Rose Bowl a Reminder of What Could Have Been (and Also What Could Be)

That Rose Bowl. Damn. What a college football game.

It could take years to unwind it all and properly contextualize what we saw in Pasadena on Monday night, but for me it was a reminder of what could have been for Oklahoma State … and what could be.

For all the ways we bemoaned Oklahoma State’s (admittedly) mediocre 9-3 season, they were also two drives from potentially playing in that game against Georgia. Despite how far that stage felt, two drives away is a place a lot of programs in the country would pay a lot of money to get to.

It’s a game OSU would have been in had this been 2012 and not 2018. Alabama vs. Oklahoma State in the Rose Bowl for the rights to play the winner of a LSU-Stanford Sugar Bowl. Oh baby.

2011 Oklahoma State vs. 2011 LSU had the potential of what we saw in the Rose Bowl last night. Instead we got a rematch in a two-team playoff. https://t.co/Jx0lTFXiYa

— Carson Cunningham (@KOCOCarson) January 3, 2018

I don’t crave titles like most do. They’re fine, sure, but to me they’re mostly useful for talking trash on the internet (which I supposed would be useful given my profession).

I crave games instead. That 2012 Fiesta Bowl was a game in the same way the 2018 Rose Bowl was. Those are the games I want Oklahoma State playing in, not the Camping World Bowl (no offense to the good people running the @CWBowl account — you were fantastic).

If I’m an OU fan, it almost doesn’t matter to me that I lost to Georgia. I just got to witness the best player in school history play one of the great games in college football history. Why are you a fan if you’re not OK with that outcome?

Playing in those games — for the Big 12 or something more — is in sight for OSU. It’s right there. OSU has never been closer to playing in so many big time games, to being a legit Tier 1 program. Will they ever get there? Who knows. OU is an ocean liner, and it takes years (maybe decades) to get something like that going in the wrong direction (as long as their leadership isn’t incompetent, and it’s not).

For all I love to tout OSU’s record since 2010 under Mike Gundy (and boy is it impressive), OSU has sort of sneakily not played in many games in that time.

What are the ones that really stick out in your head. The Big Daddies™. The ones you’ll talk about forever. Stanford, sure. What else? A&M in 2011? Sort of? OU this year was a game. OU in 2013, I suppose. TCU in 2015, certainly. The Missouri Cotton Bowl in 2014. There haven’t been a ton. OU played in three this year (Ohio State, Oklahoma State and Georgia), and that doesn’t even include the Big 12 title.

So yeah, the Rose Bowl was a glaring reminder of what could have been with one of the three best offenses in Oklahoma State school history. But it’s also a peek into the future of what could unfold in Stillwater. One more step. Two more pieces to the puzzle. An every-year title contender. I crave it.

OSU is so close. The question, as it relates to Gundy’s legacy, though, is whether this is as close as they’ll ever get.