Oklahoma State AD Chad Weiberg denies Mike Gundy comments on fans, boosters led to firing

The Oklahoma State Cowboys made a seismic change within the football program on Tuesday, firing longtime head coach Mike Gundy. That was a decision that came after a frustrating decline of on-field success over the past couple of seasons, all while Gundy publicly seemed to remain defiant.

That public defiance goes back to last November, amid Oklahoma State going winless in Big 12 play. In particular, there was one rant that rubbed many folks the wrong way. There, Gundy appeared to be critical of fans, saying, “In most cases, the people that are negative and voicing their opinion are the same ones that can’t pay their own bills… But then, in the end, when they go to bed at night, they’re the same failure that they were before they said anything negative about anybody else.”

Unsurprisingly, those comments drew plenty of public ire. That included pushback from both fans and boosters. Despite that, Oklahoma State athletic director Chad Weiberg denied that those comments, in particular, led to Gundy’s firing.

“This isn’t about one moment,” Chad Weiberg said. “If we were stacking up moments, right, there’s a whole lot of moments that are in the good category. This is about the bigger picture. Absolutely, our donors and our fans are critically important. That’s true all the time, and it’s more important now than it ever has been, but this is not about one moment.” 

Shortly after the disaster that was the 2024 season, Mike Gundy and Oklahoma State had a contractual standoff. That would, eventually, see Gundy take a $1 million pay cut, with the expectation that the money would go toward the program’s NIL. There would also be a nearly complete staff turnover, with the hopes that the Cowboys would start strong in 2025. They didn’t, and including a 66-point loss to Oregon and a home loss to Tulsa, Oklahoma State is 1-2. They’ve only beaten FCS UT Martin.

The timing of the move was a little surprising. Most in-season firings occur on the Sunday following a loss. In this case, the news came down on Tuesday, which shortens what will be a chaotic week for the team. However, as Weiberg would explain, the timing of this kind of move is never easy and, because of the Tulsa loss, was a little unexpected.

“I think that speaks a little bit to the timing of how we got here. This is not something I thought we would be doing today on this Tuesday. I fully expected to beat the University of Tulsa. I expected the results of this season to be different than they’ve been so far. Again, that goes back to the expectation level that Coach Gundy has set for this program. We have higher expectations than that. So, when it doesn’t appear that that was not going to be met, it felt like for the good of the program, it was time to make this decision,” Weiberg said. “So that we could start the process of getting the program where we want it to be.”

Mike Gundy played quarterback for Oklahoma State from 1986 to 1989. He would then have two stints as an assistant coach of the program before taking over as head coach in 2005. During that time, he had a 170-90 record with 10 AP Top 25 finishes. However, in the last two seasons, the Cowboys went just 4-11.

“And that’s, you know, that’s hard. I think the first decision is ‘What is the decision?’ And the next decision is, ‘What is the timing of it?’ And that in a lot of ways can be a harder decision,” Weiberg said. “Because I’ve not yet seen when is a good time or perfect time to do something like this. There’s no such thing. This is a hard thing to do, and there’s consequences of however you do it, but I felt like in this case we needed to do it now so we could position the program to move forward in the future.”

Oklahoma State will be at home next Saturday, set to host Baylor in Big 12 play. Offensive coordinator Doug Meacham was promoted to interim Cowboys coach.