Bill Haisten
Tulsa World Sports Columnist
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While I suspect that Mike Gundy still is hurting and angry, only one week has passed since his Oklahoma State firing.
Two months from now, the pain begins to subside and Gundy can savor the greatness of his new reality: being rich and retired.
Gundy’s OSU head-coaching income amounted to $79.2 million. He gets $15 million in buyout money. He could make nice pocket money in the TV business.
I just don’t seen him coaching again, be it at Arkansas or elsewhere.
During a recent radio interview, Cale Gundy indicated that his older brother might eventually want to coach again.
Also, Cale Gundy indicated that he would join the Mike Gundy staff if Mike does choose to take another head-coaching situation.
It would be fascinating if the Gundy brothers were to pool their college football assets – experience and acumen – at a school beyond the Oklahoma borders.
By the way: As Cale Gundy did that interview, he was in Italy for a vacation. The former longtime University of Oklahoma staff member does regular radio segments both in Tulsa and Oklahoma City, and he seems to enjoy being connected to football without the everyday, all-day grind of coaching football.
I predicted in January and again in August that the 2025 season would be Mike Gundy’s final season as the Oklahoma State head coach, but I certainly wasn’t expecting a Sept. 23 firing.
After a home loss to Texas Tech last season, I asked Gundy whether he might have been contemplating retirement.
“I ain’t going out this way,” he replied.
Instead, Gundy went out the Sept. 23 way – with a 16-21 record since 2022, with an 0-9 record last season in Big 12 games, and with this season’s 66-point loss at Oregon and home loss to the University of Tulsa.
Gundy also went out as the most accomplished person in Oklahoma State football history.
If Gundy felt pressure to win at Oklahoma State, imagine what he would feel in the Southeastern Conference – and at a place like Arkansas, where 63-year-old Sam Pittman was fired after last week’s 56-13 home loss to Notre Dame.
After seeing the Pittman notification, my first thought was whether Arkansas would consider or perhaps even target Gundy for its head-coaching position.
In 2007-24, there was not an Arkansas appearance in the SEC championship football game. Instead, there was an overall record of 109-105. There were eight losing seasons and six head coaches.
At 58 – and as a veteran of 41 seasons of college football as a quarterback and a coach – would Gundy want Arkansas-level pressure?
And would he want Arkansas-level challenges at the same time that athlete revenue and the transfer portal have intensified the complexities of winning?
And would he want a 2026 Arkansas schedule that includes a road game against Utah, along with SEC opponents Georgia, LSU, Tennessee, Texas, Texas A&M and suddenly formidable Vanderbilt?
It’s an apples-and-oranges comparison when you weave basketball into a football topic, but Arkansas expected huge results when it hired John Calipari to coach the basketball Razorbacks.
The Arkansas people must be immeasurably sick of mediocre football. Significantly better results will be expected from the next head coach, but I don’t believe that next coach will be Mike Gundy (or, for that matter, former Razorback head man/current offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino).
Cale Gundy has a second career in radio. Mike Gundy seems destined for a second career in college football television.
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Bill Haisten
Tulsa World Sports Columnist
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