On senior day, trying to reflect for a minute but win for 60

On Saturday in Stillwater, Okla., the football teams from Oklahoma and Oklahoma State for the fifth time in the past eight years will play a game that will have a direct impact on the Big 12 championship.

Before kickoff, Oklahoma State will hold a ceremony to honor its senior class, which will be playing its final game at Boone Pickens Stadium.

Oh, and there's a football game the Cowboys must win to have a chance at making the College Football Playoff.

"We just try to talk to the players and be as up front as possible about all of the different activities that are going on with this game," said Mike Gundy, Oklahoma State's coach. "We just avoid getting caught up in that side of it because ultimately when we kick the game off, that's more important than anything else that's happened up to that point."

Dozens of FBS schools will hold senior day ceremonies this weekend as college football's regular season comes to a close. The ceremonies represent a rare activity sanctioned by coaches that can affect a team's emotions — or their own — right before kickoff.

"That's why I hate them," Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher said with a laugh. "I do. I do. I mean, I hate them.

"Because tell me something that's harder to do than to go out there and all of a sudden you're reflecting on — I love them, too — but I'm reflecting on everything that's happened and this is the last time it's happening and all that, and I've got to do all that. Then go get ready to play and the most emotional — to turn it back and forth. I'm telling you, I've seen it happen."

Alabama coach Nick Saban said he has never found himself questioning whether a pregame senior day ceremony swept up a player and led to a bad performance. He would like to have more ceremonies honoring his players, and is glad to have one for his seniors right before their final home game. "I think there isn't a better time to do it that I can think of, so the players just have to have enough maturity to be able to handle the situation and be ready to play the game," he said.

Though the ceremonies rarely make television broadcasts and sometimes occur when some fans are still finding their seats, coaches take senior day seriously. Mike Riley, who will enjoy his first senior day as Nebraska's coach on Friday, said he has grown more attached or invested in senior day the longer he's been in coaching.

In the week leading up to Frank Beamer's final home game as Virginia Tech's coach last Saturday, he offered a precise accounting of the people not named Beamer who would be honored: 26 players, six student managers, six student trainers, six student video staffers and one student recruiting office worker. "All of these people are very much part of the program," Beamer said. "That's a special day there."

Duke's David Cutcliffe feels the same way, but calls senior day activities "simple but not simple." Cutcliffe makes sure to be aware of any unique dynamics involving players' family members who might be part of the senior day ceremony or attending the game. "As a coach, you have to be attentive," he said. "If somebody gets in an argument or something — God forbid something happens, but I do worry about that."

Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly's most vivid senior day memory remains his 2003 Grand Valley State team, which was celebrating much of a 1998 class that won two Division II national championships in its career. "We played in our final home game by shoveling the stadium and getting the snow off the field," he said. "It was just kind of a mark of we did a little bit of everything together, and it was a pretty memorable time."

Oregon coach Mark Helfrich, whose team hosts in-state rival Oregon State on Friday on the Ducks' senior day, recalls last season's senior day ceremony before a 44-10 win against Colorado. "I was crying my face off last year at senior day for a bunch of those guys," he said. "And it's always for different reasons, whether it's a relationship you had or how much you cared about somebody or something you know that they've overcome, all the things that kind of combined for that moment."

But in the immediate future, there's a game to kick off.

"There will be more emotions than normal," Helfrich said, "and that's where you have to kind of flip that switch back and harness it the right way."

Michigan State is one of the teams, like Oklahoma State, which has a difficult challenge ahead when it hosts Penn State this Saturday. The Spartans are playing for a Big Ten East division championship and to hold onto or improve their status as the No. 5 team in the College Football Playoff selection committee's rankings.

Even for a program like Michigan State that has become a perennial contender, this week's game is different. And on top of all that, it's senior day.

"We're trying to not make it different as much as we can," Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio said. "For me on this day, it's about them getting some recognition and playing in our home stadium for the last time, but we want to make it as usual as it always is, we want to make it so they're not missing anything really. It stays the same."

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