Oklahoma State won the Big 12 the year after the championship game.
The Cowboys lost 52-0 to No. 23 Colorado on Saturday to cap a 3-9 season that included an 0-9 record in Big 12 play. It was the worst loss ever for coach Mike Gundy as he capped his worst season in charge and the first time Oklahoma State hasn’t won at least four games in a season since the Cowboys went 3-8 in 2000.
It was a miserable showing for the Cowboys. The offense couldn’t get anything going with rookie QB Maealiuaki Smith leading the way, and the pass defense was shredded by Colorado QB Shedeur Sanders.
Oklahoma State turned the ball over three times and even committed three personal fouls in a first quarter that featured three touchdowns for the Buffaloes. The game ended after Colorado built a 21-0 lead that included an 11-yard touchdown pass to elusive Heisman favorite Travis Hunter.
Hunter finished the game with 10 catches for 116 yards and three touchdowns. His final TD catch was a 23-yard catch in man coverage that put the Buffs up 52.
Oh, he also had a bug.
The Cowboys finished the preseason 10-4 and lost to Texas in the Big 12 title game before ending the season with a win in the Texas Bowl. It was the eighth time in 19 seasons that a Gundy-led team won at least 10 games.
That season, along with a slew of returning starters like RB Ollie Gordon, QB Alan Bowman and WR Brennan Presley, led to a preseason ranking of No. 17 in the AP Top 25 and made Oklahoma State one of the favorites in the wide-open Big 12. .
The Cowboys started the season 3-0, but then things fell apart.
A 22-19 home loss to Utah to open Big 12 play ended a showdown between the two worst teams in the conference. A week after losing to the Utes, OSU was blown out by Kansas State and then lost by 24 to West Virginia. A close game against BYU on Oct. 18, when the Cougars got a late TD to win the game, ended up being the closest Oklahoma State came to a conference win.
In early November, Gundy apologized for comments he made in a press conference as the team was 0-6. Discussing criticism from fans of the team during its losing streak, Gundy said that “most people are weak” and “fall apart and panic” when things don’t go well, while saying that “most of the time there are people who are negative , and voicing their opinion are the same ones who can’t pay their own bills.”
Given the way Oklahoma State played in 2024, you can understand why fans criticized a program that had been to a bowl game for 18 straight seasons. A loss to TCU a week after Gundy’s comments meant Oklahoma State would not go to the bowl game for the first time since Gundy’s first season.