Could Doug Meacham Have Been a Real Candidate for OSU's Coaching Job?

The Cowboys are looking for their next coach, but there was a chance they could have had the answer already.

Oklahoma State’s season has been a disaster in just about every way imaginable. From being winless against FBS teams to firing legendary coach Mike Gundy midway through the year, 2025 has been a dark year inside Boone Pickens Stadium.

Although not much has gone right in 2025, there is at least some hope for what the future might hold. While there are plenty of reasons for that, the biggest might be that the Cowboys gave themselves a head start on their head coaching search.

Over the past couple of months, Chad Weiberg have had the opportunity to research and narrow down their ideal candidates during the season. Throughout that period, some names such as Zac Robinson have remained near the top of the list and others have come and gone, but there was always a slim chance that there wouldn’t be a need for a coaching search.

After Gundy was fired, Doug Meacham stepped into the role of interim head coach, marking the first time in his coaching career he had been a head coach. While the possibility of him ever keeping the job and getting that interim tag removed was slim, he checked some of the boxes that OSU’s ideal candidate would have.

Although Meacham was only in his first year as offensive coordinator, he had already been a longtime coach in Stillwater across the early years of the Gundy era. Add in that Meacham is also an alum who played in Stillwater and had coached some of the best offenses in the nation in his other stops, and there were some clear reasons why OSU might be interested.

Obviously, things didn’t land in Meacham’s favor beyond that short list. Aside from the Cowboys’ continued disappointment on the field, Meacham’s lack of head coaching experience and his struggles to manage games in that spot would make it a hard sell to retain him as an offensive coordinator, much less remove the interim tag and name him the head of the program.

Despite all of his shortcomings in the difficult position he was thrust into, it will be impossible for Meacham to be viewed negatively in Stillwater after this season. The Cowboys consistently competed in a year they’ve seen almost nothing but losses, and keeping the program together after the departure of such an influential figure like Gundy shouldn’t be forgotten any time soon.