OSU’s 2018 Team Has Been Confusing, and Mike Gundy Doesn’t Know Why

Teams and organizations are supposed to make more sense as time passes. Pictures are supposed to become clearer as the weeks and months slip away. And yet, after 10 games in 11 weeks, I’m not sure I feel any more confident about what this Oklahoma State football team is than I felt on Sept. 1.

They have some talent, although not as much as some may suspect, and yet the dichotomy of their season, split by the bye week is confounding.

OSU has both lost to 5-5 Baylor, 5-5 Texas Tech and 4-6 Kansas State (in two blowouts!) and beaten or nearly beaten 9-1 OU and 7-3 Texas, when both teams were ranked No. 6 in the country. Why in the world is that?

I asked Mike Gundy on Saturday.

“It’s an interesting concept,” said Gundy. “Some of the ways we play and then the way you play today. They’re like fifth in the country or something, right? You play on the road, you play the sixth-ranked team in the country and lose by one point. So you’re not that far off, but you’re a pretty average team when you make a lot of mistakes like we have in 2-3 games this year.”

“If I knew, I’d fix it,” added Gundy. “I’ve said that all year. Everybody wants answers.

… long pause …

“I don’t know.

“All I know is, like I said in the opening statement, they competed. That’s what we asked them to do, and that’s what they did. Why they’re doing that, I don’t have an answer for you. I wish I did.”

College football results will always be somewhat volatile because you’re dealing with emotional 18-22 year olds whose attitude and effort can change from week to week. That’s a reality, but at least some of OSU’s shortcomings this year have to be pinned on Gundy and his staff.

If … IF OSU is a team good enough to roll with OU and Texas — one game could be considered an outlier, but two? — then shouldn’t they be good enough to go 8-4 in the regular season? (or am I overvaluing OU and Texas?) Their lack of focus and preparedness for KSU, Tech, Baylor and (I guess) Iowa State is disconcerting. Maybe that’s on the players, but it seems like the kind of thing that should also be on the coaches.

On the flip side, maybe it’s even more simple than that. I hate to reduce all of this to one thing, but it might be as straightforward as better QB play. The reality of the situation — whether anybody wants to admit this or not — is that Corndog was avruj for seven games, and he’s been (mostly) really good for three in a row. He has gotten considerably better as the season has worn on. Look at these splits.

• First seven games: 59% | 287 YPG | 2.3 TD | 1.1 INT
• Last three games: 63% | 370 YPG | 2.3 TD | 0.0 INT

Statistically he’s been better. Anecdotally, too. He’s seeing the entire field, and the game seems to be slowing down for him.

“More snaps are going to help you,” said offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich. “Just ask a guy like Tom Brady or Drew Brees that’s been playing the NFL for 20-something years. That’s the key to a lot of quarterbacks’ success. The more reps you get, the better you’re going to be.”

If you believe what Gundy believes — that QB plays is disproportionally responsible for the goodness or badness of college football teams — then it’s easy to point to that and say that’s the reason they nearly upended Texas and OU for the first time since … are you ready for this … 2011.

Maybe that’s not it, I don’t know. Part of the fun of seasons and this silly sport is trying to figure out what makes teams play well or play poorly and how they’re going to perform against each other. For the last few weeks, even leading into Bedlam, I was convinced the Texas performance stood alone as the outlier of the season, but now OSU has an even better performance to point to (even in a loss) than the one against Texas.

I’m not sure what to do with that. Neither is Gundy. The only thing I know is that we’re going to have fun (or a facsimile of fun) for the rest of the season trying to figure it out.