Oklahoma State didn’t just lose a football game on Saturday. It lost face, identity, and any lingering optimism that 2025 might be the season where the program begins to climb back from last year’s collapse. A 69–3 blowout loss at No. 6 Oregon wasn’t just lopsided. It was historically humiliating, setting a new school record for margin of defeat in the modern era and cementing the Cowboys as one of the nation’s most dysfunctional programs.
Yes, Oklahoma State was a massive underdog. Yes, the Cowboys were starting a freshman quarterback in Zane Flores after Hauss Hejny went down with a foot injury in Week 1. But excuses don’t wash away what happened at Autzen Stadium. Oregon scored touchdowns on its second and third offensive plays, averaged over 10 yards per snap, and racked up 631 yards to OSU’s 211. The Ducks didn’t punt until the fourth quarter, and their backups still poured it on.
“We gotta look at that and see where we’re at,” head coach Mike Gundy admitted postgame. “We didn’t play good enough, in the systems that we had, to put ourselves in that position.”
That’s coach-speak for a deeper problem: Oklahoma State isn’t just overmatched. It’s completely unprepared.
A Program in Freefall
The numbers are staggering. The 66-point margin was OSU’s worst since 1907. Oregon’s 69 points were the most against the Cowboys since Texas hung 71 in 1996. More importantly, it marked the second consecutive historically bad loss of the Gundy era, following last season’s 52–0 embarrassment at Colorado.
Between those two games, Oklahoma State has been outscored by a combined 121–3 in two showcase moments. That’s not a blip. That’s a program falling through the floor.
And while Gundy tried to soften the blow by referencing Oregon’s resources, his words earlier in the week are part of the problem. When he suggested the Ducks should only play programs with “similar budgets,” he framed OSU as incapable of competing on equal footing. That narrative seeped into his players. Oregon quarterback Dante Moore didn’t miss the opportunity to call it out.
“For him to attack Phil [Knight], Coach Lanning and our team was personal,” Moore said after throwing three touchdown passes. “We were going to keep the foot on the neck and make sure we score these points and try to break the scoreboard.”
They did exactly that.
Gundy’s Choices Are Haunting Him
Like I said earlier, Mike Gundy has been the face of Oklahoma State football for two decades. He’s the winningest coach in school history, a Stillwater native son, and the man responsible for the program’s greatest highs. But in 2025, he looks like a coach stuck in the past.
Last winter, Gundy reshuffled his staff after a disastrous 3–9 season. Instead of pursuing fresh energy or innovative minds, he doubled back to comfortable names. Doug Meacham, his old offensive assistant from the mid-2000s, took over the offense. Todd Grantham, a retread defensive coordinator who last called plays in 2021, took the defense. They were “win-now” hires — but through two weeks, OSU looks worse.
The defense has regressed, giving up explosive plays on the ground and through the air. The offense, stripped of creativity, looks lifeless. Flores was put in an impossible situation on Saturday, but asking a true freshman to run a predictable system against one of the best defenses in the country was never going to work.
ESPN Says the Quiet Part Out Loud
Even the predictive models are abandoning ship. ESPN’s Football Power Index, which projected Oklahoma State to win at least two more games after Week 1, now only gives the Cowboys better than a 50% chance in one contest: a Friday night meeting against Tulsa on September 19.
The collapse in projections is stark. Before the Oregon game, OSU had a 41% chance to beat Baylor. That number has dropped to 18%. A 61% chance against Houston? Now 28%. Against Arizona, it’s down to just 13%.
Put bluntly, the Cowboys are now expected to be underdogs in every Big 12 game. Bowl eligibility isn’t slipping away — it’s already gone.
The Fan Base Is Losing Faith
Perhaps the most telling moment didn’t happen on the field. It came online, where Gundy’s son, Gavin, posted a long defense of his father, calling him “the most important name this program has EVER had.” While he wasn’t wrong historically, the tweet thread reeked of desperation. It was deleted soon after.
The problem for Gundy is that OSU fans know what’s possible. They’ve lived it. They’ve seen 10-win seasons, a Big 12 title, and Fiesta Bowl wins. They’ve seen the Cowboys go toe-to-toe with Oklahoma and win Bedlam showdowns. They know the program doesn’t have to settle for irrelevance.
And now, after back-to-back years of futility and excuses, patience is wearing thin.
What’s Next?
Oklahoma State has a bye week before hosting Tulsa. On paper, it should be a reset opportunity. But after watching Oregon hang 69 points, nothing feels safe. ESPN’s confidence in the Cowboys dropped by nearly 10% against the Golden Hurricane alone.
If OSU can’t convincingly beat Tulsa, the season may spiral further. The following stretch — Baylor, Arizona, Houston — will define whether this team bottoms out entirely or claws its way to respectability.
But make no mistake: the damage is already done. Oklahoma State football is no longer seen as a tough, overachieving Big 12 program. It’s seen as a doormat.
The Gundy Question
The hardest truth may be this: Oklahoma State has become Mike Gundy’s program in every sense — and that includes its downfall. He’s 4–10 in his last 14 games. His last two losses to Power Five opponents are the two worst of his career. His excuses about money ring hollow in an era where even middle-tier programs are finding ways to adapt.
There’s no denying what he’s built. But there’s also no denying what’s happening now. OSU football has hit rock bottom. And unless Gundy can prove otherwise over the next 10 weeks, his long tenure in Stillwater may end not with a celebration of what he accomplished, but with the sting of how it all unraveled.
Matt Hofeld is a college football analyst and contributor covering the Big 12. Follow him for more Oklahoma State and conference-wide analysis throughout the 2025 season.
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