Following their championship game, Oklahoma State had a zero in the Big 12 annually.
Friday’s 52-0 loss to No. 25 Colorado caps a 3-9 season marked with a 0-9 record in Big 12 play. Oklahoma State has not won at least four games in a season since the Cowboys were 3-8 in 2000; this was the worst loss ever for Coach Mike Gundy to conclude his worst season in charge.
The Cowboys presented a pitiful performance. With freshman QB Maealiuaki Smith leading, the offense was useless; Colorado QB Shedeur Sanders tore the pass defense.
Three touchdowns for the Buffaloes in a first quarter meant Oklahoma State turned the ball over three times and even committed three personal foul penalties. After Colorado established a 21-0 advantage including an 11-yard pass to prohibitively favored Travis Hunter, the game was finished.
Hunter closed up the game with three touchdowns and ten catches for 116 yards. To put the Buffs 52, his last TD reception was a 23-yard grab in man coverage.
After losing to Texas in the Big 12 title game, the Cowboys went 10-4 a season ago and capped the season with a triumph in the Texas Bowl. This was the eighth time in nineteen seasons that a Gundy-coached club has recorded minimum ten wins.
Along with a number of returning starters like RB Ollie Gordon, QB Alan Bowman, and WR Brennan Presley, that season produced a preseason ranking of No. 17 in the AP Top 25 and ranked Oklahoma State among the favorites in a wide-open Big 12.
Starting the season 3-0, the Cowboys had problems from there.
Beginning Big 12 play, a 22–19 home loss to Utah turned out to be a game between the two poorest teams in the conference. OSU fell to Kansas State a week after falling to the Utes; subsequently, it lost by 24 to West Virginia. A close call versus BYU on October 18 turned out to be the closest Oklahoma State came to a conference victory as the Cougars scored a late TD to win the game.
