Was Firing Mike Gundy Midseason a Mistake for Oklahoma State?
Oklahoma State hasn’t gotten any better since firing its coach, and there’s a case that was the wrong move.
After falling to Tulsa for the first time this century and the first time at home in over seven decades, OSU opted to fire Mike Gundy. Just three games into his 21st year at the helm, Gundy’s team had achieved only a 1-2 record, with a couple of embarrassing performances.
After it seemed like Gundy might have been fired after the 2024 season, the Cowboys opted to enter this year with him as their leader. However, Chad Weiberg and OSU ultimately decided that might have been the wrong decision, sending Gundy packing just a few weeks into 2025.
In the two games since sending Gundy out the door, the Cowboys have lost to Baylor and Arizona. With another potentially winless Big 12 slate on the horizon, it’s hard not to wonder if OSU made the wrong decision.
Perhaps the decision to fire Gundy was correct, but the timing was wrong. Perhaps every bit of the move was shortsighted. It’s hard to say exactly what the move will be viewed as in the coming years, but it certainly didn’t do anything to help the short-term future of the Pokes.
Since Gundy was fired, OSU interim coach Doug Meacham has tried his best to rally the troops, but he’s been in an obviously difficult situation. Add in the growing list of departures in the wake of Gundy’s firing, and OSU simply punted this season away after three weeks.
Had Gundy stuck around, it’s hard to necessarily say that the program would be in a better spot, but it’s hard to imagine things would be worse with him around, most notably because that would mean the transfer portal wasn’t open. While the Cowboys’ departures might have redshirted anyway, it’s easy to see how that decision got much simpler when Gundy was let go.
This move will be defined by what OSU does in the coming years and not the rest of this season. However, not allowing Gundy to finish out this season could come back to haunt the Cowboys.
Abandoning the stability of the Gundy era a few days before the Big 12 opener wasn’t a great move, but OSU is simply hoping that won’t turn into a program-defining move. Only time will tell how Gundy’s firing ages, but things don’t look great as the Pokes look to avoid another Big 12 loss this weekend.
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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.