Coaching Hot Board: Who Could Be the Next Head Coach at Oklahoma State?

Oklahoma State will conduct a search for its next football coach for the first time in more than two decades.

Cowboy coach Mike Gundy was fired Tuesday after the Cowboys’ 1-2 start to the 2025 season that featured a home loss to Tulsa.

Who will be the Cowboys’ next coach? It’s too early to tell, but here are six names to keep an eye on.

Zac Robinson

Could the Cowboys go from one former OSU quarterback to another?

There have been links to Zac Robinson being the Cowboys’ next coach going back to last year when Gundy was at odds with higher ups following the Cowboys’ 3-9 2024 season. NFL insider Ian Rapoport reported last December that had Gundy not agreed to a reworked contract, Robinson was the school’s top choice.

This isn’t the classic “a former player should be the coach” argument, as Robinson has legit coaching chops. He’s currently in his second season as the offensive coordinator for the Atlanta Falcons. Before that, Robinson served under Sean McVay under various roles for the Los Angeles Rams — carrying titles of passing game coordinator and quarterbacks coach in his final two seasons with the organization.

Playing at OSU from 2006 to 2009, Robinson ranks fifth on OSU’s all-time passing yards list with 8,317 yards. His 66 passing touchdowns rank fourth in program history. A dual-threat, Robinson’s 1,858 rushing yards rank third all-time among OSU quarterbacks.

Collin Klein

Former Kansas State quarterback Collin Klein’s name has popped up a few times surrounding the speculation of Gundy’s job status.

Klein is currently the offensive coordinator at Texas A&M. He’s in his second season with the Aggies after holding the same title at Kansas State, his alma mater.

Following a heralded career with the Wildcats, Klein got his coaching career started as a GA at Kansas State in 2014 and 2015. He was then Northern Iowa’s quarterback coach in 2016 before returning to Manhattan as the Wildcats’ quarterback coach before working his way up to offensive coordinator.

Texas A&M’s offense ranks 20th nationally with 480.3 yards per game, which includes a 488-yard performance against Notre Dame. The Aggies have scored 42.3 points per game, which also ranks 20th nationally.

His final K-State offense in 2023 averaged 445.2 yards per game.

Alex Golesh

It’s hard to find a much hotter Group of Five name than USF head coach Alex Golesh, and he has an Oklahoma State tie.

Golesh was a GA under Gundy back in 2008. His coaching career has also included stops at Ohio State, Iowa State, UCF, Tennessee and others.

Golesh is in his third year as USF’s head coach — his first head coaching job. In that time, he’s accumulated a 17-13 record across 30 games.

Although South Florida has been relevant nationally before, it was anything but when he took over. In the three years before his arrival USF was a combined 4-29. Despite that, his Bulls nearly took down then-No. 10 Alabama in his first season. The Crimson Tide won 17-3 after scoring two second-half touchdowns including one in the game’s final minute.

Golesh’s 2025 Bulls proved they can win games on the big stage and are 3-1 this year with victories against then-No. 25 Boise State and a road win against then-No. 13 Florida.

He also knows a thing or two about success at the Power Conference level after serving as the offensive coordinator for Tennessee during 2021 and 2022.

In 2021 Tennessee’s offense ranked seventh in points per game (39.3) and 17th in yards per play (6.49).

In 2022 that offense ranked first in points per game (46.1) and second in yards per play (7.23).

Jim Knowles

Oklahoma State’s recent struggles on defense make what Knowles accomplished in Stillwater as the defensive coordinator from 2018-21 so glaring.

The Cowboys finished top 15 in sacks during three of his four seasons. They were first in 2021 with 57, 10th in 2018 with 39 and 15th in 2020 with 31.

In the three years since OSU averaged 26 sacks per season.

Under Knowles the Cowboys also finished first in third-down defense in 2020 and fourth in the same category in his last season. He held opponents to 26.5% and 28.8% conversion rates those seasons. In the last two seasons, OSU opponents have moved the chains 45.9% and 41.8% 0f the time.

Knowles’ 2021 group also finished fifth in total defense (297.9 yards per game) and ninth in points allowed (18.1 per game)

And of course there’s no sign he’s lost a step. The current Penn State defensive coordinator helped Ohio State win a national title in 2024. The group led the nation in scoring defense, total defense, yards allowed per play and opponents touchdowns scored in the red zone.

According to his bio on Penn State’s site, “Over the last four seasons (Ohio State and Oklahoma State), defenses coordinated by Knowles rank first nationally in total defense (284.8), second in scoring defense (15.7) and third down efficiency (30.5%).”

GJ Kinne

He doesn’t have a connection to Oklahoma State, but he has put Texas State on the map, which is no easy task. Now in his third season, his record there is 19-11. He is also 1-2 against the Big 12 with a win over a struggling Baylor team in 2023 and a near-upset of last year’s Big 12 champions in a 31-28 loss to Arizona State.

The Bobcats were 10-26 in the three years prior to his arrival. He previously served as a head coach of Incarnate Word which reached the FCS semifinals in his lone season there in 2022.

He also worked as an offensive coordinator at Hawaii (2020) and co-offensive coordinator at UCF (2021).

Jeff Traylor

His current stint at UTSA is his only head coaching experience, excluding his high school days. Traylor is in the midst of his sixth season and has an overall record of 48-22 highlighted by 12-2 and 11-3 seasons in 2021 and 2022 which also served as his second and third seasons, respectively.

Traylor has never served as an offensive or defensive coordinator, but has worked as an associate head coach for Texas, SMU and Arkansas.

More on Gundy

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Coaching names to know as OSU starts its search
Five takeaways from Chad Weiberg’s news conference
What Weiberg is looking for in OSU’s next coach
OSU president Jim Hess pens letter to Cowboy family
Former players show support following Gundy’s firing