Ranking All 94 of Mike Gundy’s Victories: The Notes

During the process of ranking all 94 of Mike Gundy’s victories, I had a lot of random thoughts and notes. I jotted many of them down as I researched and wrote and thought I would share them. Some are interesting, some probably not so much.

(If you’ve missed the rankings, you can find Part 4 here.)

• We love scheduling new football programs. Florida Atlantic in its first FBS season. UTSA in its first seasons in existence. Now South Alabama? Is UAB next?
• We beat a ranked team ALMOST EVERY YEAR (except 2007)! That’s an impressive streak, especially considering Gundy’s first three seasons.
• The Top 10 was the easiest. Then the Bottom 10. Then 11-20. It was the middle 64 that was killer. That seems obvious, but was harder than you know. Debating that 79-50 stretch… a lot of nit-picking over stats, players and potential impact.
• OSU is 6-24 against Texas all time. Five of the wins have come in Austin. Four under Gundy. Since 2010 we’ve won every meeting in Austin and lost every meeting in Stillwater. Can we PLEASE win at home this year?
• I feel like there are a lot of similarities between the 2013 season and 2015 season. Other than the QB dance. (I wrote this early on. I no longer think that. 2013 was a really good team that just got beat in the end. 2015 was a lucky team that ran out of luck in the end).
• This is going to be an unpopular opinion, but we have not been good in big bowl games. Other than Stanford in the Fiesta, who is the next best team we’ve beaten in post season under Gundy?

W: Alabama (before Saban), Indiana, Arizona (Mike Stoops), Stanford, Purdue, Washington

L: Oregon, Ole Miss, Missouri, Ole Miss.

• Calling what happened with Justin Blackmon unfortunate is an understatement. He had so much physical and natural talent. If weed really was what derailed his career, I’m going to have to rethink my position on the drug. Right now he should be one of the top 5 receivers in the NFL. Instead he’s still trying to get his life in order. I really hope he figures things out.
• I seriously forgot that Dez used to return punts. That’s amazing. The more I remember how good Dez was, the more blown away I am by it every time. He really is a Top-5 Cowboy All-Time.
• As bad as 2012 was we actually beat two ranked teams…. Iowa State and Texas Tech. Sorry, I just laughed out loud there for a second.
• The more I look at the close games from 2015, the more I wonder just how good we will actually be in 2016. If we get a run game great. If not? Look out. The defense will not be as good. I would like to think this is the year we break the "good year, bad year" curse. I hope so.
• ESPN always votes the best bowl game as the title game. Even when it obviously isn’t. That’s just one more reason to dislike ESPN.

Share your responses and thoughts in the comments section. Part 1: The Top 10 comes out next week!