Gundy Now Third-Longest Tenured CFB Coach at Same School

With the news that Bob Stoops is stepping down from OU this week, Mike Gundy has inched closer to being the longest-tenured college football head coach with the same team in the entire sport.

He’s now tied for third on this list.

Here are all the coaches who were hired in the year 2007 or earlier. Frank Solich was hired to Ohio in December 2004 but his first season was not until 2005. Same for Kyle Whittingham and Utah. Gundy was hired just after New Year’s 2005.

It’s insane to me that Gundy, once thought to be a bit of a loose cannon in the sport (see: The Rant), has settled into being one of the most reliable, consistent forces in the coaching world. He has even talked about how he had to learn to not micromanage and become more of a CEO over the last decade plus.

Even more impressive for both him and Gary Patterson is that despite the success they’ve had at not-Tier 1 schools, they’ve never left.

The Stoops news is stunning, but I think it’s probably a preview of how Gundy is going to eventually exit Stillwater. It won’t be next year or the year after that, but after 15 or more seasons at the same place, you’re ready to do something different.

For Stoops that is apparently buy up real estate in Chicago. For Gundy it will probably be as an Animal Planet host or sidekick to Guy Fieri in “Snake Eats 2” or something like that.