Two Thumbs Up: Cowboys arrive in Dallas

One week ahead of their AT&T Cotton Bowl Showdown with Missouri, the Oklahoma State Cowboys have arrived in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. With no recent practices under their belt, most of the talk was about their accommodations at the Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center.

Count the Cowboys as very impressed with their new digs for the next week.

"This thing is big," said senior linebacker Deion Imade I've never seen something like this before, and I'm from Dallas. This is a new world for me."

Fellow linebacker Caleb Lavey echoed Imade's sentiment.

"This is my first time in this hotel. I'm from the area, so I've been around here," Lavey said. "Unfortunately, this is the first time I've been here, but I can promise you it won't be the last based on how nice this place is. I've only seen like one percent of it and it looks like there's endless things to do. The player hospitality room is like a dreamland. It's going to be hard getting me out of there."

Sixth-year senior Kye Staley has been to a number of bowls in his career. That gave him an edge in knowing the ropes.

"It feels great. I'm not used to seeing all these big hotels," Staley said. "It's great to be here. It's great they accepted us to come to the Cotton Bowl. Driving from Guthrie, I got here in good time. I left around seven this morning. I got to check out the hotel and pick the bed I wanted."

While Staley got his choice of beds and is as impressed as anyone with the Gaylord, the fullback is ready to get back to business.

"I want to hang out in the hotel a lot, but we need to get back to the game plan and get back to beating Missouri January 3," Staley said. "It's going to be a good game and I can't wait to play."

Lavey is on-board with the thought, but may need a map.

"If I can find the bus. I might get lost on my way out of here, it's so big," Lavey said of the team hotel. "We are here to work and we have to realize we still have a job at hand, but I'm going to enjoy everything else while I'm here."

Lavey and his teammates won't have long to get lost in the hotel. Their first practice is this afternoon at Euless Trinity high school.