want to do the big stuff. I want to do it all.''
Goals get no bigger than winning the national championship, but perhaps this year that's not so far-fetched at Oklahoma State. The Cowboys are loaded with talented players who were off the radar at this time a year ago.
They ended up getting those rings made and walloping Arizona in the Alamo Bowl, but still falling short of the ultimate goals. A loss to rival Oklahoma cost the team a chance to play in the Big 12 title game and blocked the path to the program's first-ever BCS bowl game.
Hungry for a second chance, all-Big 12 quarterback Brandon Weeden and Biletnikoff Award winner Justin Blackmon passed on the chance to go to the NFL, bringing back the two most dynamic playmakers in the nation's third-highest scoring offense (44.2 ppg).
After starting out unranked and picked to finish next-to-last in the division last season, the Cowboys are ranked No. 9 in the USA Today preseason poll. The Associated Press rankings come out later this month.
''It's a good problem to have,'' Weeden said. ''We've put ourselves in this position with the success we had last year, but at the same time you can't get wrapped up in it. Last year, we were on the flip side of the coin.''
Instead of playing with a chip on their shoulders, the players are dealing with being in the spotlight. Blackmon and Weeden have been highlighted in a campaign by the school to draw attention to the prolific tandem.
''I think last year the guys were kind of ticked off because we felt like we were a better football team than that. We didn't say it, but we believed it,'' Weeden said.
''We thought we were a good football team.''
It won't be easy for Oklahoma State to continue its improvement trend under seventh-year coach Mike Gundy. The Cowboys have never won less games or conference games than the previous year since Gundy took over in 2005 and went 4-7. But this year's schedule features road games at Texas A&M, Missouri and Texas before the finale against Oklahoma in Stillwater.
''The main thing is staying focused,'' Weeden said. ''We had so much success last year, it's human nature to get a little bit confident and start not preparing the same way, but so far I haven't seen that. ...
''You never want to go backward, you always want to go forward. I think that's been our approach.''
