‘Don’t Take It for Granted’: Greg Richmond Believed Coaching Would Reunite Family, but Never Dreamed of Return to OSU

STILLWATER — In 2024, defensive line coach Greg Richmond and his wife, Jennifer, made the decision that the family would continue to call Stillwater home while Greg pursued coaching opportunities in Texas.

Hard doesn’t begin to describe the next two years, as the family often settled for time together a handful of times a month at best.

“It was a lot of nights I called my wife at two or three o’clock in the morning,” Richmond said. “I know she hated it when that phone started ringing (so late), but I needed it. I needed to talk to her. … I had to be tough.”

Then one day Richmond called not because he needed her, but because the unthinkable was happening. His boss, Eric Morris, was heading to Stillwater, and there was a good chance he’d be offered the chance to follow him back home to family.

“First person I called was my wife,” Richmond said. “To know that it could be a possibility (was great), and then when it became real, it became something we (saw) that was really gonna happen. Just a lot of emotion.”

Richmond’s return to Stillwater 22 months after leaving has nothing to do with his knowledge of the program, though that is surely an added plus. He happened to land a job working for Skyler Cassity, now OSU’s defensive coordinator, in 2024 at Sam Houston.

Then in 2025, Morris happened to hire Cassity to overhaul his North Texas defense, making room for the incoming DC to bring some of his guys with him, including Richmond.

Then Morris just so happened to emerge as the guy for Oklahoma State. Put that way, Richmond’s journey home doesn’t just seem unlikely. It seems nearly impossible.

“The good Lord,” Richmond said, voicing his own incredulity at the circumstances. “It was a learning lesson for me. I learned a lot of things here, and I don’t take nothing (for granted). When I got on the road, I always told my wife, ‘coaching would get us back together.’ And I didn’t know back together would be back here at my alma mater. I’m thankful for it.”

Richmond called the decision to put his family first, even when it meant being apart, “one of the toughest decisions I’ve ever had to make.”

It couldn’t be a long-term thing, but Richmond said he knew he made the right call because “I kept getting up and going to the facilities. I never got discouraged on the job and stuff like that, but at the same time, it was tough. It was tough. I was able to make it. A lot of praying. And also, having a good woman in my corner.”

His relief at being back seems magnified after a recent conversation between his 8-year-old son Jaylen and a teacher.

“When his teacher had him describe his ‘25 season and his ‘24 season (when I was gone), he used one word,” Richmond said. “He said, ‘Bad.’ And she asked him the same question, a new teacher, in terms of how he would describe his ‘26 year, and he (said), ‘Good.’”

This will be Richmond’s fourth time joining the Cowboys. He played for OSU from 2000-03, then returned following his NFL career, to serve as the assistant director of strength and conditioning from 2007-08.

He then coached the Cowboys’ defensive line from 2018-2022. On Wednesday, a reporter asked Richmond if he set up shop back in his old office.

“It’s funny you say that, I actually walked in there,” Richmond said, laughing. “I said ‘Ahh, we going to do something different this is a new time around.’ I picked the (new) office, called the wife and I wanted to ask her if she was with me, if we were on the same wavelength. We just so happened to be on the same wavelength.”

The office might be different, but Richmond’s love for Stillwater and Oklahoma State remains the same.

“I’m excited for this opportunity,” Richmond said. “I don’t take it for granted. … This place means the world to me. I met my wife here, I had two of my three boys here. I became a man here.”