The last three days have brought about a lot of talk about the legacy and career of Oklahoma State Head Coach Mike Gundy. Following the loss on Saturday against TCU, many questions have been raised about whether Gundy should remain the head coach at his alma mater and the school he has been at the helm of for 15 years.
No matter what your opinions on the matter are at the current time, there is no arguing that Gundy is the greatest coach in Cowboy football history.
There is a graphic going around social media currently that details exactly how much of a difference Gundy has made in the past 15 years compared to the 15 years before Gundy took over. For context, the Cowboys between 1991-2005 had a record of 72-97-3. Outside of the first season Gundy was in control which the team went 4-7, his record has been 131-60, making him the winningest coach in school history, 73 wins ahead of second place Pat Jones.
Pokes Report
I am just going to go through the list of the statistics. This is not based on opinions of Pokes Report or anyone who works for Pokes Report, this is simply reporting numbers to envoke discussion and thought.
One of the first stats on the list is one of the most impressive. Gundy has 15 winning seasons, which includes the 2020 season. Oklahoma State was one of only 10 teams to post a winning season every year from 2010-19, joining Alabama, Boise State, LSU, Oklahoma, Penn State, San Diego State, Texas A&M, Washington and Wisconsin. The Cowboys have averaged 9.3 wins per year since 2010, a mark that ranks 12th in the FBS during that span.
With the Cowboys being eligible for a bowl game in 2020, Gundy resets his own record of OSU’s streak of 15 straight bowl games.
Gundy’s success has not only come on the field but in the classroom as well. In the 15 years prior to Gundy’s rule, there were 214 graduates in the program. Since then, there has been 354, a total of 140 more in the same amount of time. The culture he has built is equally about football as it is about life and education.
257 Academic All-Conference players and 8 Academic All-Americans is also something extremely rare to find under a coach.
Surprisingly, Oklahoma State did not have a single 10,11, or 12 win season in the decade and a half prior to Gundy taking over. Under Gundy, there has been six 10 win seasons, two 11 win seasons, and one 12 win season. Along with this comes 140 weeks in the AP Top 25, compared to the 29 weeks between ‘91-‘05. He has also been in the AP Top 10 for 38 weeks compared to 0 weeks.
The rest of the graphic is about the success on the offensive side of the ball thoughout Gundy’s career. Obviously the last two seasons have not been on the same level for multiple reasons. Oklahoma State’s best offenses have always seemed to thrive with pocket passing quarterbacks, which obviously Spencer Sanders is not.
I completely understand people’s worries or concerns with Gundy’s coaching style or his motives behind some decisions. No one likes to watch a team or program lose games, especially one like TCU, in a season where there was so much promise. Gundy is 15-15 in his last 30 conference games, so there is certainly a warranted disussion about why the past three seasons have been so flat in relation the rest of his career.
There has been many questions if Gundy is able to get back to the level he was at or if he had reached his ceiling. I am not sure if there is a definite way to answer that question other than to see what his response is to this season and moving forward.
