END OF AN ERA: OKLAHOMA STATE FIRES MIKE GUNDY AFTER TWO DECADES

Gunnar Galloway - September 27, 2025 

For the first time in two decades, Oklahoma State football will move on without Mike Gundy. As announced Tuesday by the university, they have parted ways with the longtime head coach, ending what is the winningest coach timeline in program history.

 After a 1-2 start plus a slide that left the Cowboys out of the Big 12 race, Coach Gundy, at age 57, leaves Stillwater with 170 wins, multiple digit winning seasons, and a national champion contending team full of pure football dawgs in 2011. 

Gundy had this reputation as a QB sage of sorts, producing stars and NFL talent while also managing to turn the whole program into championship level threats. His beautiful mullet, fired up press conferences, and the swag only Mike Gundy could have made him one of the most recognizable faces in college football.

 But these past two seasons were… a completely different story. The Cowboys have now lost 11 of their last 12 FBS games, recruiting has plummeted, and fan frustration has been at a boiling point since week 1.

The loss to Tulsa last weekend at home truly felt like the tipping point. Around Stillwater, the program no longer carries the same spark or toughness it once did under Gundy’s classic leadership.

Just last week Gundy claimed he was “100 percent committed” to staying. Instead, OSU made the decision to buyout a reported $15 million. “Coach Gundy elevated this program to national prominence,” Athletic Director Chad Weiberg said in a statement. “But we believe now is the time to chart a new course.”

The change now opens a 30 day transfer window for players and the fallout is almost guaranteed. In the meantime the university plans to name an interim coach before the national search starts which candidates are expected to range from rising coordinators, to experienced  head coaches. 

For fans and alumni, the decision is bittersweet. Gundy wasn’t just a coach, he was an alum, a former quarterback, and a Stillwater native who spent almost his entire adult life tied to OSU. From the 2011 Big 12 title run to multiple Bedlam upsets, lifted the Cowboys into a new stratosphere. At the same time, his inability to maintain that level in recent years made it harder to justify keeping him at the helm.

For Oklahoma State, this move just shows the program wants more. To reset expectations, and become a team that competes and not one that gets trampled. For Gundy, it marks the end of a twenty year legacy run that transformed the Cowboys from a regionally loved team to a national name. And yet his departure leaves an interesting and complicated legacy: The architect of the best years, who was unable to stabilize it through the worst.

Now, the Cowboys stand at a huge crossroads. The point at which this moment becomes the beginning of another golden era or the start of a painful rebuild for Oklahoma State’s future. But one thing is certain, the Gundy era is over, and a new chapter has already begun in Stillwater.

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