Gundy Says His Commitment to OSU ‘Stronger Every Year’

STILLWATER — Mike Gundy said the past seven weeks have probably been the busiest of his life.

Following Oklahoma State’s season-ending loss against Colorado, Gundy has gone through a signing day, has had to fire almost an entire staff, hire almost an entire staff, bring in about 30 transfers and that’s not even to mention a dramatic 48 hours or so where it was reported Gundy and OSU were in a “standoff” about his future as the Cowboys head coach.

Gundy on Thursday spoke with the media for the first time since OSU’s loss in Boulder. Gundy said he thinks so of the drama from the past few months was “blown out of proportion,” adding that he, OSU president Kayse Shrum and athletic director Chad Weiberg had productive conversations about NIL, revenue sharing and where college athletics is headed. Some have questioned whether Gundy was willing to change with the times, but he said Thursday his commitment to OSU football is only growing.

“My energy level, my commitment to Oklahoma State, Oklahoma State football is stronger every year,” Gundy said. “I think at some point, I always feel like I’ll get to where I tire some, and it kind of wears on me. But I’ve said this a number of times: I still wake up in the middle of the night and football is on my mind. Unfortunately at my age when I have to get up and go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, walking toward the bathroom and walking back from the bathroom, football is on my mind. I wish it wasn’t, but it is. When I shower in the morning, football is on my mind.”

OSU’s 2024 season interrupted a streak that saw the Cowboys make 18 straight bowl games under Gundy. But when things came crashing down, they seemed to crash hard. Led by returning All-American running back Ollie Gordon, OSU was expected to compete for a Big 12 title and a spot in the College Football Playoff in 2024. Instead, OSU went 0-9 in conference play with only three of those conference losses being by single digits.

There’s probably never a good time to have a bad season, but the timing of this one felt extra concerning considering all the changes college athletics has gone through. Weiberg took to the podium after Gundy and his new coordinators spoke and said he’s not sure he’s seem a more transformational time in college athletics with revenue sharing on the way and the arms race for funding being on. Weiberg compared it to World War II ending and troops coming back stateside. Weiberg said when that happened, certain programs took advantage of it and others spent years trying to catch up. Much of what Weiberg was trying to get across Thursday had to do with OSU fans’ support being so crucial in this transformative time. Weiberg last week penned a letter that went out to OSU alums discussing the importance of being a POSSE member and continuing to buy football tickets.

“I think the main thing again is we know that this last season didn’t go like we wanted it to,” Weiberg said. “We have to look at the bigger picture. Look at the last almost two decades we’ve had and how far we’ve come in those two decades. Talk about having to play catchup, thanks to a lot of people — Mr. Pickens, Coach Gundy, all of our donors, our fans, our suiteholders, everyone — being aligned and coming together we’ve made up a lot of ground in the past couple of decades. We don’t want to give that up now because of one down year. That’s just not what we do. I think that’s the main thing.”

On Dec. 2, OSU announced that it and Gundy had agreed upon a restructured contract. Official numbers still haven’t been released, but there are a few ways to look at the restructure. One is that it wrestled some power away from Gundy, who previously had a rollover deal with a hefty buyout. Another is that the freed up funds will help OSU as revenue sharing with student-athletes starts to be implemented.

“Dr. Shrum and Chad and I had really positive conversations on revenue sharing and NIL, that it’s a challenge for everybody in college football, in my opinion,” Gundy said. “The large, large majority of those conversations were, what do we need to do moving forward? I think it’d be fair in saying this, football has to be successful. So it’s a very important discussion that took place. It also gave me a chance to give back to NIL because I’m not the smartest person in the world, but I know how important NIL is right now. Whether we like it or not, we need NIL funds. We need fans. We need to sell tickets. We need the stadium to be full. All those things are very important.”