Mike Gundy was never going out the easy way. He succeeded in a hard college football job in part because of a combative belief in himself, and he was never going to be the guy who voluntarily faced the reality that he’d lost his touch. He wasn’t going to walk away gracefully.
Gundy was going to be fired, not retired. So he went out in a final blaze of defiance, instead of with a parade and platitudes. He did it his way for more than two decades, until Oklahoma State had to tell him his way no longer worked and it was over.
That happened Tuesday, a day after Gundy said he “100%” intended to be back as coach of the Cowboys in 2026.
“I’m under contract here for, I think, 3 ½ years,” Gundy said Monday, after his tattered team slumped to 1–2 on the season and 4–11 since the end of 2023. “When I was hired here to take this job, ever since that day, I’ve put my heart and soul into this and I will continue to do that until at some point, if I say I don’t want to do it or if somebody else says we don’t want you to do it.”
Somebody else spoke up. And the man who has 108 more victories than the next-winningest coach in school history was suddenly gone on a Tuesday in late September.
There were discussions about this happening after last season’s 3–9 collapse, as the Oklahoma State administration prodded Gundy to modernize. It looked like his tenure might end then, but instead he accepted an amended contract that redistributed $1 million from the coach to NIL payments for his players, plus a flat, $15 million buyout.
Offseason hope for a reboot of a program that had 18 straight winning seasons under Gundy was quickly extinguished. He made retread hires for his coordinators in Doug Meacham on offense and Todd Grantham on defense. He brought in a ton of players via the transfer portal, but nowhere near enough difference-makers. And after a blasé victory over an FCS opponent in the opening game, the Cowboys traveled to Oregon and were beaten senseless, 69–3.
Gundy issued a whiny warning about the mismatch to come before that game, pointing out how much larger the Ducks’ NIL war chest was than his and suggesting Oregon should play nonconference games against programs of comparable means. That was interesting coming from a coach whose program benefitted massively from funding by rainmaker booster T. Boone Pickens. It also underscored how much the mentality had changed for a coach who thrived on beating the likes of Texas, Texas A&M, Nebraska and occasionally in-state big brother Oklahoma in the past.
Sept. 6 in Eugene was the beginning of the end, and that beginning came quickly. The Ducks led 14–0 after 96 seconds, 41–3 by halftime and 69–3 after three quarters. It was Oklahoma State’s worst loss since 1907.
When that was followed by a listless home loss Friday to Tulsa—a program Gundy had never lost to—the end was at hand. But clearly the Stillwater Mullet wasn’t ready to admit as much.
That was predictable. Gundy is hardheaded, combative and convinced that he’s right about pretty much everything. Those are tolerable—even admirable—traits when winning football games. And Gundy did win plenty of them, with eight seasons of at least 10 wins, even as recently as 2023.
His 2011 team was on course to play in the BCS championship game until a Nov. 18 upset loss to Iowa State. Even after that, the Pokes trampled No. 10 Oklahoma, 44–10, and defeated No. 4 Stanford in the Fiesta Bowl, finishing the season No. 3 in the nation. That season was Oklahoma State’s first conference championship since 1976, and first solo league title since ‘48 in the Missouri Valley. No wonder Gundy grew almost too big for the job.
It had to be difficult to be the man’s boss. He flirted with other schools that had job openings, ran his mouth and took contentious political stances that fueled criticism from his own team in 2020.
Gundy went fishing with his sons wearing an “OAN” (One America News Network) T-shirt within days after the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis sparked roiling discontent across the country. OAN is a far-right-leaning cable channel that had been critical of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Star running back Chuba Hubbard criticized Gundy for the shirt on social media. As the backlash built, Gundy wound up apologizing for what he said was lack of knowledge of OAN’s political leaning, calling himself a “dumbass.”
Gundy rebounded from that, winning 12 games in 2021 and defeating Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl. But the dawn of the NIL era was something neither he nor Oklahoma State was prepared to capitalize upon.
“College football, as we all know, has changed in a very, very dramatic fashion and it’s really not the old college football,” Gundy said Monday. “This is a paid game, O.K. So, whether I agree with it or not makes zero difference. It’s like being in an argument with your wife and you know you’re right? It makes zero difference. You’re wrong. You might as well just get over it, give in, and things are going to be much smoother.”
Gundy never gave in. Not when the odds were against him building a winner at a place that had never done it consistently. And not when it was time to admit defeat and hang it up.
It’s hard to do in a sport where the stakes feel increasingly urgent. Gary Patterson was shoved out during the season at TCU after 20 years. National champions Mack Brown, Phil Fulmer, Les Miles and Jimbo Fisher were pushed out of places where they won those titles. Sentiment is for suckers in the current climate.
But coaches also need to hear an internal clock and know when the alarm is about to sound. Bob Stoops did it. Nick Saban did it. David Shaw did it. There are many other examples over time.
Mike Gundy’s alarm went off after last season. He ignored it and stayed on. He was simply never wired for a graceful exit.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Mike Gundy Exited Oklahoma State Exactly How You’d Expect.