Mike Gundy played quarterback for the Oklahoma State Cowboys when Barry Sanders won the Heisman Trophy in 1988. He took over as head coach in Stillwater when Les Miles left for LSU in 2005, let loose with the infamous "I'm a man, I'm 40" rant in 2007.
In 20 seasons he's led T. Boone Pickens' favorite college football team to a bowl 18 straight times, winning seasons every year but the first year until last season's disastrous 3-9 campaign, a nightmare year where the team went 3-0 in nonconference play but winless in the Big 12, losing to Colorado 52-0 in the season finale.
This year marks a total rebuild. Gundy fired both his coordinators, hiring Doug Meacham from TCU to coach the offense, former Alabama analyst and Florida defensive coordinator Todd Grantham to coach the defense, a 3-4 expert who favors a blitzing, gambling style.
Grantham's also worked in the NFL with the Saints, Cowboys, Browns, Texans and Colts, so the hope is he can ignite something on that side of the ball, where Okie State will rely cornerback Cam Smith, the team leader in career starts with 29, safety Dylan Smith and senior defensive tackle Iman Oates, 6-3, 315, a JUCO transfer who had 25 tackles last season.
Oates started all 12 games and posted two sacks, three tackles for loss.
It's a season of wholesale change in Stillwater with the two new coordinators and 40 additions from the Transfer Portal, including four-star safety Zaquan Patterson from Miami, Colorado edge rusher Taje McCoy, who had four sacks for the Buffs as freshman, and Akron linebacker Bryan McCoy, who piled up 120 tackles for the Zips in 2024.
The rebuild is daunting on offense, where OSU must find five new starters on the offense line and choose between two quarterbacks, freshman Hauss Hejny and sophomore Zane Flores, who have never thrown a pass in a college game.
Two other QBs transferred out after spring practice. Last Saturday in Fall Camp Gundy said, ""Can't put a timeline on it until I know when it will happen. I don't know that. We could very well end up playing two in the first game."
He's looking for production and leadership. "At some point, the team will start to migrate towards one guy," he said.
Star running back Ollie Gordon has moved on to the Miami Dolphins, so the team continues the struggle to find a new offensive identity.
The Cowboys open with UT Martin at home on August 30, a chance to sort things out before the daunting task of bringing an inexperienced quarterback and new offensive line to Autzen Stadium.
For a long time Gundy operated a top offense with a decade of signal-caller stability. Zac Robinson, Brandon Weedon and Mason Rudolf piloted a high-output scoring machine that hit 45 points a game in 2017. Eleven times the team finished in the Top 25, winning 10 games or more eight times. The 2012 team finished 12-1, beat Stanford in the Fiesta Bowl and wounded up No. 3 in the country.
After their first losing season in 19 years, the road back to competitiveness has a few stray cows on it, and Gundy looks tired behind the wheel.