Three Thoughts on OSU, Gundy Agreeing on a New Deal

What a strange few days.

Oklahoma State announced Saturday that the university and football coach Mike Gundy had agreed to terms on a new contract. This came after a Friday in which OSU regents met with Chad Weiberg and Kayse Shrum in executive session, and national journalist were using words like “standoff.” At different times of the day, the majority of public perception seemed to go from “Gundy is getting his contract reconstructed,” to, “Is Gundy about to get fired?” Then it went back to feeling more likely that OSU and Gundy were going to work it out.

Now that some semblance of dust has settled with OSU making the restructured deal official, here are three takeaways I had from a chaotic 36ish hours.

1. OSU Fans Should Be Thankful It Didn’t End Like That

Whether or not you were ready for OSU to move on from Gundy, all OSU fans should be thankful Gundy’s tenure didn’t end in a power struggle publicly happening over the span of a Friday.

The storybook way for this to end is with a statue and naming something after him (many have suggested the field). Clean breaks like that don’t always happen (see Mike Leach and Texas Tech), but that solace wouldn’t make such a messy firing of a school legend any less of a shame.

2. In the End, Gundy Showed He Wants to Be OSU’s Coach

The easiest outcome of the of these messy past few days would’ve been for Gundy to say, “This is getting ridiculous, I’m out.” No matter who was in the right or wrong.

Instead, Gundy ate a slice of humble pie, restructured his contract and kept his job. That’s hopefully a good sign to OSU fans that he is serious about turning this thing around. If he wasn’t, he could’ve just walked and retired to his ranch.

So hopefully these chaotic and messy pasts few days have cultivated an uber-motivated OSU coach. And hopefully any questions as to whether Gundy was going to sail away from the NIL world like Nick Saban and Mack Brown were answered with his willingness to find a way to stay atop the OSU program.

3. But Now the Work Starts

So, it appears Gundy has the desire to continue coaching the Cowboys, but now he has to go do the work.

The transfer portal opens Monday, and OSU — as of writing — doesn’t have any coordinators. The fanbase shouldn’t hire the coordinators — obviously — but making splashy, proven hires would go a long way in exciting a fanbase that has been beaten up over the past handful of months.

OSU has proven it can find value in the transfer portal in adding guys like Jaylen Warren, Tay Martin and De’Zhaun Stribling over recent seasons. Gundy and whatever staff he assembles might have to do that at a higher quantity this offseason to mesh with the Cowboys’ young returning talent.

And due to both of those things, it would probably go a long way to reinforce whatever relationships were strained throughout this process, whether that be boosters, regents, etc.

There’s a lot to do.

Gundy’s got a bounce back in him. Things weren’t very peachy back toward the end of the 2014 season. Then boom — Rudolph inserted, there goes the Cheetah and all of a sudden OSU was in the midst of one of its more successful stretches under Gundy. The answer to 2014 problems and 2024 problems might be different, but Gundy has it in him to find a way even after things seem dark. That’s the best case for Gundy and OSU, but it’s going to take some work.