Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy facing crossroads in 2023 season amid player exodus, staff complacency

With a 24-17 loss to an interim-coached Wisconsin in the Guaranteed Rate Bowl on Dec. 27, Oklahoma State capped off a stretch of 5 losses in six video games to shut its 2022 season — the worst marketing campaign in Stillwater, Oklahoma, since 2018. Afterwards, Cowboys coach Mike Gundy took out his frustrations at a reporter who requested him a primary query about staff adjustments heading into the offseason.

“I might have to cut you out. Don’t be an ass,” Gundy fired again. “Those are people’s lives. Don’t mess with people’s families … I’m not mad about the game, I just don’t like ignorance.” 

There has not been a single staff dismissal in the 4 weeks following Gundy’s outburst, which punctuated a disappointing 7-6 season. An offense that after ranked high 25 nationally for 5 straight seasons simply posted its second 12 months outdoors the highest 50. What had been a workforce with NFL-caliber gamers was one that did not land a single offensive player on the All-Big 12 workforce. The protection was even worse, ending among the many backside 20 packages nationally in yardage allowed. 

For many of the 2010s, Gundy has been untouchable. His program gained a minimum of 9 video games eight instances between 2008-17. In October 2021, Gundy signed a “perpetual” five-year contract that robotically renews yearly and quantities to a “lifetime deal.” Since that unimaginable run, complacency has set in. The Cowboys have gained greater than 9 video games simply as soon as since 2017. Gundy has not fired a key assistant since Glenn Spencer in 2017 and hasn’t fired an offensive assistant of any kind since offensive line coach Greg Adkins. 

Right as this system has confronted its hardest challenges, Gundy has doubled down. 

Offensive coordinator and receivers coach Kasey Dunn has acquired the vast majority of the criticism, however issues persist throughout the board. The offensive line has struggled beneath veteran assistant Charlie Dickey. No working backs primarily recruited by John Wozniak have earned All-Big 12 honors. The tight ends had fewer than 10 mixed catches beneath Jason McEndoo. 

Only Iowa State carried out worse on the bottom than Oklahoma State in yards, yards per carry and dashing touchdowns. Ultimately, no steps have been taken to rectify the staff points; each assistant was introduced again. Short of swapping former defensive coordinator Jim Knowles for Derek Mason after the previous left for Ohio State, the on-field staffs have been an identical at Oklahoma State from 2019-22, an eternity in the teaching world. 

Mason additionally represents the one voluntary staff change. He opted to not re-up his one-year contract, asserting as an alternative that he was taking teaching sabbatical one 12 months after taking a $400,000 pay minimize to depart Auburn. Gundy has since changed the previous Vanderbilt head coach with Bryan Nardo, an assistant at Division II Gannon University with none D-I play-calling expertise.

Roster exodus

Gundy is not any stranger to utilizing press conferences to ship messages; look no additional than his well-known “I’m a man, I’m 40” rant in 2007. But in contrast to that incident, this system seems to be combating again this time. 

Four-year beginning quarterback Spencer Sanders was the primary main piece to enter the portal. Then, high rusher Dominic Richardson transferred. Receivers Bryson Green, John Paul Richardson and Stephon Johnson Jr. additionally left, leaving Dunn with solely one in all his high six pass-catchers after an underwhelming marketing campaign. 

To add insult to damage, defensive finish Trace Ford crossed the Bedlam rivalry and dedicated to Oklahoma. Former four-star recruit and in-state product Braylin Presley transferred to Tulsa. Linebacker Mason Cobb joined former rival Lincoln Riley at USC. Western Michigan working again switch Sean Tyler, a two-time 1,000-yard rusher, reneged lately on a dedication and flipped to Minnesota. 

Presley, a former Gatorade Player of the Year in Oklahoma, notably expressed frustration with assistant coaches on his method to the switch portal. 

“I just feel like our backs weren’t being used correctly, if I’m being completely honest,” Presley instructed the Tulsa World. “I just didn’t feel like they were being coached right — to be the best running backs they could be.”

After touchdown 6 inches in need of a Big 12 championship in 2021, Oklahoma State is reaching deep into the switch portal simply to attempt to subject an offense. Michigan quarterback Alan Bowman had a productive profession at Texas Tech early, whereas receiver De’Zhaun Stribling led Washington State in receiving yards. They spotlight the switch class, however the remainder is a mixture of unproven and lower-level gamers, together with pass-catchers from Division II Pennsylvania Western University and Division III George Fox University — a far cry from the receivers becoming a member of rival Big 12 colleges from Alabama, Georgia and Arkansas. 

Betting on unknowns

Gundy has weathered storms earlier than and flipped it into outcomes. From 2007-17, each five-loss season was rewarded with an AP top-20 end the subsequent season with six 10-win campaigns blended in. Despite a 12-2 season and Fiesta Bowl victory in 2021, this time feels totally different. 

Five of the highest six receivers are gone, and Gundy needed to go to the switch portal to seek for a quarterback after underclassmen Garret Rangel and Gunnar Gundy struggled. Bowman wasn’t even OSU’s first switch goal, however the Pokes missed on Virginia switch Brennan Armstrong, who dedicated to NC State after contemplating the Cowboys. Upon the conclusion of the Guaranteed Rate Bowl, each starter from Oklahoma State’s good 2021 protection is gone. 

Nardo a minimum of brings some new blood into this system, however calling his rent a attain is an understatement. He is the one defensive coordinator in the Big 12 who was employed externally with out Division I play-calling expertise. Knowles and Mason, for comparability, had a mixed 14 years of D-I coordinating expertise when Gundy employed them. Maybe Nardo can flip the unit, however he’s far much less certified than hires at equally profitable packages. 

There’s apparent comparisons to former small school assistants Mike Yurcich and Sean Gleeson at Oklahoma State. However, Yurcich’s Shippensburg offense led the nation in scoring. Gleeson’s Princeton offense in 2018 broke the Ivy League report for scoring. Gannon was 53rd in scoring protection beneath Nardo’s watch and allowed — oddly sufficient — 35 factors in a loss to Shippensburg in the ultimate week of the season. 

After successful 156 video games in 18 seasons, Gundy deserves some good thing about the doubt. But for Oklahoma State followers, it should be tempting to look down I-35 and see the way in which TCU has thrived since shifting on from Gary Patterson, its biggest coach in historical past. In the primary 12 months after Patterson’s sudden resignation, TCU earned its first journey to the College Football Playoff and performed for a nationwide championship. Getting a forward-thinking thoughts in the room can change all the things. 

There was a time that Oklahoma State was a plucky upstart beneath Gundy, reaching 10 wins for the primary time because the days of Barry Sanders and forcing their method into the nationwide dialog. With 5 10-win seasons in the previous decade, although, expectations are greater. 

Oklahoma State believes it may be the highest program in the brand new Big 12 when Texas and Oklahoma depart for the SEC. Only Oklahoma has extra wins since 2012 realignment amongst Big 12 packages. The Cowboys have gained extra video games than any of the Big 12’s new additions — BYU, Cincinnati, Houston and UCF — had in the Group of Five over the identical interval.

Their chief competitors have all made energy strikes in latest years, nevertheless. The Horned Frogs dumped the winningest coach in program historical past. Baylor fired its veteran defensive coordinator after a disappointing 12 months. Texas Tech swung for the fences with coach Joey McGuire. Kansas State keyed a Big 12 title run by firing veteran coordinator Courtney Messingham and handing younger offensive assistant Collin Klein the keys. 

Gundy has confronted a number of profession crossroads and managed to wiggle again to success. He gave up play-calling and employed offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen in 2010, which rejuvenated this system. Then, Brandon Weeden and Justin Blackmon bought issues utterly again on observe the subsequent 12 months. While the 7-6 season in 2014 went off the rails, the Bedlam win, mixed with one other QB-WR tandem of Mason Rudolph and James Washington, stabilized issues. This time, there isn’t any Weeden and Blackmon, no Rudolph and Washington. 

With the convention shifting in 2023 and an expanded College Football Playoff coming in 2024, now could be the second for Oklahoma State to say its will and set up itself as a premier model in school soccer. With ink dry on a lifetime contract, although, it is unclear whether or not Gundy even feels the stress to strive.