Oklahoma State Desperately Need Reset in Bye Week
Oklahoma State’s season hasn’t gone according to plan.
No matter what’s heard from the players or coaches in Stillwater, three-straight conference losses weren’t expected for a team filled to the brim with experienced returners.
The team has long been an underdog in the Big 12, grinding through superior opponents to surpass expectations year after year. But with Oklahoma and Texas having moved onto the SEC, this was supposed to be the Cowboys year to rise to the surface and submit itself as a longtime Big 12 titan.
But after consecutive losses to Utah, Kansas State and West Virginia — the latter of which featured uncharacteristically large margins for head coach Mike Gundy — the team is now struggling just to find its footing.
Luckily, the team’s bye week should function as a reset of sorts.
There’s plenty of questions swirling about the roster. Is seventh-year quarterback Alan Bowman still the answer as the signal caller? Will Ollie Gordon II continue playing for the Cowboys having now suffered a few injuries with an obviously bright NFL future ahead? Will Gundy keep certain members of his staff on through the season?
The team’s off week should help slow things down some in order to answer at least a few of these questions.
But things will pick back up quickly.
The Cowboys will re-start play with the now-Big 12 leading No. 14-ranked BYU Cougars. The game will undoubtedly be one of the team’s toughest of the season, but it could also be a launchpad to get back on track.
Following that stint, OSU plays Baylor, Arizona State, TCU, Texas Tech and Colorado to finish out the season.
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Derek is co-founder of All Pokes and publisher for Draft Digest and Inside The Thunder for Fan Nation, powered by Sports Illustrated. He has been a sports writer in the Oklahoma market for five years now covering a variety of sports over the course of his career.