Will 2025 Become Worst Season in Oklahoma State History?

The Cowboys are still winless against FBS opponents this season.

Sep 19, 2025; Stillwater, Oklahoma, USA; Oklahoma State Cowboys coach Mike Gundy on the sidelines during the first half against the Tulsa Golden Hurricane at Boone Pickens Stadium. Mandatory Credit: William Purnell-Imagn Images | William Purnell-Imagn Images

Oklahoma State has had an awful start to 2025, but it might be on track to have the worst season in program history.

This season has been disastrous for OSU in just about every way. After overhauling the coaching staff in the offseason and adding numerous new players through the transfer portal, the Cowboys expected to be back in contention for a bowl game.

Through a quarter of the season, everything seemed fine. However, Hauss Hejny’s broken foot quickly halted all momentum for OSU. In the 23 quarters since he went down, OSU has been bad offensively and complemented that with a defense that is competing to be the worst in the country.

With OSU firing Mike Gundy three games into the season after the program’s first loss to Tulsa since 1998, there has also been no level of stability in Stillwater. Add in the transfer portal window that opened in the immediate aftermath and the Cowboys’ decision to fire defensive coordinator Todd Grantham one game later, and there has been almost no positive news out of Stillwater lately.

Now, with OSU sitting at 1-5 and no easily winnable game in sight for the rest of the year, the Cowboys are in real danger of finishing the season at 1-11. While it technically wouldn’t be the worst season in OSU history in terms of win percentage, there is still a case to be made there.

OSU has five winless seasons throughout its history, with the 0-10-1 campaign in 1991 being the only one of those to happen in the past 100 years. That OSU team was competitive against some solid teams and didn’t have the luxury of padding its record with a game against a team as bad as UT Martin.

Considering all of that, it would be simple enough to call this OSU team the worst ever if it finishes 1-11. Another reason this team might be the worst in program history are the drastically different expectations.

In 1991, OSU was still considered one of college football’s afterthoughts. While Barry Sanders had put Stillwater on the map a few years earlier and some other greats had called OSU home, the Cowboys were coming off back-to-back four-win seasons.

Meanwhile, OSU was coming off its first losing season in nearly two decades this year, with Gundy’s tenure changing everything for Cowboy football, including what year-to-year expectations should look like.

Before Gundy arrived, the Cowboys had plenty of awful seasons, but it appears the year with his midseason departure could go down as the worst Stillwater has seen.

---