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Fiesta Bowl: Oklahoma State out to prove elite status against Notre Dame

Mike Gundy is finally getting his wish.

The Cowboys’ head coach said he tried to get Oklahoma State brass to set up a home-and-home with Notre Dame a few years back. Much to his dismay, the deal never got done.

“What I was told is Notre Dame has been booked up for a long, long time,” Gundy said. “So it never worked out.”

Leave it to chance. Leave it to the postseason. Leave it to the Fiesta Bowl.

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It’s finally working out for Gundy and his Cowboys. No. 5 Notre Dame (11-1) and No. 9 Oklahoma State (11-2) will face each other for the first time ever at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., on New Year’s Day.

Gundy said he’s thrilled by the opportunity to face the Fighting Irish.

“I think it’s cool,” the coach said. “It’s going to bring a lot of national recognition. We have a team that ended up fifth in the country. So just right there on being in the College Football Playoff [conversation], obviously the committee feels like they’re the team that’s just right there. And it will draw a lot of recognition across the country because of their history.”

A lot of eyes will naturally draw to the game because it’s the first of new Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman’s career. Never before has the 35-year-old been in charge of an entire program. Now he’s at the helm of one of the most storied ones in the sport’s history.

The Freeman storyline is compelling. It’s not every year a program like Notre Dame loses a longstanding head coach to another perennial power and replaces him with an assistant the former coach tried to get to follow him to his new location. College football fans and media had fun with that while the chaos of the change was in full swing.

By Jan. 1, though, the dust from that will have settled considerably. It will be about a first-year head coach trying to take down one of the most established head coaches in the country. Gundy is wrapping up his 17th season in Stillwater. The Cowboys have been bowl eligible for all but one of them — the very first in 2005.

Oklahoma State is 10-5 in bowl games under Gundy’s guidance. The biggest victory came during the 2011 campaign in the Fiesta Bowl against Stanford and its future NFL star quarterback, Andrew Luck.

Oklahoma State Cowboys head coach Mike Gundy vs. Notre Dame Fighting Irish football
Oklahoma State is 10-5 in bowl games under head coach Mike Gundy. (Getty Images)

Gundy has been there and done that. Freeman is learning on the fly. It’s old school versus new school in the desert.

When it comes down to it, though, neither Gundy nor Freeman will be on the field.

“As we all know, essentially players play in the games and not coaches,” Gundy said. “And with them hiring within, their system will stay pretty tight up through the Fiesta Bowl. We’re going to play a really talented team.”

Notre Dame Fighting Irish football head coach Marcus Freeman
Marcus Freeman will make his head coaching debut in the Fiesta Bowl. (Matt Cashore/USA Today Sports)

Oklahoma State is really talented, too. You don’t get inches away from winning the Big 12 championship game without that being so. The Cowboys could have very well ended up as the No. 5 team in the country instead of Notre Dame if running back Dezmon Jackson capped the Cowboys’ 17-play drive off with a one-yard touchdown across the left pylon. Instead, Jackson was forced out of bounds just shy of the goal line on fourth down.

It’ll be interesting to see what that devastating defeat does to Oklahoma State’s psyche. What kind of Cowboys team shows up for the Fiesta Bowl? A sulking one that believes it was inches away from creating a CFP debate between them and Cincinnati, and is therefore disengaged and lethargic? Or one that views this as an opportunity to prove it was one of the best teams in the country all along by beating an elite program like Notre Dame?

Odds are it will be the latter. Gundy’s track record speaks for itself. Oklahoma State has won four of its last five bowl games. This is also the first New Year’s Six bowl game the Cowboys have ventured to since the Sugar Bowl that concluded its 2015 season. The Pokes lost to Ole Miss, 48-20. Gundy doesn’t want to relive a defeat like that.

Quarterback Spencer Sanders will be one of the main determinants in whether that happens or not. He’s never been the most prolific of passers. A redshirt junior, he’s never thrown for 20 touchdowns in a season. This year, he has 16 scoring tosses and 12 interceptions. He has thrown for just 205.7 yards per game in an era in which everyone seems to be hitting 300 with ease.

Oklahoma State Cowboys quarterback Spender Sanders vs. Notre Dame Fighting Irish football
Oklahoma State quarterback Spencer Sanders threw four interceptions in the Big 12 title game.

Still, Sanders is held in high regard by the Oklahoma State coaching staff. He arrived in Stillwater as a four-star dual-threat recruit with high upside. He hasn’t quite reached the potential many around the program had hoped for, but he’s capable of rising up in big games. His 37-yard touchdown run against Oklahoma was a huge turning point in that rivalry victory.

He’s coming off one of the worst performances of his career, though. He threw four interceptions, zero touchdowns and had a quarterback rating of less than 100 for the third time in his 32 career games against Baylor.

Gundy didn’t pin it all on Sanders.

“We didn’t protect him very well, and you guys know that when we had these discussions on Mondays or Saturdays after the game, my message is pretty similar; if we protect him well and rush the ball, then he usually plays pretty well, and I think that is consistent with any quarterback,” Gundy said. “I don’t think it’s just Spencer. I think it’s high school, college, NFL quarterbacks.”

Oklahoma State Cowboys vs. Notre Dame Fighting Irish football
The Oklahoma State defense has been menacing against the opposition all season. (OSU Athletics/Bruce Waterfield)

Oklahoma State was still in a position to beat Baylor because of its defense, one of the best in the country. Only Wisconsin and Georgia allow fewer yards per game than Oklahoma State (278.4).

The Cowboys have more sacks (55) than any other team in the country. Freshman defensive end Collin Oliver leads the way with 11.5. Oklahoma State is toward the top of just about every major defensive list: No. 1 in tackles for loss (8.5 per game), No. 2 in opponent third-down conversion rate (26.1 percent), No. 5 in rushing defense (91.2), No. 8 in scoring defense (16.8) and No. 12 in passing defense (187.2) in a conference that prides itself on the pass.

It’s been an impressive year for the Oklahoma State defense, but the architect of it will not be with the team in Arizona. Defensive coordinator Jim Knowles left for the same position at Ohio State. Gundy said he obviously tried to get Knowles to stay, but Oklahoma State could not match the Buckeyes’ offer.

It’s a big loss for the Cowboys, but they’re in a New Year’s Six bowl game against Notre Dame for more reasons than just what Knowles has done.

Remember: players play. Coaches just coach. There will be elite levels of both going on at State Farm Stadium on the first day of 2022.

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