Did Oklahoma State Have a Great 2015? Mike Gundy says yes

The end of Oklahoma State’s 2015 season was massively underwhelming. Nobody is denying that. The strange part about a 10-3 season in which you lose the last three games is how much worse it feels than a 7-6 season in which you win the last two in dramatic fashion (2014).

This is all about offseason optimism of course. Winning Bedlam and the Cactus Bowl last year set us up for eight months of “you know, if Mason Rudolph can be 85 percent as good as he was the last two games and Chris Carson can …” and that’s fun fodder for non-football season.

Right now, we’re all moping around saying, “our offensive line has stunk for two years, when is this going to change!” even though Oklahoma State just played in the Sugar Bowl!

I get that. The ceiling looks a lot higher when you’re down low than when you’re bumping up next to it. That being said, Mike Gundy pointed out that for Oklahoma State standards, 2015 was a great season.

“At some point, I lay everything out and say OK, in August, if I had gone to the press conference and said, ‘Guys, we’re going to be in a New Year’s Six bowl and win 10 games.’ My question then would be, is that a great season for Oklahoma State? I don’t think anybody out there would have said anything other than, ‘Yeah, that would be a great season.’ So that’s the way I have to look at it.

“We had a great season. We won 10 football games. When you win 10 football games, that is a great season. I had someone the other day, I mentioned that to them, and they said, ‘You didn’t win Bedlam and you didn’t win in the bowl.’ Well, if you win those two, it becomes a historic season — like what happened (in 2011), when we won the Big 12 championship and won the Fiesta Bowl. At Oklahoma State, that is a historic season. What we had this year was a great season.”

I know that will rub some people the wrong way — we’re better than that now! — but the reality is that OSU has played in two major bowl games in the modern era. The Fiesta and the Sugar. One came at the end of the greatest season in school history. The other came this season. That’s a big deal, even if you don’t think it projects well for 2016.

[Tulsa World]