Oklahoma State Must be Patient After Hiring New Coach
Oklahoma State has been the worst team in the Big 12 over the past two seasons, and a new coach might not fix things quickly.
Since the start of 2024, OSU has only two wins against FBS teams in 15 tries. Losing its past 13 of those matchups, OSU has clearly established itself as not only the worst team in the Big 12, but also one of the worst teams in the entire FBS.
While Doug Meacham has tried his best as interim coach to rally the troops and get the team back on track, there have simply been too many factors going in the wrong direction. Being in a seemingly impossible situation, Meacham has done fine as an interim coach, but the Cowboys are searching for the guy who will fix things.
Considering where the program is right now, there simply might not be anyone who could come into Stillwater and right the ship in the near future. Of course, Chad Weiberg explained that there won’t be any expectation for the new hire to come in and turn things around immediately.
OSU understands what next season could look like, but there should also be an understanding that things won’t necessarily look great at any point in the next few years.
OSU has spent the past two years sitting at the bottom of the Big 12, and it doesn’t seem like that status will be changing quickly. With the 2026 recruiting class vanishing since Mike Gundy’s firing, and there being almost no certainty about how the coaching staff will look next season, any extra time spent on this coaching search will only put the new hire in a more difficult position.
Going from a three-win campaign in 2024 to a potential one-win campaign in 2025, OSU has clearly been trending in the wrong direction, and getting going in the right direction will simply take time. Regardless of who OSU picks to be the next head coach, there will be some clear pressure to make it back to a bowl game in year one, especially considering OSU’s NIL situation and the expectations that were set in the Gundy era.
While that could certainly be a possibility with how teams are built today, it shouldn’t be the expectation, and it shouldn’t be considered a disappointment if OSU ends up with another losing season in 2026.. Things won’t magically be fixed in Stillwater, but the right hire could get the Pokes going in the right direction, as long as they have the time to make it happen.
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Ivan is a sports media student at Oklahoma State University. He has covered OSU athletics since 2022 and also covers the OKC Thunder for Inside The Thunder and Thunderous Intentions.