Montana State Showed More Heart Than Oklahoma State

Originally posted on Mike Farrell Sports
By Mark Pszonak | Last updated Sep 7, 2025 5:59 PM ET

Everything is trending in a very bad direction at Oklahoma State. Head coach Mike Gundy is a good head coach, but his voice just isn’t being heard anymore in the Cowboys’ locker room. And that was very evident during the 69-3 loss at Oregon on Saturday.

Winning or even staying competitive against the Ducks was unlikely. But Gundy made the situation worse by trading jabs with Oregon head coach Dan Lanning in the days leading up to the game. The last thing the Cowboys needed was to give Lanning motivation to keep the pedal to ground, but that was the situation they were in because of Gundy.

There is no way to sugarcoat a 66-point loss. It was the program’s worst loss since November 9, 1907. If you’re bad at math, that was 117 years ago. It was also one week before Oklahoma became a state and the same year that color photography and the first piloted helicopter were invented.

Oregon head coach Dan Lanning, left, and Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy talk before the game as the Oregon Ducks host the Oklahoma State Cowboys on Sept. 6, 2025, at Autzen Stadium in Eugene, Oregon. © Ben Lonergan/The Register-Guard / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

It is also difficult to believe that any P4 team that loses by 66 points gave its full effort. And that is entirely on Gundy and his coaching staff. No matter what the talent gap is, a 66-point loss by a P4 team should never happen. And to make it worse, just seven days earlier, Oregon defeated Montana State, an FCS program, 59-13. A 46-point loss is nothing to brag about, but it actually is after watching the Oklahoma State debacle.

And since it was just brought up, how did the talent gap between Oklahoma State and Oregon get this vast this quickly? The Cowboys went 10-4 in 2023. It is hard to believe that two seasons ago the Cowboys won 10 games, went 7-2 in the Big 12 and finished No. 16 in the final AP Poll. Somehow in the next 20 months the roster went from that to losing by 66 points to Oregon.

If Gundy hasn’t already lost the locker room, it is on the brink of imploding in the coming weeks. Actually, that might happen after the Cowboys next game. After a much-needed bye week, when there should be a great deal of inner reflection by Gundy, the coaching staff and every player, the Cowboys host Tulsa. A loss to the Golden Hurricane could lead to a sooner-than-expected split between Gundy and the program he has guided for 21 seasons.

There are several head coaches on the hot seat today, but Gundy’s is close to bursting into flames.

This article first appeared on Mike Farrell Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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