Oklahoma State's Mike Gundy Earns Top 5 Spot in Unconventional Ranking

Oklahoma State’s coach is among the best in the country, and he was an incredible player as well.

OSU coach Mike Gundy has led the Cowboys to their most successful run in school history, but his time helping the Cowboys began well before his time as head coach. While plenty of current college football coaches used to play the sport at this level, almost none did so better than the man in Stillwater.

In ESPN’s latest article ranking FBS college football coaches for their careers as college football players, Gundy earned the No. 5 spot on the list. The four ahead of him in order are Deion Sanders, Eddie George, Josh Heupel and Steve Sarkisian. Gundy has been a staple of OSU football for many years as head coach, but many are probably unaware of how good he was as a player.

While Gundy has made a name for himself as OSU’s head coach for the past two decades, he also came to Stillwater to fill that position as one of the program’s best players. When Gundy took the job as head coach in 2005, he was simply known as a former quarterback who played for the Cowboys.

However, he was more than just any former quarterback who played in Stillwater. He was seen as arguably the greatest quarterback in OSU history. While the past 20 years have seen many incredible talents come through at the position, it’s nearly impossible to argue that Gundy was OSU’s premier quarterback when he took over the program.

Although he has since been passed by the Cowboys he has recruited throughout his coaching tenure, Gundy ended his playing career as OSU’s all-time leader in passing attempts, completions, yards, touchdowns, completion percentage and many others.

As OSU’s starter for four seasons from 1986-89, Gundy finished with 8,473 passing yards, 57 touchdowns and 39 interceptions. During his time as a player, Gundy also helped the Cowboys to one of their most successful stretches in school history. It also helped that he was the quarterback alongside all-time great running backs Thurman Thomas and Barry Sanders.