Mike Gundy said he felt like his insides were ripped to shreds as he thought of how close his team had come to victory.
Oklahoma State lost to Texas, 28-24, in Austin on Saturday in a game that wasn’t decided until the final play.
Yet as Gundy saw his Cowboys’ bid for perfection end, another emotion prevailed:
Pride.
OSU (7-1, 3-1 Big 12) fell short of knocking off the No. 1 Longhorns when quarterback Zac Robinson’s Hail Mary pass was incomplete as time expired, but Gundy said the team’s efforts were encouraging, even in defeat.
“I thought our players played well enough to win the game,” Gundy said. “I’m as proud of this team as I’ve ever been of any football team.”
Gundy said he had plenty to be proud of after the Cowboys went toe-to-toe with a team he called the best Texas squad since he came back to coach at OSU in 2000 — better than Vince Young’s championship team in 2005.
In its previous two games, Texas beat Oklahoma by 10 and Missouri by 25, both of which had been ranked in the top two at one point in the season. Odds-makers favored to Texas to win by double digits.
Not only were the Cowboys not supposed to win — they weren’t supposed to contend.
“Our players have worked hard and they’ve made some plays this year,” Gundy said. “They deserved to be in this game.”
The four-point margin of victory was the smallest of the year for Texas (8-0, 4-0). The performance kept OSU, ranked sixth in the BCS entering the week, in the Top 10 after the loss, coming in at No. 9 in the BCS and AP polls and No. 10 in the coaches’ poll.
“we know we’re right there,” Robinson said. “If they’re No. 1, then we know that we’re obviously not very far behind.”
Cowboy players said they hoped the game would prove to critics that OSU belongs in the discussion as a national power.
“This close loss will show we’re supposed to be here,” linebacker Andre Sexton said. “It was closer than OU’s loss. Hopefully people start respecting us more, and they’re not overlooking us anymore.”
Gundy said anyone watching the game would have to view the Cowboys as contenders.
“Unless they flipped and went to some other game, I would say that they probably bought in,” Gundy said.
Last year, Gundy hadn’t bought in himself, saying that the team wasn’t ready for the “big time” after losing at Georgia in the season opener.
A year later, Gundy said that had changed, and defensive coordinator Tim Beckman echoed the sentiment.
“We’ve got a team here, and that’s what I’m so impressed with as a football coach,” Beckman said. “Our players believe in each other, and they believe in the team.”
Despite the game’s positives, though, players said all the silver lining in the world couldn’t take away the emotional letdown the loss.
“We definitely want this one back,” Robinson said. “We kind of let them off the hook.”
Gundy compared the Cowboys’ postgame feelings to an Olympic athlete who trains for four years but fails to earn a medal.
“You lay it all on the line and come up short, it’s very emotional,” Gundy said. “But that’s what happens when you put yourself in a situation where you’re playing for a lot.
“These guys put a lot of hard work into what they’re trying to do, so it’s gonna hurt.”
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