STILLWATER — Mike Gundy knows Oklahoma State is still far from being considered a traditional power in college football.
So he also realizes how meaningful a day like Wednesday, when the OSU program was grouped with the likes of Alabama, Florida State, Ohio State and Southern California by a national publication, can be.
Sports Illustrated revealed Oklahoma State quarterback Mason Rudolph is on one of four regional covers for the magazine’s college football preview issue, along with Alabama’s Jalen Hurts, Ohio State’s J.T. Barrett and USC’s Sam Darnold.
And the reason Rudolph is on the cover is equally interesting: The magazine picked OSU as one of its four teams to make the College Football Playoff (Alabama, FSU and Ohio State are the others).
The tease on the cover reads: “Oklahoma State in the playoff? Yes, Oklahoma State in the playoff.”
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“For them to think enough about our football program and about our players to put them on the cover’s a big deal, and so we’re very proud of that,” Gundy said after practice Wednesday. “There’s a lot of hard work and effort that’s gone into that and these guys should take pride, as well as the guys that have been here over the last 12 years. They’re a part of this. There’s a long process for us to get to a point where people across the country say we respect Oklahoma State football.”
It’s the second time in the Gundy era that Oklahoma State was a preseason choice for SI’s cover. Quarterback Zac Robinson and center Andrew Lewis graced an August 2009 cover, when the magazine ranked OSU seventh entering the season.
Recognition for the second time in less than a decade is progress to Gundy, who, as OSU’s winningest coach, has set a challenging goal: To establish Oklahoma State among college football’s national brands.
Alabama, Florida State and Ohio State are certainly programs, with traditions, that immediately come to mind as college football powers. Oklahoma State is attempting to reach a point where it isn’t a surprise to see its name next to that trio.
On the field, the Cowboys have gotten closer. Oklahoma State has been ranked in the top 10 in seven of the past nine seasons.
Though OSU has not reached the College Football Playoff, its 68 wins since 2010 rank tied for ninth-most among Power-5 schools. The top eight includes programs steeped in tradition. The order: Alabama, Florida State, Clemson, Stanford, Oklahoma, Oregon, Wisconsin and LSU.
Can Oklahoma State become as synonymous with success?
It might be ambitious, but Gundy didn’t shy away from it Wednesday.
“If somebody just said, OK, I need you to write down on a piece of paper the top 10 tradition-rich football schools in the country, it would be pretty easy for you to do that, in your background, right?” Gundy said to reporters. “You would have your Michigans, you would have your Notre Dames. You know you would have your Alabamas, the USCs, the Oklahomas, the Texas’, OK?
“There’s a list there. And at some point, I would like for Oklahoma State to be a part of that when you expand that list to 20. And then at some point, I don’t know that I’ll be here, you like it to be where we can get it to 10, it’s Oklahoma State, but it takes a lot of time to do that.”
The last time OSU was prominently featured on a Sports Illustrated cover, it was for “The Dirty Game” series in 2013.
Gundy addressed that Wednesday as well, stating that it should not take away from the excitement of the program being recognized nationally entering 2017.
“We’re at four years from (the 2013 series), so the young men in this program and the young men we’re recruiting could have very well been 12-13 years old,” he said.
“So we all know we live in a world that people have a hard time remembering what happened a week ago. They could give a flip about what happened in 2013. So for us to take advantage of the economics and the marketing of what we have today, they should have some pictures blown up and it should be hanging in our facility and it should be out on social media to the young men that we’re recruiting, and the people on this team and this organization should take pride in that.
“Now, once that’s accomplished, then you have to put it in your pocket and we have to get ready to play Tulsa. But I don’t think that you take a national recognition like these guys got today and just say that you’re not going to comment on it and realize how big a deal it is, because it’s huge for the school.”
The cover should also only help the visibility of Rudolph’s Heisman Trophy campaign, which OSU started in the spring. The quarterback threw for 28 touchdowns and only four interceptions on 448 pass attempts last season.
Said Rudolph: “It’s great to be recognized as one of the teams that people have confidence in.”