Slavin’s Five Takeaways From the 2017 Oklahoma State Football Season

There is a lot to feel about this football season.

Let me start by saying this; the 2017 season will go down as a disappointment. Not because of what was or was not accomplished, but because of the unmet expectations.

We all said before the season that anything short of reaching the Big 12 title game would be a disappointment. OSU will not only miss a chance at the title, they won’t even reach 10 games in the regular season. That was the floor for this team.

Throw in the fact that they lost three games at home. OSU was supposed to have a home field advantage, with a stadium that was selling out and filling up. Yet they end the season 3-3 at home, with wins over opponents whose combined record is 4-32.

Not a bad season by any means. Nine wins with the chance for a 10th in a bowl game is never a bad season, no matter what happened. But while I can admit that 10 wins is great, I can also admit that not even reaching the Big 12 title game is a huge letdown.

All that being said, here are my takeaways from this season.

1. Blame to go around

You can point the fingers at a lot of people for the team not reaching expectations this season:

• Mike Gundy and Mike Yurcich for conservative playcalling in games against TCU, Texas, and Kansas State.

• Mason Rudolph for not getting it done against OU and Kansas State with the game on the line.

• The defense for giving up more than 49 points per game in the three games in November that mattered the most.

• Yurcich for not coming up not adjusting to TCU’s defensive scheme fast enough in that game.

• Mike Gundy coaching the special teams.

The point is a lot of things went wrong this season; you can’t point to one single thing. Yes, more blame goes to some than others. I believe changes need to be made this offseason, especially on the defensive side of the ball.

OSU’s complete collapse defensively in the three biggest games in November, the continually-unimproving 3rd-down defense, the fact they’ve played their worst at the end of seasons when they matter most, and this fact…

About a 15% year over year increase in points allowed per game by Oklahoma State defense.

— Adam Lunt (@AdamLunt817) November 26, 2017

…tells us changes need to be made.

But I still trust Mike Gundy moving forward.

You don’t become the best coach in a program’s history and not get the benefit of the doubt. Is Gundy the best coach in college football? No. Is he the best coach for Oklahoma State? Every day until the day he retires.

2. Special Seniors

Despite not winning a Big 12 title, this is one of the best senior classes to ever come through Oklahoma State. If they win their bowl game, they’ll be the first class in Oklahoma State history to have three straight 10-win seasons.

It stinks OSU hasn’t won 11 games since 2011. I know the players are more disappointed they didn’t reach that mountaintop than any of us fans. They’ll always remember the season that could have been and feel the weight of not getting it done.

But three straight 10-win seasons? That would be incredible, especially at a school that’s never done it before. They carried the program with class and took part in some important victories and big moments.

• Beating Oklahoma and Washington to end save the 2014 season.
• Starting 10-0 and beating undefeated No. 8 TCU at home in 2015.
• Soundly thumping two ranked teams in West Virginia and Colorado in 2016.
• Going 6-0 on the road in 2017.

Plays like this…

And this…

And this…

This class beat every other Big 12 team at least once, never lost to Texas Tech, Iowa State, and Kansas, and only had losing records to OU and Baylor. They weren’t perfect, but they deserve nothing but appreciation and applause for what they’ve accomplished during their time in Stillwater.

3. Cowboys need a bowl win

Whoever they play, wherever they play, the Cowboys need to win.

That stat above, the 10 wins in three straight seasons, only happens if the Cowboys win their bowl game. You think 9-3 is disappointing? How do you think 9-4 with loss to end the season against a less-talented team will feel?

How do you think Washington felt in 2014 when they lost to a 6-6 OSU team they were expected to beat? How do you think Colorado fans felt last year when their team, that nearly won the Pac-12 got soundly beat by Oklahoma State?

No, a bowl win doesn’t make up for the disappointment of the season, but it does leave a nice taste in the mouth heading into an offseason with a lot of questions.

Whoever and wherever Oklahoma State ends up this bowl season, I hope they treat it like a monstrous game. For their sake and for ours.

4. Lots of offensive talent

Speaking of next season, there will be a lot of questions, but a lot of talent, especially on the offensive side of the ball.

That’s your three best running backs (actually all of them) and three of your top five wide receivers. That’s a lot of offense for a team with a lot of questions. Not to mention freshmen Chuba Hubbard and Tylan Wallace.

That tells me, no matter who is taking snaps behind center, they’ll have weapons around them. The best running back in the Big 12, if not the nation, to hand off to. Plus a stable of reliable ball catchers, including a senior in Jalen McClesky, a potential draft pick in Tyron Johnson, and Dillon Stoner, who I can’t even begin talk about highly enough.

5. A bit of perspective

In our Slack group the other day, one of the writers remarked that he didn’t know he Josh Heupel was. For those of you like him, Heupel — now the offensive coordinator for Missouri — led the Sooners to their last national title in 2001.

It made me realize that a lot of younger OSU fans don’t remember when OSU was actually bad. The current freshman class at OSU was about 2 to 3 years old the last time the Cowboys had back-to-back losing seasons. (2001, Les Miles first season).

When you’ve only ever known a successful team it can be hard to appreciate what you have. Look, this season was disappointing. I’m not arguing that. I too would like to see some changes made on the defensive side of the ball (as I’ve already mentioned).

However, for those of you though calling for everyone’s heads including Mike Gundy’s, take a chill pill, as we old folks used to say. These are the golden years of Oklahoma State football. Doesn’t mean it can’t be better, but it does mean it could be much, much worse.

Despite what you may think, Tennessee, Florida, UCLA, Mississippi State, all teams with head coaching vacancies, would be considered better jobs than Oklahoma State if OSU’s head coaching job was open tomorrow. It’s not just about success on the field; it’s about budget, fanbase, history, and more.

It’s not perfect. OSU may never even reach the playoff with Mike Gundy as head coach. But I’ll take what is likely to be five more years of 10-win seasons over a questionable future any day of the week. And twice on Saturdays.