Oklahoma State arrived in Memphis to resume preparations for their AutoZone Liberty Bowl on Christmas night and got right to work.

“Well we’re excited to be here in the AutoZone Liberty Bowl," said head coach Mike Gundy. "All of our players are here, so we’re going to have our meetings and then go over and have a brief practice this evening. We’ve had a great day. Merry Christmas to everybody, and we’re looking forward to being here for a week.”

Gundy said he's excited about playing in the Liberty Bowl for two reasons - its history and the fact that OSU has never played in it.

“We’re familiar with it. What’s interesting is that this bowl has gone on for 60 years and Oklahoma State hasn’t been in it, so we’re excited about it," Gundy said. "It’s one of the bowls that was a traditional bowl when I was a young kid growing up, and it’s one of the ones that you saw all the time. We’ve been to a lot of bowls and we’re excited about being in Memphis.”

Senior defensive tackle Enoch Smith, Jr. echoed his head coach's excitement about the Liberty Bowl, albeit for some different reasons.

“It’s extremely special for me knowing that it’s going to be my last (game)," Smith said. "I’m extremely grateful to get to play against an SEC team as my last game, and the city of Memphis – I’ve never been here before. It’s very historic to my fraternity, personally. There’s a lot of things with civil rights and things like that, so I’m extremely grateful for the opportunity.”

According to Gundy, the Cowboys have practiced well in the lead-up to leaving for Memphis and will look to carry forward that momentum the rest of the week.

“We’ve had 14 good practices at home and we anticipate having four really good practices here," Gundy said. "We’ve been very successful in the way we handle our players and we want them to really experience and enjoy Memphis. There’s a time of the day for meetings and practice, and then we want them to enjoy themselves and be very careful and safe – respect everyone else and the environment – but there’s also preparation and in the end the most important thing is to play the very best that we can in the game.”

Many prognosticators are viewing the Missouri-OSU matchup as a probable offensive shootout. Smith said he and the other Cowboy defenders use those projections as fuel for having something to prove.

“As a defensive player, when you hear stuff like that you always try to prove everybody wrong," he said. "Coming from the Big 12 Conference, it’s kind of typical. As a defensive player, you just have to continue to do what you have to do every single play – small techniques, your step, cross facing offensive linemen, and just doing whatever you need to do to help your team come out with a victory and quiet all the naysayers.”

The Cowboys wrap up the 2018 season at the AutoZone Liberty Bowl on New Year’s Eve, with kickoff set for 2:45 p.m. CT on ESPN.