The Oklahoma State Cowboys pulled off a painful band-aid in disrespectful fashion on Tuesday, firing head football coach Mike Gundy just one day after having him do his typical early-week press conference.
As Yahoo Sports’ Dan Wolken relayed, university administrators throughout the country are stunned by the timing of Gundy’s firing after 20-plus seasons at the helm in Stillwater.
“On a side note, I’m getting a lot of feedback from administrative types around the country questioning why Oklahoma State didn’t do this over the weekend and allowed Gundy to do a normal game week presser yesterday,” Wolken wrote.
In a way, it was a move that didn’t allow Gundy to leave with any dignity – showing the world that Oklahoma State University has the control, not their long-time, loyal head coach who guided the team through the NIL era with a 33-23 record since the start of the 2021 season.
That’s the business, though.
On3’s Chris Low pointed out that practically no college football head coach gets to leave the sport on their own terms, sharing a long list of men who were forced out of their long-time home before most expected.
“Now that Oklahoma State and Mike Gundy have ‘parted ways,’ it's a reminder that rarely do even some of the most successful coaches go out on their terms: Bowden, Paterno, Snyder, Brown, Switzer, Fulmer, Majors, Patterson, Cooper, Miles, Fisher, Richt,” Low wrote.
Practically no college football head coaches. But not all.
As insider Ross Dellenger noted in response to Low’s point, there was one who got to bow out when he wanted to: Alabama Crimson Tide coaching legend Nick Saban, who decided to call it quits in January 2024 after leaving in response to the NIL era’s take-it-or-leave-it ultimatum.
“That's what continues to make Nick Saban's retirement so unusual - and historic,” Dellenger wrote.
Saban is still employed by the university because there’s truly no way Alabama can ever repay him for how much revenue, attention, and success he brought the team for 17 years. He changed the culture, and the current deviation from that culture under his replacement, Kalen DeBoer, has been the biggest storyline in Tuscaloosa since he left.
Saban was one of a kind in a unique way that will never be replicated.
So was Gundy in his own quirky way, but not in the transformational way Saban was.
Hence, his Tuesday afternoon firing.