Oklahoma State football coach Mike Gundy answers a question during the weekly football news conference. Gundy said supporters shouldn't abandon his team just yet.

Stillwater, Okla. ? With fan frustration rising after a pair of early road losses – including a lopsided one to a supposedly overmatched foe – Oklahoma State football coach Mike Gundy said the Cowboys’ supporters should not abandon the team.

During his weekly news conference, Gundy said he is mostly unaware of the level of angst among fans after Oklahoma State’s 41-23 loss on Friday, a game during which the Cowboys had five turnovers and appeared ill-prepared against a foe from the Sun Belt Conference, a league generally considered to be among the weakest in the Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly NCAA Division I-A).

Gundy said Oklahoma State (1-2) remains focused on its Big 12 Conference opener this Saturday against Texas Tech (3-0) and not on the aftermath of the loss to Troy.

“I never read the paper or watch TV or get on the Internet,” Gundy said, noting later that “when I go to work it’s dark and when I go home it’s dark.”

Asked what he would tell frustrated fans, Gundy said, “I tell them that they need to come to the game and support the guys who bust their butt every week and play hard. That’s what I say.

“We go through this when we lose a game. Here’s the deal … Nobody is more disappointed (than the coaching staff) when we lose. But this is what we do. Part of what we do is we train young men that there’s (going to be) things that don’t happen the way they want them to in life, and if they quit, and they listen to what people tell them they should or shouldn’t do, they’re going to have issues the rest of their life.”

Senior linebacker Jeremy Nethon said he sees no signs of panic among his teammates and said it wasn’t for lack of effort that the Cowboys were blown out at Troy.

“It’s never effort with us,” Nethon said. “There’s little things that we can correct – ball security, tackling … The thing that kills us is fundamental things. We’re just ready to get out there against Texas Tech and go out there and handle our business.

“Every loss is a low point. It’s not easy to handle a loss, but in the same aspect, you’ve got to take it in stride. It was a good-quality team.”