Score for Oklahoma State Football: Why the 2025 Season Went South

Score for Oklahoma State Football: Why the 2025 Season Went South

Honestly, if you’re looking for the latest score for oklahoma state football, you probably already know it wasn't the "Pokes" year. Fans in Stillwater are used to winning. They're used to Mike Gundy finding a way, even when things look bleak. But the 2025 season felt different, and the final scoreboards reflected a reality that nobody saw coming back in August.

The Cowboys finished the year with a brutal 1-11 record.

One win.

That’s it.

After opening the season with a promising 27-7 victory over UT Martin, the wheels didn't just come off; they essentially disintegrated. For a program that had essentially trademarked consistency over the last two decades, seeing a double-digit losing streak was jarring. By the time they hit the season finale on November 29, 2025, against Iowa State, the atmosphere at Boone Pickens Stadium was more about "let’s just get through this" than "Orange Power."

The Final Score for Oklahoma State Football: November 29, 2025

The last time the Cowboys took the field for the 2025 season, they hosted Iowa State. It was a cold Saturday morning in Stillwater. The game stayed close—mostly because the Cyclones didn't exactly play their best football—but the Pokes just couldn't find the end zone when it mattered.

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Iowa State 20, Oklahoma State 13.

That was the final result. Zane Flores, the young quarterback tasked with leading the post-Alan Bowman era, threw for 202 yards and a touchdown, but the offense stalled out in the red zone. This was a recurring theme. They moved the ball, sure. But they couldn't finish.

A Season of "Almost" and "Oh No"

If you look at the score for oklahoma state football throughout the autumn months, you see a lot of games that were surprisingly tight for a team with only one win. They lost 17-14 to UCF. They lost 14-6 to Kansas State. They even kept it within a touchdown against Tulsa early in the year, losing 19-12.

But then there were the others. The games that made fans want to turn off the TV.

  • A 69-3 blowout at the hands of Oregon.
  • A 42-0 shutout in Lubbock against Texas Tech.
  • A 49-17 drubbing by Cincinnati.

It was a mix of competitive heartbreak and absolute non-competitiveness. Gundy, usually the master of the "close win," found himself on the wrong side of every coin flip. The defense, led by veteran guys like Brandon Rawls and Bryan McCoy, played hard, but you can only stay on the field for 40 minutes a game so many times before you break.

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Why the Scoreboards Looked So Different This Year

People kept asking: what happened? Basically, everything that could go wrong did. The transition from a veteran-heavy 2024 roster to a younger group in 2025 was supposed to be a reload, not a total rebuild.

Injuries hit the offensive line early. When you can't run the ball, everything else becomes a chore. Zane Flores showed flashes of being "the guy," but he was often running for his life. The turnover margin was a disaster. In the Kansas State game alone, the Cowboys turned it over five times. You aren't winning many Big 12 games with five turnovers. Period.

Comparing 2025 to the Gundy Standard

For context, Mike Gundy hadn't missed a bowl game in nearly 20 years before 2024. Then, 2024 happened, and the streak snapped. 2025 was supposed to be the "return to form." Instead, the program bottomed out.

Date Opponent Result Final Score
Aug 28 UT Martin Win 27-7
Sep 6 @ Oregon Loss 3-69
Sep 19 Tulsa Loss 12-19
Oct 25 @ Texas Tech Loss 0-42
Nov 22 @ UCF Loss 14-17
Nov 29 Iowa State Loss 13-20

Looking at those numbers, it's clear the offense just didn't have the horsepower. Averaging roughly 14 points a game in the modern Big 12 is essentially a death sentence.

What Most People Get Wrong About the Score

There’s a narrative that the team "quit." If you watched the UCF or Kansas State games, you know that’s not true. They were fighting. The score for oklahoma state football in those late-season games was actually a testament to a defense that refused to give up, even when the offense was giving them nothing.

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The real issue was a lack of explosive plays. In years past, OSU had Justice Hill, Chuba Hubbard, or Ollie Gordon II to bail them out. In 2025, the leading rushers were often scrambling to get back to the line of scrimmage. Rodney Fields Jr. and Trent Howland had some decent games, but the "home run" threat was gone.

The Road Ahead for the Cowboys

So, where does the program go from here? The 2025 season is in the books. No bowl game. No winning record. Just a lot of questions.

The transfer portal is going to be the main character of the off-season. Gundy has already hinted that they need to get older on both lines of scrimmage. You can't play in this conference with a bunch of 19-year-olds in the trenches and expect the final score to be in your favor.

If you're a fan, the next step is keeping an eye on the spring game and seeing who stays. Recruitment is still okay, but in the NIL era, a 1-11 season makes it a lot harder to sell the "Stillwater is home" dream to blue-chip prospects.

To get back to winning, the Cowboys have to fix the red zone efficiency. They were one of the worst teams in the country at converting trips inside the 20 into six points. Field goals are fine, but as we saw against Iowa State, 13 points isn't going to cut it when the other team gets two touchdowns and two field goals.

The 2026 season will be about pride. It’s about making sure that 2025 was a weird, injury-riddled fluke and not the new normal for a program that used to be a top-25 mainstay.

Keep an eye on the portal for a veteran wide receiver. They need someone who can stretch the field and give Flores—or whoever wins the job—a reliable target. Without a vertical threat, defenses will keep stacking the box, and we’ll keep seeing scores that start with "10" or "13." It’s time to get back to the high-flying, 40-point games that Boone Pickens Stadium was built for.