The world of college athletics moves fast. Following Oklahoma State’s Week 4 loss to Tulsa in the 2025 season, the university fired longtime head coach Mike Gundy, who had held the position since 2005. With Gundy gone, Oklahoma State’s athletic director has already begun the search for his replacement and has put his plan into action.
Oklahoma State AD Is Moving Quickly to Find Mike Gundy’s Replacement
A college football program can’t function without a head coach. Oklahoma State had the same man in that role for over twenty years, but with Gundy fired, the university quickly started searching for his replacement.
Doug Meacham, who took over as the Cowboys’ offensive coordinator ahead of the 2025 season, is currently serving as interim head coach. However, unless he produces exceptional results the rest of the year, the program is looking for a long-term hire.
Oklahoma State athletic director Chad Weiberg is close to signing a four-year contract extension and is leading the coaching search. According to On3’s Pete Nakos, Weiberg has enlisted TurnkeyZRG, a search firm, to help find Gundy’s successor, and there’s a real chance that boosters could also play a role in the process.
“Weiberg has brought on TurnkeyZRG to help facilitate the search to replace Gundy, as NFL Network first reported,” Nakos wrote. “Sources have told On3 that the athletic director’s contract has yet to be finalized; he is reportedly set to sign a four-year contract. What role boosters will have in making the hire remains to be determined, too.”
Nakos noted that Weiberg and Oklahoma State appear ready to fully move past the Gundy era, as they’ve already fired defensive coordinator Todd Grantham and suspended Richetti Jones, the team’s Director of Player Development, indefinitely.
While the timing of Gundy’s firing has drawn heavy criticism, since the legendary coach was not allowed to finish out the season, it’s easy to see why the school is eager to move on.
After going 3-9 in 2024, Gundy led the Cowboys to a 1-2 start in 2025, including an embarrassing blowout loss to Oregon and a home loss against Tulsa, a Group of Six school.
Oklahoma State has struggled in every facet of the game this season. Offensively, they rank 116th in the country according to PFSN’s CFB OFFi metric, and defensively, they sit 104th nationally in PFSN’s CFB DEFi metric.
While Weiberg and the program are eager to move on from Gundy, Nakos highlighted that Oklahoma State will still do its due diligence in the search and that its success in hiring will largely depend on the strength of the coaching pool after the season.
“Hiring a new coach sooner rather than later is a priority, but how fast the Cowboys can move depends more on how deep the candidate pool plays into the postseason,” Nakos wrote.
It’s going to be strange not seeing Gundy on the sideline in Stillwater, but college football is now a business. As Nakos notes, with more conference realignment on the horizon, Weiberg and the Cowboys are looking to hire a coach who can lead the program into the future while leaving Gundy in the past.
