Sadly, as we're only three weeks into the college football season, it seems the end of an era in Stillwater is very much upon us. Mike Gundy has been the head coach longer at Oklahoma State than a majority of college football players have even been alive. Many don't even remember a time when Gundy wasn't the leader of the Cowboys.
2024 was only the second losing season of his coaching tenure but it was an awful season and has continued on into this season. There is no reason why a team in a Power Four Conference should be getting destroyed like the Pokes were last weekend by Oregon in Eugene.
It seems that everything is unraveling quickly for Coach Gundy, and his brashness doesn't help the situation. He doesn't seem to want to evolve with the times when it comes to NIL and the transfer portal. His rants only work when the team is winning, and that's no longer the case. Unfortunately, most long-term coaching tenures do not end well, and it seems like we are headed down the path here. We can only imagine what the local sports radio sounds like this week on the topic of this proud football program, and it doesn't help that there is no game this week to take the focus off Gundy's hot seat.
Next week Tulsa comes to town, and this feels like a must win convincingly type of game and if somehow Okie State were to drop this game, I would expect a firing or resignation by the following Monday morning. There isn't an easy game in Big 12 Conference play so after Tulsa the wins will be few and rare.
It has been a great run for Mike Gundy including being inches away from playing in a national championship game, but it is likely to get uglier before there is improvement. It just seems change is needed as maybe things have become stale on both sides. It will be very interesting to see if Gundy makes it to the end of the season and when the inevitable separation happens who will be brought in as the man after the best coach in program history.
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