As of the afternoon of September 23rd 2025 Mike Gundy will no longer be the head football coach at Oklahoma State. After 20 seasons he has posted a 170-90 record. finished the year ranked 9 times, 8 double digit win totals, a 12-6 bowl record with two being major bowl victories, and a Big 12 Championship.
There is an argument to be made that Gundy might be the most important person ever associated with Oklahoma State football, and that is saying something coming from a program that produced Barry Sanders and Thurman Thomas, which Gundy was the quarterback for both. However, unlike Sanders and Thomas, Gundy returned to coach. After working his way as a position coach (mostly at OK State) he finally became the offensive coordinator and was then promoted to head coach in 2005. Mike Gundy has spent a total of 33 years with the Cowboys football program.
The Gundy Era didn’t start with immediate success but did give birth to one of the first truly viral sports moments on the internet. Even people who don’t watch College Football know the rant “I’m a man, I’m 40”, where Gundy is defending quarterback Bobby Reid.
What you might not have known is that Reid felt the whole rant was a front. The Oklahoman ran a story citing the coaching staff thought Reid was soft and played scared, and when it leaked Gundy went on his rant. Reid believed he was trying to “save face”. For more information Tom Friend wrote an article on the situation below.
https://www.espn.com/college-football/news/story?id=3341578
Years go by and Oklahoma State becomes consistently around the top of the Big 12, even winning it one year, and it’s a testament to Gundy. The Cowboys were a mainstay in the top 25 for over 15 years, but the last few seasons have been strange, and I’m not talking about him growing a mullet.
We’ll skip over some of his t-shirt choices while he is fishing, but as he’s coming off of a 10-4 year in 2023 his running back, Ollie Gordan, gets arrested for a DUI. When asked Gundy says that he spoke with him and that he is remorseful but then adds that he has probably driven over a thousand times after two or three beers.
That years squad finished the year 3-9 and looked bad doing it. Now it’s 2025, and OK State is 1-2 with a 66 point loss to Oregon, and a loss at home to Tulsa.
Even after all the success it’s time for him to be let go. The team isn’t just going through a rebuild, they look downright awful. Another year at the helm to try and right the ship would be delaying his inevitable firing. The program needs to go in a different direction, keeping Gundy was holding the Cowboys back.
Every coaching tenure comes to an end, and unfortunately it’s usually in an unceremonious way. There is no denying how much Gundy helped Oklahoma State’s prestige in the College Football world after the turn of the millennium, but this firing is making sure Gundy doesn’t totally destroy everything he’s built.
