Mike Gundy’s Yankees Job: Why Forever Doesn’t Exist Anymore

2005. I was three years old. Mike Gundy was announced as the Oklahoma State Cowboys head football coach after Les Miles accepted the job at LSU to be Nick Saban’s successor. I was Gundy’s introductory press conference live, but it came to be one of my all time favorites. In the press conference he uttered the words, “This is my New York Yankees job.” In my heart of hearts, I wish everyone who ever accepted a job, they could say that. That’s not something we’re going to hear again. With NIL and the way the sport has changed, coaches don’t talk about forever anymore, and if they do, it is just to blow smoke. The question now is always, Where will my next job be? Where will I move my family next? That angst has become part of college football.

Both of my parents went to Oklahoma State (as well as Oklahoma), and while I was never an OSU sports fan, I always had the utmost respect for Mike Gundy. He wasn’t just Oklahoma State’s coach. He was Oklahoma State. No matter who comes in next, they won’t be him. They may chase greener pastures with bigger NIL deals - and that’s fine, that’s the new game - but Gundy was the last of his kind.

I’ve always loved Nick Saban’s line about falling in love with the process. That’s what Gundy embodied. He stayed. He built. He treated Stillwater like the Yankees — the job you don’t leave. And no matter where I go in the future, that’s how I want to approach my own career: walk into every stop like it’s the last stop on the tour. Because you can always chase more money, but you can’t always call a place home.

It’s sad how it ended. Some of the game’s changes have been for the better, some for the worse. But what’s undeniable is this: the Oklahoma State Cowboys will miss Mike Gundy. Twenty-one years. Big 12 champs. Multiple Fiesta Bowl wins. The greatest coach OSU will ever have.

We should all treat our jobs like they’re the New York Yankees.