Oklahoma State fired head coach Mike Gundy on Tuesday after a 1-2 start to his 21st season.
The university made the announcement one day after Gundy said he had zero interest in this being his final year in Stillwater.
The Cowboys fell to Tulsa last Friday and have dropped 11 of the past 12 games dating back to the 2024 campaign.
“I’m under contract, here, for I think 3 1/2 years,” Gundy said Monday. “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.”
Gundy, who is owed $15 million, is the winningest coach in Oklahoma State history.
He coached the Cowboys to 18 straight winning seasons and bowl appearances before the streak was broken last year.
Gundy posted eight 10-win seasons at Oklahoma State, which finished ranked in the Top 25 on 10 occasions during his tenure. He was a three-time Coach of the Year in the Big 12.
Doug Meacham, in his first season as the Cowboys’ offensive coordinator, will be the interim head coach.
“This is a decision about what’s best for our football program, our student-athletes and Oklahoma State University and it reflects our unwavering commitment to championship-level football and competing for national success,” university president Jim Hess said. “Coach Gundy dedicated decades of his life to OSU, achieving significant success and positively impacting hundreds of young men who wore the OSU uniform. His contributions to our university, both as a player and coach, deserve our profound respect and will not be forgotten.”
Gundy was 170-90 all-time, including 12-6 in bowls at his alma mater, where he was OSU’s starting quarterback and assistant head coach before being hired. With Gundy at quarterback from 1986-89, the Cowboys had two 10-win seasons.
Athletic director Chad Weiberg, who said in a statement that Gundy brought the program to “an unprecedented level of success,” spoke with reporters a few hours after the firing.
“I expected the results of this season to be different than they’ve been so far,” Weiberg told reporters. “That goes back to the expectation level that Coach Gundy has set for this program.
“We have higher expectations than that, so when it doesn’t appear that that was going to be met, it felt like for the good of the program it was time to make this decision so that we could start the process of getting the program where we want it to be.”
Weiberg also pointed to “significant investments” the school put into this year’s team, saying, “This is not an inexpensive football team that we have on the field this season.”
Gundy, 58, is famous in part for his press conference tirade 18 years ago in which he said, “I’m a man, I’m 40.”
Oklahoma State will host Baylor (2-2, 0-1 Big 12) in its conference opener on Saturday.
Not long after Gundy’s firing became official came word that in-state running back KD Jones decommitted from the Cowboys. Jones, a three-star running back from Jenks, Okla., committed to Oklahoma State over Oklahoma and other schools back in March.
He pledged to the Cowboys on March 26, 2025.
–Field Level Media
