As it turns out, that wasn’t thunder you heard early Tuesday morning rolling over Stillwater.

It was Oklahoma State football coach Mike Gundy finally blowing his lid following four separate incidents involving four of his players this past week, leaving the program with far too many questions so close to the season opener with Georgia on Saturday.

Senior cornerback Perrish Cox, sophomore tight end Jamal Mosley and freshman running back Dexter Pratt all have run afoul of the law recently. Cox was arrested Friday following a traffic stop for driving with a suspended license. Pratt, while already awaiting trial for marijuana possession, was picked up for speeding last week, going between 25 and 30 mph over the speed limit.

And Mosley left the team Tuesday, just days after a protective order was issued against him. Oh, and Mosley was also awaiting trial for the same marijuana charge as Pratt.

And just to pour salt into a pretty big wound, senior linebacker Orie Lemon – the quarterback of the defense – tore a knee ligament and was ruled out for the season on Tuesday.

As days go, Tuesday was not a good one for Gundy and his program.

For now the Mosley and Pratt cases are essentially done for OSU as a football program. Mosley is gone from the program and Pratt wasn’t likely to see the field this year with Kendall Hunter, Keith Toston and Beau Johnson listed ahead of him on the running back depth chart.

The big question today is what to do with Cox?

With few details available as to why Cox’s license was suspended, there’s plenty of gray area to muddle through.

Should Cox be suspended for Saturday’s season opener with Georgia? By Monday’s account, it certainly didn’t appear that way. Cox was one of the handful of Cowboys on hand for the first weekly media session of the season.

He talked openly about his role in Saturday’s game, which includes defending A.J. Green, one of the top receivers in the Southeastern Conference.

Gundy made no mention of Cox’s legal issues during his 30-minute session with the media.

Gundy’s general principal when it comes to legal matters is to let due process take its course before issuing discipline. For Cox, a Sept. 23 court date has been assigned to his case.

A quick look at OSU’s schedule shows the next game following Sept. 23 is a home contest against Grambling State, by far the easiest of the Cowboys’ four non-conference games.

Awfully convenient. But also well within Gundy’s set of rules.

If Gundy sticks to his discipline guidelines, Cox will almost assuredly play Saturday.

Is there a time when the guidelines should be overlooked for the greater good? Three of Gundy’s recruits have been arrested over a three-month span. That’s not a positive picture for the program.

What they did may seem minor, but they’re still scholarship athletes and need to be held to a higher standard than normal students.

Four days before the biggest season opener things are not well inside the House of Gundy.

A gutsy, send-a-message-to-your-team call would be to sit Cox and let everybody know conduct like this is unacceptable, no matter what time of year or who you’re playing.

The safe call would be to let it ride like normal, say that this is the way everything is handles and play one of your top defensive players in one of your biggest games.

We’ll see what call Gundy makes on Saturday.