Mike Gundy Disrespected in ESPN's Latest Rankings

Oklahoma State has had one of the top coaches in the nation for two decades, and it’s led to some underrated success.

Since taking over in Stillwater, Mike Gundy has slowly turned the OSU football program into one of the best and most consistent in the country. While an off year in 2024 damaged his reputation a bit, it’s impossible to overlook the immense success he’s had across the past 20 seasons.

Recently, ESPN’s Bill Connelly ranked the top coaches of the past 20 years, using his SP+ rankings to help make the list. While there is no doubt that Gundy has been one of the top coaches in the country for quite some time, his placement doesn’t quite relay that.

The rankings take into account the coach’s success compared to the baseline throughout their tenure. Of course, there are some obvious names at the top, with guys like Chris Peterson and Nick Saban gracing the top five.

Considering the metric is about performance vs. historic performance, it seems absurd to not have Gundy in the top 15. Perhaps, his 3-9 campaign last season damaged him too much, as he still ended up on the top 10 of active head coaches. Still, it’s hard to imagine that Gundy hasn’t been one of the top coaches of the past 20 years.

If the idea is to rank head coaches based on how they’ve performed at their school compared to its history, Gundy might have a case for the No. 1 spot, at least in terms of coaches to never win a national championship.

Before Gundy arrived as head coach, OSU had only seen three 10-win seasons. Under Gundy, the Cowboys have eight years with 10 wins, meaning that 40% of the time, his teams win double-digit games.

It’s also worth noting that of the three 10-win seasons before Gundy became head coach, two of them came with him as the starting quarterback. Gundy’s impact at OSU is almost impossible to quantify. 

Sure, he’s had some letdowns in big games throughout his tenure, but it’s still important to understand that before Gundy’s arrival, there simply weren’t big games in Stillwater at all.