Mike Gundy discloses main reason behind most "difficult" moment in his coaching career

Mike Gundy has spent most of the last 35 years with the Oklahoma State Cowboys. Since 2005, he's been the coach of the team. During the 20 years that he has been in charge, he has seen numerous high points. But the 2024 season was not one of these.

Oklahoma State went from making the Big 12 Championship Game to going 3-9 and not winning a single conference game in Gundy's worst season with the program. The adversity forced him to make some difficult decisions in the offseason.

Gundy spoke about how he felt making these decisions on Wednesday.

"You guys know from being around me, the very most difficult thing — this was the most difficult December in my career, because I don’t like letting people go," Gundy said.

"I don’t like affecting people’s families and kids and lifestyles. I just don’t like that. ... But in my situation, tough decisions have to be made. The continuity of college football players being in a location for the duration is a factor, and then I think allowing them to bring coaches in that understood their system will help with that continuity."

Oklahoma State fired both its offensive coordinator (Kasey Dunn) and its defensive coordinator (Bryan Nardo ) after the poor season. This happened alongside all of the team's primary coaches leaving the program as well.

Who are Mike Gundy's new coordinators at Oklahoma State?

The Oklahoma State Cowboys have announced their new coordinators to help Mike Gundy.

Their new offensive coordinator is Doug Meacham.

Like Gundy, Meacham also played at Oklahoma State, where he was part of the offensive line in the 1980s. After graduation, Meacham went into coaching and worked at numerous schools. His most recent one was the TCU Horned Frogs, where he served as their OC for one season (2021), but was mostly a wide receiver coach during his five years in Waco.

On the defensive side of the ball, Todd Grantham has taken over. He has made the move from the NFL, where he was working as the defensive line coach for the New Orleans Saints to be the new DC for the Cowboys. As with Meacham, Grantham has worked with many programs in both college and the NFL and is likely to use this experience to help the struggling program.