Exceeding Expectations: The Story of the 2021 Cowboy Football Season

Exceeding Expectations: The Story of the 2021 Cowboy Football Season

January 21, 2022 | Cowboy Football

The 2022 Oklahoma State football team accomplished more over the course of the season than most thought it was capable of. Voted fourth in the Big 12 preseason poll and left out of the preseason AP Top 25, the Cowboys were safely under the radar entering the year.

By the end of the season, the Cowboys had tied a school season record with 12 total wins, finished the regular season alone on top of the Big 12 standings, won the PlayStation Fiesta Bowl after a win over No. 5 Notre Dame and were the only team in the FBS with three victories over 11-win teams.

On top of that, OSU set a school record with seven home wins, recorded its third perfect home season since 1960, tied a school record with five wins over AP Top 25 opponents and tied for its third-best finish ever in the final AP poll at No. 7.

The OSU defense garnered the headlines all season for holding opponents to numbers that hadn't been seen in Stillwater for decades.

The Cowboys finished the year among the FBS leaders in sacks (No. 1 with a school-record 57), tackles for loss (No. 2 with a school-record 114), third down defense (No. 4 at 28.8%), fourth down defense (No. 4 at 29.6%), rushing defense (No. 5 at a school record 87.6 yards per game), total defense (No. 5 at 297.9 yards per game), scoring defense (No. 9 at 18.1 points per game) and more.

Linebacker Malcolm Rodriguez and safety Kolby Harvell-Peel earned All-America honors while anchoring a unit that had nine seniors in its starting lineup. They were joined by cornerbacks Jarrick Bernard-Converse and Christian Holmes and defensive ends Brock Martin and Collin Oliver as all-conference selections. Oliver was also the unanimous Big 12 Freshman of the Year and a Freshman All-America pick.

OSU was efficient on offense as well, protecting the ball and playing complementary football for most of the season to win field position and control the game. The Cowboys ranked No. 9 in the FBS with just 1.14 sacks allowed per game and were No. 12 in the FBS with 328 first downs gained. When it came to play in Big 12 games only, the Cowboys were No. 1 in the league in rushing offense, No. 2 in total offense and No. 3 in scoring offense.

Quarterback Spencer Sanders, offensive lineman Josh Sills, wide receiver Tay Martin and returner Brennan Presley were All-Big 12 honorees on the offense, with Martin recording more than 1,000 receiving yards and running back Jaylen Warren (the Big 12 Offensive Newcomer of the Year) recording more than 1,000 rushing yards.

As successful as the season was, it had a tense beginning. The Cowboys narrowly escaped defeat in the season opener at home against Missouri State without Sanders at starting quarterback, and then followed that by getting past both Tulsa in Stillwater and Boise State on the road by less than a touchdown.

All three games were still Cowboy wins though, and they set the foundation for the grit and toughness that would come to define a team that made remarkable improvement over the course of the year. In fact, "Find a Way" was Mike Gundy's main rally cry from the spring of 2021 all the way through the end of the season, and it couldn't have been a better way to summarize the efforts of the group.

Through those first three wins, OSU established itself with a top-tier defense that was reliable even in difficult situations and an offense that found its footing through the emergence of playmakers both old and new to the program.

When conference play arrived, the Cowboys hit their stride with a 31-20 win over Kansas State, a 24-14 win over Baylor and a 32-24 comeback win over Texas to mark the first time in school history OSU had beaten AP-ranked opponents in three consecutive games.

The stretch brought the Cowboys to 6-0 heading into a road matchup with preseason AP top-10 Iowa State, and they nearly moved to 7-0 if not for a three-point loss in Ames that included a controversial fourth-down spot in ISU territory on OSU's final and potential game-winning drive.

Oklahoma State found a renewed focus and further drive for success after the adversity and channeled it into its best football in years with a five-game winning streak to close out the regular season.

Starting with a dominant Homecoming win over Kansas, OSU defeated its next four opponent by a combined score of 165-23, beating KU by a score of 55-3, West Virginia by a score of 24-3, TCU by a score of 63-17 and Texas Tech by a score of 23-0.

The stretch marked the first time since 1934 that the Cowboys held consecutive opponents to three or fewer points, OSU's first conference shutout since 1995, the first time TTU had been shutout in Lubbock since 1987, the two lowest total offense totals (108 vs. TTU and 133 vs. WVU) for an OSU opponent since 1999 and the only time in the past two years that any FBS team has held three opponents (KU, WVU and TTU) to fewer than 150 yards in a season.

With that kind of momentum, the Cowboys entered the regular season finale Bedlam matchup with a spot already clinched in the Big 12 Championship game and as the favorite against top-10 Oklahoma. It was just the third time in the 116 meetings of the programs where both teams were in the AP top 10, and the contest more than lived up to the hype.

In a game that featured a special teams touchdown for both OSU and OU, five turnovers and 70 points, the Cowboys overcame a nine-point fourth quarter deficit to earn a 37-33 win over the Sooners. The victory was capped with a crawling sack from Oliver on the Sooners' final offensive snap of the game inside OSU territory.

The win wrapped up an 8-1 conference record for OSU, placed the Cowboys alone on top of the final Big 12 regular season standings for the first time since 2011 and was celebrated with thousands of fans storming the field at Boone Pickens Stadium. It also sent the Cowboys to their first conference championship game in school history with plenty of momentum and knocked the Sooners out of the game to be replaced by the Baylor Bears.

The 2021 Dr Pepper Big 12 Championship Game was played at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, the following week, and the Cowboys entered at No. 5 in the College Football Playoff rankings with a great chance to make the CFP for the first time with a win over Baylor.

As much momentum as the Cowboys gained from their dominant five-game winning streak, they were forced to play the game (outside of the first two snaps) without Big 12 Offensive Newcomer of the Year Jaylen Warren.

Early turnovers and limited options led to a 21-3 second quarter deficit for the Cowboys against a BU team that finished in the FBS top 10 in scoring defense. Still, the Cowboys dug deep again and found a way to cut the deficit to five points in the final quarter. OSU's final drive went 89 yards to the Baylor 1-yard line with less than 30 seconds remaining, but a fourth-down dive at the pylon from running back Dezmon Jackson was inches short of its aim as the Cowboys missed the conference title and a potential CFP berth by the narrowest possible margin.

Despite the heartbreaking finish, Oklahoma State gathered itself and prepared for a New Year's Six matchup with No. 5 Notre Dame in the 2022 PlayStation Fiesta Bowl – the first meeting between the programs.

In another slow start, OSU again fell behind and trailed, 28-7, with less than a minute remaining in the first half.

As it did time and time again throughout the year though, Oklahoma State found a way to get back into the game. This time the Cowboys found a way to win.

OSU tied the game at 28-28 through three Sanders-to-Martin touchdown passes in less than 15 minutes and scored 30 consecutive points to come away with the 37-35 victory in the largest comeback win in both Oklahoma State and Fiesta Bowl history.

Sanders earned Offensive MVP honors from the bowl after totalling 496 yards of offense with 371 passing and a career-high 125 rushing, and Rodriguez was a fitting choice for Defensive MVP after recording a fourth-quarter interception with a game-high 11 tackles, two pass breakups and a quarterback hurry in the final game of his storied collegiate career.

The improbable comeback Fiesta Bowl win was the perfect exclamation point for a 12-2 season that is unquestionably one of the greatest in the history of Oklahoma State football.