Mike Gundy

Year	School	Record	Bowl
2005	Oklahoma State	4-7
2006	Oklahoma State	7-6	Independence
2007	Oklahoma State	7-6	Insight
Career		18-19	.486
	Oklahoma State	18-19	.486

2008 SCHEDULE

Date	Opponent	Location	2008 CHS Prediction
8/30/08	Washington State	Seattle, WA	W
9/06/08	Houston	Stillwater, OK	W
9/13/08	Missouri State	Stillwater, OK	W
9/27/08	Troy	Stillwater, OK	W
10/04/08	Texas A&M	Stillwater, OK	W
10/11/08	at Missouri	Columbia, MO	L
10/18/08	Baylor	Stillwater, OK	W
10/25/08	at Texas	Austin, TX	L
11/01/08	Iowa State	Stillwater, OK	W
11/08/08	at Texas Tech	Lubbock, TX	L
11/15/08	at Colorado	Boulder, CO	L
11/29/08	Oklahoma	Stillwater, OK	L

	Coaches Hot Seat Prediction		7-5

Coaches Hot Seat Analysis

An interesting question: If T. Boone Pickens was not deeply involved with athletics at Oklahoma State would Mike Gundy be the head football coach at OSU? If anyone besides T. Boone answers that question in the affirmative, then we have a rubber room standing by for you. Just like the AD position at OSU, if T. Boone wants it, T. Boone gets it, and T. Boone wanted Miles out and Gundy in and guess what happened? If there was any doubt that Pickens wanted Les Miles out at Oklahoma State, all you have to do is read the story by Chip Brown in the Dallas Morning News in September 2007. In that story Boone Pickens commented on Miles departure to LSU at the end of the 2004 season:

"Then, that Alamo Bowl game against Ohio State proved to me he wanted out. Ohio State beat us like 100-to-nothing. I left at halftime, flew home and watched the fourth quarter from my bed. I was worried LSU might not be interested in him after that.

"But thank God they offered him the job. The folks at Oklahoma State wanted to try to keep him, and I said, 'If you do, one of your top donors will no longer be enthusiastic.' "

Okay, Boone Pickens wanted a guy out that has won 34 games in 3 years at LSU, and Mike Gundy is 18-19 (.486) at OSU over the last 3 seasons. Yes, those two moves for OSU made a lot of sense.

The real question for Mike Gundy is can he do anything to move OSU away from the mediocrity that seems to have taken hold within the Cowboys football program. Gundy's out-of-control rant last season was as much about Gundy's frustration with the season as it was about defending a particular player, and that frustration will only build if Gundy struggles again in '08. In 2007 there were many troubling signs, beginning with the beatdown at Georgia, the disastrous loss to Troy, and the two debacles against Kansas and Oklahoma. Oklahoma State could have hired any random person off the streets of Tulsa to be the head football coach and have won 6 regular season games in 2007, and that is the real conundrum facing Gundy as the 2008 season approaches. Can he do better than any randomly person selected off a street in Tulsa?

Coaches Hot Seat Bottom Line

We predict that Mike Gundy and Oklahoma State will have a 7-5 record in 2008. 2008 is the season that Mike Gundy can prove that he is actually head coaching material. With 7 home games and a very weak out-of-conference schedule, there is no reason OSU should not win at least 7 games in '08, and there is an opportunity to win more games if they can protect "Boone Pickens Stadium." The season opens in Seattle against Washington State who has a new head coach, which is followed by Houston at home who has a new head coach. The next two games are at home against Missouri State and Troy, and we hope that the OSU players will be fired up to revenge the loss against Troy in '07. A road trip to Missouri will almost certainly be a loss, but after 7 games OSU should be 6-1. The homestretch is very tough, with road games at Texas, Texas Tech, and Colorado, and then the Bedlam game against OU in Stillwater. Of course, there is a doomsday scenario out there, if OSU somehow finds a way to lose the opening game to Washington State, and then Houston comes in and beats OSU in Stillwater. Yes, that would be doomsday, because it would prove that two first-year coaches, with inferior talent, can beat Gundy in his 4th year at OSU. If things do go as we see it, the above adds up to 7-5 in the regular season, and one has to wonder how long Gundy can win 7 games a year and keep his job in Stillwater. Hold on a second, we forgot who is calling the shots in Stillwater. Mike Gundy will be the head football coach in Stillwater for as long at Boone Pickens wants him to be, because AD Mike Holder has about as much authority of hiring and firing athletic coaches at OSU as the Pillsbury Dough Boy does, that is if you could get him out of the kitchen.

2008 Coaches Hot Seat Prediction: 7-5

Will Mike Gundy be back for the 2009 season? YES