Last year, some wanted to fire Oklahoma State football coach Mike Gundy because they didn’t like what was written on a shirt he was wearing.

What a mistake that would have been.

Consider what Gundy did this season.

• OSU (11-2, 8-2) was the regular season champion of the Big 12 Conference.
• The Cowboys were literally six inches away from beating Baylor in the Big 12 Championship. Baylor won 21-16. OSU was half a foot away from a touchdown when they ran out of downs with 30 seconds to go.
• OSU will play Notre Dame January 1 at noon on ESPN in the Fiesta Bowl in Glendale, Arizona.
• OSU beat Oklahoma and Texas and went undefeated in nonconference play.
• Since 2010, Gundy has led OSU to seven seasons with at least 10 wins. The only active coaches with more 10-win seasons in that time frame are Alabama’s Nick Saban (12) and Clemson’s Dabo Swinney (10).
• League coaches voted Gundy the Big 12 Coach of the Year.
• OSU had six players make All-Big 12, as selected by league coaches. That includes quarterback Spencer Sanders, offensive lineman Josh Sills, defensive lineman Brock Martin, linebacker Malcolm Rodriguez, defensive back Jarrick Bernard-Converse and defensive back Kolby Harvell-Peel.

Had OSU punched in that last touchdown, the Cowboys would have had a legitimate chance to make the College Football Playoff for the first time.

“We’re very excited to be involved with the PlayStation Fiesta Bowl,” Gundy said. “Obviously, we had a tight game yesterday, lost there at the end. We talk about the games being inches, and we ended up coming up an inch or two short. But very proud of our team, the way we competed. Got home last night and went up to the office and worked for about four hours and headed home, got some sleep, and then went and got a haircut today, first thing I did.

“And then did a little bit more work and now just out on the road and trying to find some good players and good people to get back in our program.”

This will be the first meeting ever between OSU and Notre Dame.

“It’s going to bring a lot of national recognition,” Gundy said. “We have a team that somebody ended up fifth in the country. So just right there on being in the College Football Playoff. Obviously, the committee feels like that they’re the team that’s just right there.  And it will draw a lot of recognition across the country because of their history. But I’m excited about Oklahoma State and the way people recognize us now coast to coast. I think it will be a heck of a football game, a great matchup.”

Notre Dame just lost Coach Brian Kelly to LSU. They hired defensive coordinator Marcus Freeman as the new head coach.

“And I’ve watched them a couple times, not the entire length of the game,” Gundy said. “I’m aware they’ve got a running back that’s rushed for about 1,200 yards. Their quarterback has thrown for just under 3,000. I know that they doubled their opponents in scoring average during the year. And they’ve got a fantastic defensive coordinator they named as the head coach. I think it’s a really cool matchup, and we’re looking forward to competing against Notre Dame.”

OSU tried to schedule a game with Notre Dame but it didn’t work out.

“We tried to work out a series,” Gundy said. “But what I was told is Notre Dame has been booked up for a long, long time. So it never worked out. I thought it would be great for our fans to be able to play a home-and-home with Notre Dame. And I didn’t realize how far that they’re booked with their schedules.

The challenge for OSU players may be to shake off the disappointment of such a close loss to Baylor.

“Well, with our team I haven’t really had to do much all year,” Gundy said. “This is a mature group. They’ve handled themselves the right way. They compete each week. We just came up a little short. But I told them I was proud of them. They’ve done everything that we’ve asked them to do since January. And that’s all we can ask of them.

“When you put yourself in a situation like we were in (December 4), you had really two good football teams playing and, unfortunately, one of them had to come out. If we had two more inches, Baylor would be in the same situation we are now. Sometimes that happens.

“But there’s not anything that happened then that can take away from what these guys have achieved this year. And we’re going to give them a week off, and I fully expect them to come back later this weekend and be ready to go and excited about playing Notre Dame.”

The last time OSU played in the Fiesta Bowl was in 2011 against Stanford.

“I remember it being a fantastic trip,” Gundy said. “It’s an unbelievable atmosphere out there. We play in a beautiful stadium. The weather is terrific, practice facilities. They took great care of us.

“And we had a real battle with Stanford. They had the first player picked in the draft at quarterback. They had a defense that had been very productive throughout the year. They jumped out on us. We had to convert either two or three fourth downs in the second half, and then they had missed a field goal to force overtime and we ended up winning the game. And, you know, that was a battle of two really good teams. I’m just excited about being back there again. You guys talk all the time to me about doing this forever. I think it’s a tribute to our organization, to our culture, and to our staff to be back in the Fiesta Bowl 10 years later. That’s pretty cool.”