Ranking all 94 of Mike Gundy’s Victories: Part 1 - Scars, Scares and Stupid Scheduling

Athlon Sports recently ranked all 128 head football coaches in the FBS. You can check out the full rankings here. Mike Gundy was ranked 21st which I thought was fair, though I didn’t agree with everyone ahead of him. Reading the article I realized something; Mike Gundy is 6 wins away from 100.

I don’t usually like to assume, but in this case I will. Mike Gundy will earn his 100th win as the head coach of OSU this season (I predict sometime in October). Gundy currently sits with a 94-47 record in his 12th season at the helm. That’s a lot of great moments and victories. Which one is the best though? Should it be based on the opponent? The stage? How it effected that season? There’s only one way to decide; by ranking all 94 of Gundy’s victories.

I’ve broken the list down into 5 parts.

PART 1: Scares, Scars and Stupid Scheduling

I don’t love the idea of criticizing wins. It seems like something an OU fan would do. However, when you’ve won 94 games, there are going to be some better than others. Some you were lucky to survive despite an inferior opponent. Some that left a scar on the rest of the season. Others that never should have been on the schedule to begin with.

94. Savannah State (9-1-2012) Of course this is the worst win. No other game came even close, especially for anyone who watched it or worse, bought a ticket to see it live. It was a joke. Luckily, I don’t think we will ever see a team this bad on the field again (except for maybe Kansas). Cowboys won 84-0.

93. Grambling State (9-26-2009) The pokes demolished an overmatched opponent without its two best players; Dez Bryant (suspension) and Kendall Hunter (ankle). Cowboys won 56-6.

92. Florida Atlantic (9-16-2006) This was FAU’s second season as an FBS team and 6th in existence. Cowboys won 48-8.

91. Missouri State (9-6-2014) Oh look, another FCS team. This is the game that knocked J.W. Walsh out for the season and brought on Daxx Garman. It began the downslide that was 2014. Yes I know how the season ended and it might never have happened without this injury. But man, it was a rough year. Cowboys won 40-23.

90. Lamar (9-14-2013) The first game after the release of the Sports Illustrated hack-job. We thought getting back to football would be a nice distraction. Except we were playing an FCS team so the game was over halfway through the first quarter and the announcers had to find things to talk about. Like that bullshit SI smear campaign. Cowboys won 59-3.

89. Central Arkansas (9-12-2015) The only thing worse than blowing out an FCS team is winning a close game against one. It was 10-0 at halftime. 20-8 after 3. A 26 point win over an FCS team is nothing to get excited about, especially when it was following a season opener where we trailed at Central Michigan. Cowboys won 32-8.

88. @ Florida Atlantic (9-8-2005) This game only made it to 88 because it was Gundy’s first road win as a head coach. FAU was in its first season in FBS. You guys remember Julius Croslin? He had two rushing touchdowns. Cowboys won 23-3.

87. Texas Tech (9-15-2009) Zac Robinson got hurt in the 4th quarter. His fumble nearly cost us the game, but his injury basically wrecked the rest of the season. He missed the next week against Colorado (The Brandon Weeden come-back game) and wasn’t healthy in a shutout loss to OU and the bowl game vs. Ole Miss to end the season. Cowboys won 24-17.

86. @ Kansas (10-13-2012) To say the offense struggled in this game would be an understatement. It was 20-0 early in the 4th, but Kansas tried to mount a come-back and nearly succeeded. If you were at this game (which I was) it sucked. There was a rain delay. Everything was wet. On a separate not: Lawrence, Kansas is an awesome college town. Visit if you can. However, I’ve seen more impressive high school football stadiums at high schools in Texas. Cowboys won 20-14.

85. Troy (9-11-2010) I know it’s shocking to find a Brandon Weeden win this low, but the team had 5 turnovers and OSU actually trailed 27-20 at halftime. And he fumbled the snap in the victory formation. Cowboys won 41-38.

84. Montana State (9-3-2005) The only reason a five point victory over an FCS team isn’t ranked lower? It was Gundy’s first game and victory number one. Cowboys won 15-10.

83. Arkansas State (9-17-2005) OSU beat Arkansas State by 10. Bobby Reid (remember him?) got his first start at quarterback. Cowboys won 20-10.

82. @ Central Michigan (9-3-2015) With all the excitement heading into the season, this game was a stinker. At one point, OSU trailed 13-10! Why even schedule games like this? There’s no benefit to winning and losing kills your reputation and sometimes your season (see: loss at Troy in 2007). Cowboys escape 24-13.

81. @ Kansas (10-11-2014) Why does this one finish five spots higher than the equally crappy 2012 game? There was no rain delay and it was won on a Tyreek Hill 99 yard kickoff return touchdown with 6:43 left. Cowboys won 27-20.

80. vs Arkansas State (9-9-2006) Arkansas State scored first… need I say more. Bobby Reid threw two 1st quarter INTs. Cowboys won 35-7.

79. Missouri State (9-2-2006) It’s the opener for Gundy’s second season at the helm and the first of many blow out wins in his career. But it’s a blow-out win over an FCS team, so let’s not get too excited. Cowboys won 52-10.

78. @ Louisiana-Lafayette (10-08-2010) 54-28 What’s with non-conference games in 2010? We nearly lost to Troy. Then we trailed at halftime in this game 21-17. OSU went on to win big but… man. Cowboys won 54-28.

77. Louisiana-Lafayette (9-15-2012) Wes Lunt went out on the sixth play of the game. I’m still not sure if it was good or bad for the season. Cowboys won 65-24.

76. Kansas State (10-5-2013) Stop me if you’ve heard this one. Oklahoma State nearly gets beat by a Kansas State quarterback who comes out of nowhere. This one was Daniel Sams who had only thrown 4 passes before the game. Thanks to a J.W. Walsh TD with 4:16 let the Cowboys pulled it out. Cowboys won 33-29.

75. Sam Houston State (9-30-2007) We beat Rhett Bomar. Other than that there’s not much about this game. Oh, and our very own Cade Webb flew down from Connecticut for this one. Cowboys won 39-3.

74. Rice (9-19-2009) According to the ESPN recap “The Owls were within 35-24 after a touchdown with 12:24 left”. I remember fans leaving the game after OSU went up 41-24 and I thought, “Hey gang, this is still a game!” Cowboys won 41-24.

73. @ Baylor (11-17-2007) Baylor didn’t win a Big 12 game this season. Coach Guy Morris was fired after the season, which led to the hiring of Art Briles. That led to successful Baylor teams and eventually, its’ demise. Cowboys won 45-14.

72. Florida Atlantic (9-8-2007) Ugh. FAU again. I swear this is the last one (hopefully forever). This one gets moved up, because it was the start of Zac Robinson’s OSU career. He went on to win 6 more games this season and a lot more in his career. Cowboys won 42-6.