There was a fun little game you could play over the last 15 years every time Tennessee needed to hire a new football coach: Like clockwork, Mike Gundy’s name would come up in the media, followed by a public courtship, followed by a bare-knuckle brawl with Oklahoma State’s powerbrokers behind the scenes and ultimately a Kumbaya contract extension to stay at the only place he really ever wanted to coach.
Advertisement
Gundy, for better or worse, was always a handful. He repeatedly butted heads with the late T. Boone Pickens, whose name was on the stadium. There were times he was barely on speaking terms with his athletic director. He had moments, including one in particular, where feuds with the media became a national story. His tone-deafness over social issues roiling the country in 2020 nearly led to a player mutiny.
But he always won and he wasn’t ever leaving. And as predictable as that cycle became, it never failed to be entertaining.
That is, at least, until the sad end of a coaching tenure like none other.
The story of Gundy’s ultimate downfall, which became official Tuesday when Oklahoma State fired him on the heels of an 11th straight loss to an FBS opponent, is a typical one in this era of college football.
Advertisement
The sport changed. After 20-plus years as a head coach who had no intention of being anywhere but Oklahoma State, Gundy did not.
Too slow to embrace NIL and player empowerment. Too many assistants cycling in and out until the brain drain became noticeable on the field. Too comfortable and too powerful at a school where, even in the best of times, multiple OSU administrations struggled to rein in his worst impulses.
And now it’s over.
“College football has changed drastically in the last few years and the investment needed to compete at the highest level has never been more important,” athletics director Chad Weiberg said in a statement. “As we search for the next head coach of Cowboy Football, we are looking for someone who can lead our program in this new era.”
EUGENE, OREGON – SEPTEMBER 6: Mike Gundy of the Oklahoma State Cowboys looks on during the second half of the game against the Oregon Ducks at Autzen Stadium on September 6, 2025 in Eugene, Oregon. (Photo by Robin Alam/ISI Photos/ISI Photos via Getty Images)
(Robin Alam/ISI Photos via Getty Images)
Anyone could see this coming over the last calendar year as Oklahoma State fell apart and sunk to the bottom of the Big 12. Unlike 2014 or 2018 or even 2022 when the seat was getting a little warm, this time there was no coming back. Even for the most successful coach in program history, the leash had a limit.
Advertisement
But here’s a thought that’s equally valid to the necessity of Oklahoma State cutting ties with him Tuesday: Nobody else could have made that program nationally relevant for two decades the way Gundy did.
We know that because anybody else who won as much as Gundy did in Stillwater would have left for the Tennessee job or the LSU job or the Miami job the way Les Miles and Jimmy Johnson did when they tasted a little bit of success.
But that program was in Gundy’s blood. Outside of one year as Baylor’s quarterbacks coach in 1996 and four as a young assistant at Maryland, it’s literally all he knew.
As a high school quarterback recruit in Midwest City, he had to pick between the Sooners and Cowboys. It was a teenage choice that defined the next 40 years of his life and in some ways redefined the balance of football power inside the state.
Advertisement
Not entirely, of course. For Oklahoma State, it was always an uphill climb. But by golly, he managed to win Bedlam four times — including the last one in 2023 — and delivered a few moments along the way where the Cowboys could brag about being the superior program in the state.
It’s probably not a coincidence that Gundy’s decline coincided with Oklahoma exiting the Big 12 and ending their annual series for the foreseeable future. Though Gundy had talked about the positives of taking the temperature down in a rivalry that became quite heated at various points, it was another sign of how different college athletics had become for him — and not in a good way.
Whatever you thought of Gundy’s antics or comments on the state of the world that suggested he was too ensconced in a bubble of football and cable news, Gundy at his best was flat-out one of the top coaches of his generation.
From 1950 until today, Oklahoma State has finished a season ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 a mere 16 times.
Advertisement
Gundy is responsible for 10 of them.
In the 1980s, Pat Jones coached the Cowboys to three 10-win seasons, which to that point was Oklahoma State’s best run in the modern era.
Gundy did it eight times.
And he usually did it without the highly ranked recruiting classes that they’d get at historic rivals like Texas or Nebraska, not to mention the Sooners. Sure, Gundy would get a handful of four-stars, but top recruits generally weren’t coming to Oklahoma State unless there was some type of red flag that scared off the bluebloods.
Mostly, it was a program built by slightly overlooked skill players who became stars in his system like Justin Blackmon, Kendall Hunter and Emmanuel Ogbah.
Advertisement
Gundy also had a knack for launching assistants to the big time. Larry Fedora, Tim Beckman, Dana Holgorsen and Todd Monken all got head coaching jobs immediately after working as Gundy’s offensive coordinator.
The only thing missing from Gundy’s résumé is a national championship, and he probably should have one of those as well. In 2011, Oklahoma State lost just one game to Iowa State, which was played the day after a tragic plane crash that killed women’s basketball coach Kurt Budke and assistant Miranda Serna.
Back in the days of the BCS, where the coaches’ poll was part of the formula, a handful of coaches severely penalized Oklahoma State for that loss and ranked them No. 4 or lower — including Alabama coach Nick Saban, whose team barely edged out the Cowboys to get the No. 2 spot.
Gundy has always maintained that Oklahoma State would have beaten LSU in the championship game just like Alabama did, and he’s probably right about that.
Advertisement
Oklahoma State was never able to truly chase a championship after that, but Gundy kept churning out good seasons. Schools would call, just checking to see if he might be curious about what it’s like somewhere else. He would flirt a little here or there and vent about whatever resources longtime athletics director Mike Holder wasn’t giving him.
But home was home.
For his career ambitions, Gundy stayed too long. For just about everyone in sports, things will eventually get stale.
For his legacy, though, there was always something a little bit noble about playing it out to the bitter end.
Yes, this separation will be a source of hurt for a lot of people who have no real memory of Oklahoma State without Gundy being part of it. It’s never easy when the most important singular figure in the history of the program gets shoved aside against his will.
But one day, the tears will stop and the statue will be unveiled and everyone will toast to a one-of-a-kind coach whose success and longevity may never happen there again.
