NO. 23 KANSAS STATE 42, NO. 20 OKLAHOMA STATE 20
Better than another humiliating loss at Kansas State, certainly. During Saturday’s 42-20 train wreck, OSU had a 13-7 lead and the Wildcats responded with 35 unanswered points. One week earlier, K-State lost 38-9 at BYU.
On Kansas State’s turf, the 2022 Cowboys and 2024 Cowboys were outscored 90-20.
OSU’s defensive front seven has to be better than what we saw on Saturday, when the Wildcats averaged nearly 9 yards per rush attempt.
Having entered the 2024 season with a belief that it would play in the Big 12 Championship game and contend for a place on the College Football Playoff bracket, OSU is 0-2 in Big 12 play for the first time since 2005 (Mike Gundy’s first season as the head coach).
As it currently is constructed, the Cowboy program seems stale and starving for the type of special people who were cornerstones for some of the best teams in school history.
As Gundy now is the 20-season overseer of Oklahoma State football, he had a ringside seat for watching some of the greatest performances in program history and some of the worst.
Each of the last two would be on the “worst” list.
There was last week’s offensive ineptitude during a 22-19 home loss to Utah in the Big 12 opener. What a deceptive final score that was. Having trailed 22-3, OSU didn’t get a touchdown until the 5½-minute mark of the final period and finished with a run-game deficit of 201 yards.
And on Saturday, there was a positive start and an awful outcome. From first-half drives to the K-State 19-yard line, the K-State 16, the K-State 14 and the K-State 31, Oklahoma State settled for two field goals.
During the first quarter, the OSU ground game had a pulse. Ollie Gordon carried nine times for 72 yards. During the second and third periods combined, there were 12 OSU rush attempts that netted 16 yards.
In today’s football, a 65% success rate is the standard for a quarterback. Against Utah and Kansas State, OSU’s Alan Bowman completed 51% of his passes and was intercepted four times.
OSU is one-dimensional offensively and the positive dimension – the passing dimension – never is a sure thing because Bowman has been intercepted 20 times in his 19 games as a Cowboy.
Gundy can’t just flip a switch and suddenly add “special people” to his operation. You always hope for it, but you’ve got to be lucky. When an assistant is hired or a player is signed and they turn out to be truly special and impactful, it’s a giant bonus.
It has happened during the Gundy era, and it’s got to happen again because – as a I stated a few paragraphs earlier – the Cowboy program appears to be stale.
From the Tulsa World archives, there are perfect examples of “special people” who became important Cowboys.
August 2007: Mike Gundy said Brandon Weeden, a walk-on coming off of a minor league baseball career, will battle redshirt freshman Alex Cate for the third quarterback spot.
The result: Weeden became the best quarterback in OSU history.
January 2010: OSU confirmed that University of Houston offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen has agreed to join the Cowboy staff.
The result: Holgorsen was at Oklahoma State only for one season, but his impact at OSU was comparable to Mike Leach’s at OU in 1999. As Holgorsen executed a total rebuild of OSU’s offensive approach, the 2010 Cowboys were 11-2 after having been third nationally in total offense, third in scoring and second in passing yards. The 2009 Cowboys had been 70th in total offense, 56th in scoring and 99th in passing.
September 2010: A Tulsa World headline – “Blackmon may be next big receiver for the Cowboys.”
The result: Weeden and Justin Blackmon developed into the most potent passing duo in college football, and Blackmon twice won the Biletnikoff Award.
February 2011: Mike Gundy announced that Jacksonville Jaguars quarterbacks coach Todd Monken will return to Stillwater as the new Cowboy coordinator. In 2002-04, for the Les Miles-coached Cowboys, Monken was the passing-game coordinator and receivers coach. In succeeding Dana Holgorsen as OSU’s offensive coordinator, Monken has a tough act to follow.
The result: Monken and Weeden had a tremendous partnership and the 2011 Cowboys were Big 12 champions. In spite of quarterback inconsistency, the Monken-coordinated 2012 Cowboy offense still ranks among the more potent offenses in program history.
December 2016: Wagoner’s Malcolm Rodriguez has given a verbal commitment to play football at Oklahoma State. Rodriguez helped lead the Bulldogs to the past two Class 4A state titles and has his team back in this year’s championship game.
The result: An All-Big 12 linebacker and one of the more popular Cowboys of the Gundy era, Rodriguez made more tackles – 409 – than any other OSU defender since 1982.
January 2018: Jim Knowles, who spent the last eight seasons as the defensive coordinator at Duke, will join the OSU staff, Mike Gundy announced via Twitter. Knowles, 52, is a Philadelphia native who played defensive end at Cornell. Prior to working at Duke from 2010-17, he was the head coach at Cornell from 2004-09.
The result: The Knowles-coordinated Cowboy defense of 2021 was a nationally renowned force. Before he departed for Ohio State, Knowles did for OSU’s defensive culture what Holgorsen and Monken did for the offense.
I don’t expect OSU to win at unbeaten BYU on Oct. 18. Otherwise, the rest of the Cowboy schedule is manageable.
An optimist might see the possibility of an 8-4 finish. If OSU’s run game remains so dismal, 6-6 is a possibility.
If the players reach a point at which their spirit is broken, the program’s first losing season since 2005 is a possibility.
You might say, “Hey, would a stale program have gotten 10 wins last season? Would a stale program have beaten OU in two of the last three seasons?” And it’s fair for that to be mentioned, but also it should be noted that the 2023 Cowboys were beaten 33-7 by South Alabama in Stillwater, got smoked 45-3 at UCF and lost by 28 points to Texas in the Big 12 Championship game.
In a general sense, the business of Oklahoma State football is better than ever. During the preseason, every ticket for every 2024 home game was sold. But with regard to the quest of attempting to be the Big 12’s No. 1 program, it feels like it’s time for dynamic new swagger and fresh ideas in Stillwater.
It’s not too early for Gundy to be thinking about how that might look.
Bill Haisten: At 0-2 in the Big 12 for the first time since 2005, the OSU program is stale
- Sep 28, 2024 Updated Sep 28, 2024
Better than another humiliating loss at Kansas State, certainly. During Saturday’s 42-20 train wreck, OSU had a 13-7 lead and the Wildcats responded with 35 unanswered points. One week earlier, K-State lost 38-9 at BYU.
On Kansas State’s turf, the 2022 Cowboys and 2024 Cowboys were outscored 90-20.
OSU’s defensive front seven has to be better than what we saw on Saturday, when the Wildcats averaged nearly 9 yards per rush attempt.
Having entered the 2024 season with a belief that it would play in the Big 12 Championship game and contend for a place on the College Football Playoff bracket, OSU is 0-2 in Big 12 play for the first time since 2005 (Mike Gundy’s first season as the head coach).
As it currently is constructed, the Cowboy program seems stale and starving for the type of special people who were cornerstones for some of the best teams in school history.
As Gundy now is the 20-season overseer of Oklahoma State football, he had a ringside seat for watching some of the greatest performances in program history and some of the worst.
Each of the last two would be on the “worst” list.
There was last week’s offensive ineptitude during a 22-19 home loss to Utah in the Big 12 opener. What a deceptive final score that was. Having trailed 22-3, OSU didn’t get a touchdown until the 5½-minute mark of the final period and finished with a run-game deficit of 201 yards.
And on Saturday, there was a positive start and an awful outcome. From first-half drives to the K-State 19-yard line, the K-State 16, the K-State 14 and the K-State 31, Oklahoma State settled for two field goals.
During the first quarter, the OSU ground game had a pulse. Ollie Gordon carried nine times for 72 yards. During the second and third periods combined, there were 12 OSU rush attempts that netted 16 yards.
In today’s football, a 65% success rate is the standard for a quarterback. Against Utah and Kansas State, OSU’s Alan Bowman completed 51% of his passes and was intercepted four times.
OSU is one-dimensional offensively and the positive dimension – the passing dimension – never is a sure thing because Bowman has been intercepted 20 times in his 19 games as a Cowboy.
Gundy can’t just flip a switch and suddenly add “special people” to his operation. You always hope for it, but you’ve got to be lucky. When an assistant is hired or a player is signed and they turn out to be truly special and impactful, it’s a giant bonus.
It has happened during the Gundy era, and it’s got to happen again because – as a I stated a few paragraphs earlier – the Cowboy program appears to be stale.
From the Tulsa World archives, there are perfect examples of “special people” who became important Cowboys.
August 2007: Mike Gundy said Brandon Weeden, a walk-on coming off of a minor league baseball career, will battle redshirt freshman Alex Cate for the third quarterback spot.
The result: Weeden became the best quarterback in OSU history.
January 2010: OSU confirmed that University of Houston offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen has agreed to join the Cowboy staff.
The result: Holgorsen was at Oklahoma State only for one season, but his impact at OSU was comparable to Mike Leach’s at OU in 1999. As Holgorsen executed a total rebuild of OSU’s offensive approach, the 2010 Cowboys were 11-2 after having been third nationally in total offense, third in scoring and second in passing yards. The 2009 Cowboys had been 70th in total offense, 56th in scoring and 99th in passing.
September 2010: A Tulsa World headline – “Blackmon may be next big receiver for the Cowboys.”
The result: Weeden and Justin Blackmon developed into the most potent passing duo in college football, and Blackmon twice won the Biletnikoff Award.
February 2011: Mike Gundy announced that Jacksonville Jaguars quarterbacks coach Todd Monken will return to Stillwater as the new Cowboy coordinator. In 2002-04, for the Les Miles-coached Cowboys, Monken was the passing-game coordinator and receivers coach. In succeeding Dana Holgorsen as OSU’s offensive coordinator, Monken has a tough act to follow.
The result: Monken and Weeden had a tremendous partnership and the 2011 Cowboys were Big 12 champions. In spite of quarterback inconsistency, the Monken-coordinated 2012 Cowboy offense still ranks among the more potent offenses in program history.
December 2016: Wagoner’s Malcolm Rodriguez has given a verbal commitment to play football at Oklahoma State. Rodriguez helped lead the Bulldogs to the past two Class 4A state titles and has his team back in this year’s championship game.
The result: An All-Big 12 linebacker and one of the more popular Cowboys of the Gundy era, Rodriguez made more tackles – 409 – than any other OSU defender since 1982.
January 2018: Jim Knowles, who spent the last eight seasons as the defensive coordinator at Duke, will join the OSU staff, Mike Gundy announced via Twitter. Knowles, 52, is a Philadelphia native who played defensive end at Cornell. Prior to working at Duke from 2010-17, he was the head coach at Cornell from 2004-09.
The result: The Knowles-coordinated Cowboy defense of 2021 was a nationally renowned force. Before he departed for Ohio State, Knowles did for OSU’s defensive culture what Holgorsen and Monken did for the offense.
I don’t expect OSU to win at unbeaten BYU on Oct. 18. Otherwise, the rest of the Cowboy schedule is manageable.
An optimist might see the possibility of an 8-4 finish. If OSU’s run game remains so dismal, 6-6 is a possibility.
If the players reach a point at which their spirit is broken, the program’s first losing season since 2005 is a possibility.
You might say, “Hey, would a stale program have gotten 10 wins last season? Would a stale program have beaten OU in two of the last three seasons?” And it’s fair for that to be mentioned, but also it should be noted that the 2023 Cowboys were beaten 33-7 by South Alabama in Stillwater, got smoked 45-3 at UCF and lost by 28 points to Texas in the Big 12 Championship game.
In a general sense, the business of Oklahoma State football is better than ever. During the preseason, every ticket for every 2024 home game was sold. But with regard to the quest of attempting to be the Big 12’s No. 1 program, it feels like it’s time for dynamic new swagger and fresh ideas in Stillwater.
It’s not too early for Gundy to be thinking about how that might look.
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