USA TODAY International Edition
Cowboys exceed Gundy’s ‘ zero’ chance
STILLWATER, Okla. – Mike Gundy got back to Stillwater in the wee hours of Sept. 19 knowing few absolutes about his football team.
Oklahoma State had just finished its nonconference slate with a by- theskin- of- its- teeth win at Boise State. It was the Cowboys’ third such victory of the season. Close call against Missouri State. Closer call against Tulsa. Closest against Boise.
Yikes.
Even though Gundy arrived back home after a late night at Boise knowing his defense was playing well, just about everything else about his team was a mystery.
The other thing that seemed certain to Gundy: the likelihood of being a contender in the Big 12, much less the College Football Playoff.
“After the nonconference,” Gundy said, “I thought the chance was zero.” He shook his head a bit.
“I didn’t even think that far,” he said Monday during his weekly conference. “I was just trying to get to where we could function to play the next game.”
Safe to say Gundy and the Cowboys figured it out.
Later this week, they will play in the Big 12 championship game. Beat Baylor on Saturday, and OSU is quite likely playoff bound. When the penultimate playoff rankings were released Tuesday night, the Cowboys were fifth, but another top- 10 win could absolutely vault them into the final four.
The reasons the Cowboys are in this position are many, but prime among them is the improvement they’ve made over the past two months.
Get in the way back machine to the night OSU beat Boise, and the Cowboys looked like a team that might only finish with a 6- 6 record. Maybe they’d rally and get to 7- 5 or 8- 4, but going much better than .500 in Big 12 play? Contending for a conference crown after scratching out wins against a nonconference slate with nary a Power Five opponent? Fat chance.
The Cowboys had injuries and absences early in the season, of course. Starting quarterback Spencer Sanders missed the opener because he was in COVID- 19 protocols, then injuries beset the Cowboys receivers as well as causing shuffling on the offense line.
But even when everyone got healthy, it still seemed highly unlikely that Oklahoma State would become one of the best teams in the country.
Then about a month ago, Gundy sensed his team might be capable of something special. Injured receivers had not only returned but also started to mesh with Sanders. Additionally, the offensive line had solidified its rotation. And the defense that started the season playing great was still playing great.
“We’re better than what I thought,” Gundy remembers thinking after the Kansas game.
The Cowboys dominated the Jayhawks, then did the same to West Virginia and TCU.
“It kind of solidified to me,” Gundy said, “these guys are a little bit better than what I thought.”
More like way, way, way better.
At the season’s start, BetOnline. ag put OSU’s odds of winning a national title at 66- 1. After the Tulsa game, those odds dipped to 250- 1, then actually improved a smidge to 200- 1 after Boise.
Now, the Cowboys have 12- 1 odds of winning it all.
“This team has improved more each week than any team I’ve been around in 31 years,” Gundy said.
He believes the improvement is due to two things: OSU’s player maturity and assistant coaches.
“We’ve got a number of veteran players that understand how to practice and improve each week,” he said. “That’s our goal every year – to try to be considerably better in Game 10 than we are in Game 2. Doesn’t always happen that way. Sometimes, there’s so much youth involved that players don’t really understand how to push through practice.
“But this group has enough maturity on the team that they understand the importance of practicing well.”
The Cowboys have a group of assistants who have a good idea how to get the most out of those players, too. That’s due in part to those assistants being good at their jobs and in part to their longevity in Stillwater. Quarterback coach Tim Rattay and offensive line coach Charlie Dickey are the only assistants who have been in Stillwater less than four years.
Having eight assistants who are in at least Year 4 is rare in college football, but it means a vast majority of the players were not only recruited but also developed by the same coaches. Continuity breeds success.
In OSU’s case, it’s success that has built gradually but steadily this season.
“This is a special group,” Gundy said. “You all know where we started.”
Where the Cowboys will finish remains to be seen, but how far they’ve come has surprised everyone. They have defied the expectations. They have beaten the odds.
Even the ones they were given by their own head coach.