Oklahoma State Can't Get Distracted by Future With Three Games Left

The Cowboys need to focus on their final few games of the season.

Oklahoma State Interim Head Coach/Offensive Coordinator Doug Meacham talks to players before the college football game between the Oklahoma State Cowboys and the Baylor Bears at Boone Pickens Stadium in Stillwater, Okla., Saturday, Sept. 27, 2025. | SARAH PHIPPS/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Oklahoma State is in the midst of a coaching search, but it can’t let that be a distraction to finish the year.

This week, the Cowboys are on a bye and won’t have to worry about their ninth-straight loss for another week. With a Nov. 15 matchup against Kansas State looming in the distance, the Cowboys can use this bye to set up for the final three games of the season.

While the team has shown some incremental improvements and has been able to compete better compared to how it did in the first few weeks, not much has truly changed. OSU had its most encouraging performance of the Big 12 slate on Saturday at Kansas and still lost by 17.

With so many factors going against the Cowboys, this bye week could be used as a way to improve and build on the things that have started to turn in the right direction. On the other hand, a full week without a game for the first time since Mike Gundy’s firing could just as easily lead to players checking out and preparing for their next move in the offseason.

As a program, OSU could easily have that same mindset. It’s hard to imagine anyone within the program is all that fired up for these final three games against Kansas State, UCF and Iowa State, considering that a 1-11 season feels almost inevitable.

With seemingly nothing to play for except individual stats and accomplishments, the Cowboys might not be ready to implement a game plan that results in success on the scoreboard. Of course, there’s always a chance that interim coach Doug Meacham can rally the troops for the final stretch of the year, which is exactly what OSU needs.

While Meacham’s time in Stillwater will almost certainly come to an end this offseason after just one year, he has still been an impressive piece of what OSU is trying to build. Keeping the team together and bought in during a season like this was a near-impossible challenge. Yet, he’s done great, considering the situation he inherited.

Finding a way to keep his team bought in for another three weeks is just the latest challenge for the Cowboys, and it might be the toughest one yet. While there are so many factors that point to the Cowboys being ready to call it a year, those three games on the schedule will be played regardless, so OSU’s players and staff might as well give it their all ahead of another offseason of change.

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