Oklahoma State Getting Bye Week at Interesting Time
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Oklahoma State is set for a week off, and it’s coming at an interesting time.
Over the first couple of months of the season, not much has gone OSU’s way. So much has gone wrong that a 17-point loss to Kansas on Saturday was easily the highlight of the Cowboys’ Big 12 slate.
To get things back on track, OSU will need to find ways to stay at least somewhat competitive in its remaining contests. While it won’t be easy, doing whatever it can to build on the small momentum it's had over the past few weeks will be critical to finding any type of success.
That momentum is perhaps the most interesting piece of this bye week for the Cowboys. OSU has seen some incremental improvement in a number of areas over the past few weeks, mostly dating back to the homecoming loss against Cincinnati.
Whether it be a much more solid defensive game plan or the occasional bursts of energy from the run game, the Cowboys aren’t the same lifeless team they were against Houston or Arizona early in October. Of course, the Cowboys are still the same winless team when it comes to FBS competition.
With an uninspiring win against UT Martin to begin the season and no real glimmer of success since, the final weeks of the season present an opportunity to at least get the program back in the right direction ahead of hiring the program’s next head coach. With all of that in mind, this bye week could either push OSU further in the right direction it’s trending toward or erase any momentum that it’s built.
The Cowboys are one of the most interesting teams in the Big 12 moving forward, but as far as this season goes, they are simply stuck in 16th place and might not be able to get out of it. However, if the Cowboys can put together a great week during the bye and have that translate into a good week of practice going into the Kansas State game, there’s a chance that OSU could look a bit different and like a well-rounded team, given that this is the first bye week since Week 3, which took place before all of the significant changes in Stillwater.
OSU’s season can’t be saved at this point, but there’s still some time to find some success toward the end and gather at least a bit of momentum going into 2026.
Ivan is a sports media student at Oklahoma State University. He has covered OSU athletics since 2022 and also covers the OKC Thunder for Inside The Thunder and Thunderous Intentions.