Bad Take Tuesday: Texas should hire Mike Gundy as an analyst tomorrow

On Tuesday, September 23, 2025, Oklahoma State elected to fire head coach Mike Gundy. It ended a 21-year tenure as head coach of the Cowboys and put someone who coached and played for Oklahoma State for a combined 35 years into the unemployment line.

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On Wednesday, September 24, 2025, Bad Take Tuesday argues that Texas should hire Gundy as an analyst.

Calling someone a “college football character” has a variety of connotations, but Gundy was no doubt a college football character. Above all, he was wildly successful head coach at a program that had only three 10-win seasons before he took over. Gundy accumulated eight during his time in Stillwater and brought in the program’s only Big 12 Championship in 2011.

After succeeding Les Miles in 2005, Gundy made OSU into a program that consistently developed players within a scrappy identity. Sure, a five-star showed up here and there, and they usually caught passes. But Gundy’s calling card was taking players not wanted by conference and regional rivals — schools like Oklahoma, Texas, and Texas A&M — before using those players to beat those schools.

Gundy got a taste of his own medicine on Friday versus Tulsa. And though it took a couple of days, OSU made the decision it needed to before things got worse.

Gundy is a great football coach. But he’s not a great head coach for this era of football. Players can get paid. Players can leave on a whim. Oklahoma State has great facilities and one of the best strength coaches in the nation. But after the passing of Boone Pickens in 2019, a person who could have been the NIL whale that helped Gundy adapt to the 2020s, Gundy saw other programs catch up and even surpass OSU not only on the margins but in the well-known parts of the game were failure is not an option.

There were glimpses of hope, like in 2021 and 2023. Texas extinguished those hopes in Arlington in 2023 during a Big 12 Championship game demolition. It’s fitting that the Undertaker was there to watch Texas win and ultimately do its part to bury Gundy’s OSU.

And it would be only fitting for Steve Sarkisian to offer Gundy a place in his program as soon as his termination paperwork is executed.

The Longhorns coaching staff features a couple of former head coaches with Kyle Flood and Neal Brown. It also features one of Gundy’s former chief lieutenants in Jason McEndoo. The more head coach eyes, the better for the 2025 Longhorns considering how much development this Texas team has ahead of it compared to squads of years past.

Brown is a special assistant to the head coach for offense. Gundy can claim a similar title to Chris Gilbert, who is special assistant to the head coach for football. He can turn on the tape and scout, something anyone in football seems to find therapeutic, while still maintaining the order and routine that has defined his life for decades. All while being arm’s length away from dealing with players he may not know at all.

There will be an adjustment since Gundy won’t be calling the shots, but it may help the 58-year old gain some perspective if he wants to get back into the head coaching business again. Plus, OSU is providing Gundy with a nice buyout that an analyst’s salary won’t do much to offset (if it even has to). While there are connections, family connections included, for Gundy both in Stillwater and even nearby Oklahoma City, it’s possible a nice spell in Austin will do him some good.

It might do the Longhorns some good as well.

As mentioned, Gundy often took the prospects Texas and other regional rivals overlooked. He and his staff made them better, then found great heights with those players. What if he didn’t have to think about talent disparity? To be fair, some of those Oklahoma State teams were probably more talented than Texas squads of the 2010s. But that was last decade. Still, Gundy can look for what the talented team must exploit in order to beat the other talented team. Who is better at that than Gundy? Maybe Gary Patterson? And guess what job he took after he was fired by TCU.

Gundy can provide the eyes of a head coach for a play-callier like Sarkisian. If he can even provide one tip, whether during the week or on Saturday, that helps Texas win a game, he’d be worth whatever the Longhorns pay him.

Gundy has to say yes to the process, but there don’t appear to be many roadblocks for him whether emotional or otherwise. Texas and OSU aren’t in the same league anymore. They aren’t going to match up in the College Football Playoff this year. They won’t match up in a bowl considering the current direction of the Cowboys’ season. Practicality may be in the way, because everybody has some mourning to do when they’re let go.

But if it isn’t, Texas should try to put Gundy on staff at the earliest juncture. Namely, tomorrow.