Mike Gundy, OSU Football Are Changing with the Times

STILLWATER — Stability and development have been two characteristics at the core of Mike Gundy’s success throughout his first 20 years as Oklahoma State’s head coach, but entering Season 21, he has had to make a hard pivot.

Already this offseason, Gundy has had to put together almost an entirely new coaching staff, with specialists coach Sean Snyder being the only position coach to maintain his spot from last season. Then that staff has had to put together a revamped roster by bringing in more than 40 new players when you tally transfers and high school signees. The fact that both of those things happened, though, is sign that OSU and Gundy are willing to try to evolve with the times.

“Over 19, 20 years here, we’ve developed into a big-time college football organization based on continuity and development and Rob Glass and his plan and bringing young men in and expecting them to play in year three, four and five,” said Gundy last week. “And to a certain extent, we could still have some of that. But it’s not going to be as much. We’re not so naive to think that that’s going to have to be that way moving forward. So we have to deal with the hand that we’re all being dealt in college football and that essentially free agency can happen at any time. …

“We have 32 new players that are here currently, and we need to get them prepared that when we start spring football, they can go out and play and they can practice and give us an idea of what we have on both sides of the ball compared to in the past. That might be an 18-month process. Now it’s going to happen much quicker.”

Situations like Malcolm Rodriguez’s development from two-star prospect to a contributing safety to All-American linebacker will probably be even more rare in this new era. As Gundy noted, some of that could still happen, and OSU would be all the better for hitting on Rodriguez-style prospects. Take Rodney Fields Jr., for example. OSU was Fields’ only reported offer, and now he’s set to enter his redshirt freshman season well in the hunt to be the Pokes’ RB1. So, there’s certainly a space for Gundy and Co. to hit on underrecruited gems and develop them into contributors, but given the sports evolving landscape, those situations will likely just have to supplement the work OSU does in the portal.

There have also been recent shifts in how Gundy handles his staff. Obviously, this offseason is unique with all the turnover, but that level of turnover could actually make things smoother. When OSU hired Bryan Nardo ahead of the 2023 season, none of the position coaches changed. That left Nardo, in his first season as a Division-I coordinator, to have to come in and get on the same page with the long-tenured assistants rather than having a staff that is more familiar with what he is trying to do.

Gundy said he let new defensive coordinator Todd Grantham and new offensive coordinator Doug Meacham have a lot of input in filling out the rest of the staff, and that’s evident — especially on the defensive side. The first position coach to be reported was defensive line coach Ryan Osborn, who worked with Grantham at Mississippi State and Florida. Corners coach Jules Montinar worked under Grantham at Florida. Linebackers coach Kap Dede worked under Grantham at Louisville, Mississippi State and Florida. With all the turnover, that should allow the early parts of installation to work more smoothly.

“The coordinators wanted to hire people that understood their system and were comfortable with their language,” Gundy said. “… It was more of that than it was me saying I don’t want these guys. And that’s fairly common now. So I felt the best move for us was to allow these guys to do their job. And they felt more comfortable in that area. So we have new systems on both sides of the ball, and they speak that language. They understand the terminology, and it should reduce the amount of time it takes for the staff to get on the same page because I think the quicker they get on the same page, they’ll be able to get the information to the players.

“This was the most difficult December in my career because I don’t like letting people go. I don’t like affecting people’s families and kids and lifestyles. I just don’t like that. But in my situation, tough decisions have to be made. The continuity of college football players being in a location for the duration is a factor, and then I think allowing them to bring coaches in that understood their system will help with that continuity.”

The last sign-of-the-times situation we’ll discuss here is the front office — for lack of a better term. This is the area that nationwide has been everchanging for the past few years. OSU has alum Kenyatta Wright as the Cowboys’ director of football business, essentially acting as a general manager. Gundy said Wright’s job is “a hundred times more difficult than we thought it was six months ago.” General managers are a new concept in college football, and the job has gone from navigating a Wild West NIL space to all of a sudden trying to prepare for a salary cap (via the revenue sharing) and a roster limit. The job description seemingly changes by the month, but OSU has a system in place for it.

“We have a business department that we’ve talked about that we bought Kenyatta in, and he works with the directors that we have upstairs,” Gundy said. “He works with (director of football recruiting) Todd (Bradford), he works with (director of football operations) Rod (Johnson), he works with (director of football administration) Danielle (Clary), he works with (strength and conditioning coach) Rob Glass, and that’s really the board and the decisions that we have to make moving forward.”

So no matter the drama-filled few weeks that led to this point, OSU this offseason has shown an ability to move with the times. It feels as if the Cowboys are taking the portal as serious as they ever have. The staff is reimagined from top to bottom. The business side of things changes seemingly every day, but OSU has a group in place to work through those changes.