The Mike Gundy era at Oklahoma State is over. So what comes next?
Gundy, the decorated Cowboys quarterback and the winningest coach in school history, was fired on Tuesday. The departure of the second-longest-tenured coach in the Football Bowl Subdivision nearly happened last winter, before Gundy agreed to a pay cut and a staff overhaul. But the changes made no difference. His tenure ended with 11 consecutive losses to FBS teams, including blowout defeats to Colorado and Oregon. His last FBS win came against Tulsa, a 45-10 victory last season. One year later, the Cowboys lost 19-12 to Tulsa, which proved to be Gundy’s final game.
So how good is the Oklahoma State job? What names could get in the mix? Based on conversations with industry sources, here is a report card for the job and the potential candidates to watch.
Recent history/tradition: B+
What made Gundy’s slide so surprising was how fast it came. The Cowboys went 12-2 with Big 12 and Fiesta Bowl championships in 2021. They played for the Big 12 championship in 2023, winning the last installment of the Bedlam series against Oklahoma. Then the bottom fell out shockingly quickly and they went 0-9 in league play in 2024, ending a streak of 18 consecutive bowl games.
You can win in Stillwater, though the program’s history prior to Gundy was very up and down. Jimmy Johnson had three winning seasons in five years before going to Miami (Fla.) to win a national championship. Les Miles made the program respectable again before going to LSU, where he also won a national title. But Gundy took it to a new level. The Cowboys nearly played for a national championship in 2011, but their hopes were dashed by a double-overtime loss at Iowa State.
Fan support is strong. It’s a place that expects to compete for and win conference championships.
On-field outlook: C+
That expectation for conference championships is more than fair in a Big 12 that appears more winnable without two of its traditional powerhouse programs. Conventional wisdom has been that Oklahoma State was among the schools with the most to gain from Texas and Oklahoma leaving, but that hasn’t been the case in the two years since the Longhorns and Sooners went to the SEC.
Gundy’s final season wasn’t helped by the fact that starting quarterback Hauss Hejny was injured in Week 1. The staff had high hopes for him. But Oklahoma State sits 49th nationally in 247Sports’ Team Talent composite rankings, which accounts for players’ high school ratings. That is 10th in the 16-team Big 12. Hejny is one of the nine former four-star recruits on the roster.
The roster has a deep bench of capable running backs, but the loss to Tulsa also showed a team getting blown off the ball at the line of scrimmage far too frequently.
Players have 30 days to enter the transfer portal after a head coach is fired. Though they cannot play for another school this season, it would be possible for them to take a redshirt and sit out the 2025 season because Gundy was ousted before anyone could hit the five-game threshold at which a year of NCAA eligibility is burned. However, the relative quiet after coaching changes at UCLA and Virginia Tech may indicate few players are willing to leave the team now. It may also be helpful that the NCAA has moved to a single transfer portal window, though whether it will take place in January as originally proposed is yet to be determined.
Money Matters: B-
For whatever reason, Gundy liked to talk about the money his program didn’t have. Ahead of a matchup against Oregon this season, he said Oklahoma State had spent around $7 million on players over the last three years, comparing it to Oregon spending tens of millions on its 2025 roster. That is all legal and the new norm in college football, and Gundy himself admitted he was slow to come around. As a result, Oklahoma State has been behind in college football’s emerging player acquisition business.
Gundy himself made almost $8 million annually, a top-20 salary nationally, before his 2025 pay cut, so Oklahoma State may be able to compete for top coaching talent. But Gundy’s buyout will also cost the school a much-needed $15 million (unless it is negotiated to something smaller), which is paid monthly through 2028.
For years, business tycoon T. Boone Pickens bankrolled the Oklahoma State program, donating more than $650 million to the school, with more than half of that going to athletics. The stadium is named after him because he put in $165 million to renovate it. Pickens died in 2019, though his foundation later put $25 million toward the Human Performance Innovation Complex.
University stability: C-
Former president Kayse Shrum resigned in February, a month before an audit uncovering the university’s potential mismanagement of state funds went public, creating all kinds of problems at the top of the school. Interim president Jim Hess was later promoted into the full-time role, though he was given a notably short three-year term.
Athletic director Chad Weiberg is also in the unusual position of working without a contract since June, leading some in the industry to wonder whether it’ll actually be renewed. Will he have the power to lead a coaching search? Or will someone else?
Coach pool: B+
Oklahoma offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle: The Texas native has dramatically improved the Sooners’ offense in his first season, bringing quarterback John Mateer with him from Washington State. Arbuckle, at 30 years old, has moved up quickly since he was a quality control assistant at Western Kentucky in 2021. He knows the region and the state, and he’s expected to get a lot of head coaching interest in this cycle.
Texas A&M offensive coordinator Collin Klein: The former Kansas State Heisman Trophy finalist and offensive coordinator has developed a top-25 offense in Aggieland, leading the SEC in scoring in conference games last year. His move away from his alma mater showed he can succeed outside the K-State bubble, and he has impressed decision makers. The 36-year-old is very familiar with the area and the conference.
Texas State head coach GJ Kinne: The Bobcats are joining the new Pac-12 next year in large part because Kinne has turned Texas State into a respectable football program, reaching the school’s first two bowl games in his first two seasons with consecutive 8-5 records. That came after a 12-2 season and a No. 3 finish at Football Championship Subdivision program Incarnate Word. The Texas native Kinne played at Tulsa, and his team is 3-1 this year.
Atlanta Falcons offensive coordinator Zac Robinson: Some people around the program really want to bring the former Cowboys quarterback back to Stillwater. He has risen quickly in the NFL ranks since entering coaching in 2019, but he has never coached at the college level, and the NFL schedule could make it difficult to leave on a convenient timeline for Oklahoma State.
Oregon offensive coordinator Will Stein: The 35-year-old has kept Oregon’s offense among the nation’s best with three different quarterbacks in recent years. He also has regional connections in Texas as a UTSA assistant from 2020 to ’22, as the OC at Lake Travis High School for the prior two years and as an analyst at Texas for three seasons before that.
North Texas head coach Eric Morris: He may be turning the corner with the Mean Green, off to a 4-0 start this year after an 11-14 record over his first two seasons. His team’s offenses have been among the Group of 5’s best, but the defense has finally stepped up. Another Texas native who knows the area very well, Morris built up that Incarnate Word team into a top-15 program before leaving.
Miami (Fla.) offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson: His 2024 offense led the nation with 43.9 points per game and helped quarterback Cam Ward become the No. 1 pick in the NFL Draft, and this year’s Hurricanes are 4-0 as quarterback Carson Beck has returned to form. Dawson has drawn head coach interest in recent years and will once again this winter.
Baltimore Ravens offensive coordinator Todd Monken: It’s a longshot, as Monken is doing very well in the NFL, but he did coordinate Oklahoma State’s offense during that dream 2011 season and had another stint in Stillwater. He turned a short but successful head coaching stint at Southern Miss into an NFL assistant job, and he won two national championships as Georgia’s OC as well.
Purdue offensive coordinator Josh Henson: The Oklahoma native is a former Cowboys offensive lineman and spent nine years on staff over two stints. He’s been among the college game’s best offensive line coaches and has improved Purdue’s offense in his first season there.
Purdue head coach Barry Odom: The Oklahoma native has long been linked to the job for the day it eventually came open. He knows the state and the area, having also coached at Missouri and Arkansas. He turned UNLV from a bottom feeder into a near-Playoff team. But it’s yet to be seen how his first season at Purdue will shake out, and the $6 million buyout for him to leave could be cost-prohibitive.
Overall grade: B
Gundy showed that consistent winning and championships are possible here. But the program has to catch up with the times when it comes to finances and player acquisition. The job will attract a lot of interest because of its recent history and pipeline to Texas, along with a winnable conference and realistic Playoff path, but the school and athletic department’s leadership situation is an open question at the moment. The program has suddenly found itself in a ditch over the past year, but there’s strong belief it can get out just as quickly.
(Photo: Brian Bahr / Getty Images)
