Photos & Story
By Michael Kinney
As the Oklahoma State football team heads into its bye week, they have some serious questions that need to be answered. After being dismantled 38-14 Saturday at the hands of West Virginia, the program appears to be in vacation mode already.
In just three weeks, the Pokes went from being nationally ranked to sitting at the bottom of the Big 12 Conference standings. While any hopes of making it to the College Football Playoffs have been thrown by the wayside, coach Mike Gundy has bigger issues he will need to address in the coming weeks.
The loss drops Oklahoma State, ranked 17th in the preseason, to 3-3 overall and 0-3 in Big 12 play. It’s the first time the Cowboys, under Gundy, have lost three straight games since the 2014 season.
Outside of Gundy, the person getting most of the blame has been quarterback Alan Bowman. He was ineffective and hesitant throughout the first half. The one time he appeared to get things going was when they went uptempo and he began to just let the ball fly.
However, as soon as the Cowboys got to the red zone, Bowman threw an interception and any momentum that had been picked up quickly vanished.
Bowman did toss a touchdown pass in the second quarter. But the damage had already been done as OSU trailed 31-7 at halftime.
When Bowman was benched in the third quarter during the middle of a series for Garret Rangel, the fans who had stayed gave their loudest cheer of the afternoon. Rangel went on to lead OSU to a meaningless fourth-quarter touchdown to prevent the score from looking even worse.
While the offense didn’t look much better under Rangel, his performance was a small boost. It leaves Gundy with a decision about his signal callers going forward.
“We need to look and evaluate,” Gundy said. “I don’t want to make a decision and say something now and then it may not be true. But we’ll need to look and see where we’re at.”
But what took place Saturday at Boone Pickens Stadium was more than just below-average quarterbacking. Ollie Gordon, Last year’s Doak Walker Award winner, was held to 50 yards on 13 carries before he left the game in the third quarter with a leg injury.
The OSU defense was shredded apart by a WVU offense that would be considered pedestrian and basic in some larger school divisions. Their basic philosophy was for QB Garrett Greene to throw to Hudson Clement or scramble for yards. The thought of even looking at a secondary receiver didn’t seem to be part of the WVU playbook.
The Mountaineers didn’t have to worry about doing anything more than that because they chewed up the Pokes defense with a punishing ground attack that racked up 389 yards.
One fan asked me via social media during the game if Oklahoma State had quit and already started looking at the transfer portal. Just from what took place on the field, I can understand why the question was asked.
When OSU returns to the field Friday, Oct. 18 at BYU, they have a total of six games left on their schedule. Of those, only two will take place at Boone Pickens Stadium.
What happens over the next six weeks could determine the future of the Pokes program.
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