Oklahoma State Football: Cowboys On the Cusp in 2007

The Oklahoma State Cowboys went into the 2007 season with hopes of being a sleeper team in the Big XII, and an outside shot of winning the conference as well.

The Cowboys had the chance to make a statement early in the season, when they matched up against the Georgia Bulldogs in their first game.

Oklahoma State went to Athens with high hopes, but left with a loss and  their head coach telling anybody who would listen that his team wasn't yet ready for the big time.

Following that season-opening loss, the Cowboys went home and took care of business against FAU, but the following week they went to Alabama to take on Troy in a Friday night matchup. The Trojans took the Cowboys to the woodshed for a good old-fashioned butt whipping.

That loss put the Cowboys at 1-2. It was also the first start of the season at quarterback for sophomore Zac Robinson.

Robinson would take the Cowboys past a potent Texas Tech team the following week, but the win didn't catch much attention. Instead, head coach Mike Gundy hogged the media spotlight by lashing out at a reporter for writing negatively about his players.

Gundy's rant became a national hit, with most of the nation actually supporting Gundy for him standing up for his players.

The Cowboys proceeded to go on a rollercoaster ride in Big XII play. They first went to College Station to take on Texas A&M and took an early lead at the half, but let their momentum slide and lost in a heartbreaker.

The following week the Cowboys took the Nebraska Cornhuskers to school—and the next day the Huskers' A.D. was fired, a early harbinger of the death knoll for Nebraska coach Bill Callahan.

The win put the Cowboys in a tie for first place in the Big XII South, with then-ranked Kansas State coming to Stillwater the following week. The Cowboys would go on to beat the Wildcats in a nailbiting finish.

With the victory, the Cowboys stayed in a tie for first in the South, but needed a win against the Texas Longhorns to take control of their destiny. However, the Cowboys again could not hold onto a fourth-quarter lead, and fell to the Horns for the ninth straight season.

Over the next few weeks, the Cowboys would go on to lose to the Kansas Jayhawks, beat the Baylor Bears, then lose again—this time to their Bedlam rival Oklahoma.

The Cowboy's win-loss record was an even .500, the same as last season—but this year, based on the winning percentage of their opponents, the Cowboys played the toughest schedule in the nation.

This year's campaign saw the emergence of a star quarterback in Robinson, and the emergence of an All-American running back in Dantrell Savage, who missed the first three games, then went on to rush for 100 yards in the last nine. The Cowboys also found a replacement for All-American receiver Adarius Bowman in true freshman Dez Bryant.

The Cowboys looked much better offensively with these new phenoms taking center stage—too bad the same could not be said for the defense, which was a catastrophe waiting to happen all season.

Defensive inconsistency was the reason why the Cowboys could not contend for a Big XII title, and OSU will continue to fall short until they get athletes on that side of the ball of  the same caliber that they have on offense.