Chad Weiberg Press Conference After Cowboy Football Parts Ways With Mike Gundy

Oklahoma State Director of Athletics Chad Weiberg
"Good afternoon. As you know, today we made the decision to part ways with Coach (Mike) Gundy. These decisions are never easy and happen only after much consideration. As with any head coach coaching change, this impacts not only one person and one family, but many. And all are good people working very hard for our student-athletes and for Oklahoma State University. We are forever grateful to Mike Gundy. Between his playing days as quarterback for the Cowboys and his years as coach, he has spent over half his life at OSU. He has raised his family here in Stillwater. He is a Cowboy.

"You've seen much of this before, but it is worth repeating. Mike Gundy finished his playing career as the Big Eight Conference career passing leader. As head coach, he led the Cowboys to the best era of sustained success in program history, highlighted by a Big 12 championship in 2011, five New Year's 6 Bowl appearances and eight 10-win seasons. His 170 career coaching victories are 108 more than any other coach in school history. A three-time selection as Big 12 Coach of the Year, Coach Gundy was honored as National Coach of the Year in 2011 and 2021. He ranked sixth in college football history with 12 Bowl victories, trailing only Joe Paterno, Bobby Bowden, Nick Saban, Bear Bryant and Mack Brown. His 102 victories in Big 12 games trail only Bob Stoops and Bill Snyder. Coach Gundy coached more than 500 graduates, 48 All-Americans, seven major award winners, and 42 NFL Draft picks at OSU. In short, we all have high expectations for OSU football because of Mike Gundy.

"Unfortunately, the results of the last year have not met the standard. Decisions and significant investments were made following the end of the 2024 season intended to make us better. The outcomes so far this season have also not met expectations, leading to the decision that it is in the best interest of OSU to start the process of identifying the next head coach of Cowboy football.

"It is the Athletic Director's primary job to make tough decisions like this. Knowing this choice has broad implications for the entire institution, I have had lengthy discussions with President (Jim) Hess, and we are of one mind and in lockstep in this decision. I'm grateful for his support. I'm also grateful to Doug Meacham for agreeing to be the interim coach during this period, and I'm grateful to Rob Glass for agreeing to lead the administrative duties of Cowboy football so Coach Meacham can focus on our student-athletes and the team. I was so proud to see the terrific attendance at our game Friday night. I want to thank our fans for demonstrating loyal and true.

"In particular, I want to thank the students who come early, stand in line, fill the student section, and together with the Cowboy Marching Band, inject infectious energy into Boone Pickens Stadium. In the remaining five home games on the schedule, it will be very important that OSU fans continue to come out and support our players, our program and our university. Again, this decision in no way should take away from the years of success OSU football has had under Coach Gundy's leadership.

"Thanks to him, we know winning the Big 12 championship, going to the college football playoff and competing for championships are realistic goals. They remain attainable goals, but the stakes are high and competition is intense. It will be critically important for the OSU family to unite behind the next leader of Cowboy football."

On whether he received a new contract…
"No, we're not here to talk about my deal. No, that is not something that's completed, and that's something that I'm not worried about at this time. I feel very good about where I'm at. I feel great about my relationship with President Hess and his leadership of this university. I feel great about our board and the support from the board so I'm not worried about that today."

On Gundy's relationship with the fan base and to what extend it was affected by his comments from last year…
"This isn't about one moment. If we were stacking up moments, right, there's a whole lot of moments that are in the good category, but this is about the bigger picture and absolutely our donors and our fans are critically important. That's true all the time, and it's more important now than it ever has been. But this was not about one moment."

On when he made the decision to part ways with Gundy…
"This was not something that I thought we would be doing today on this Tuesday, right? I fully expected to beat the University of Tulsa. You know, I expected the results of this season to be different than they've been so far, and, you know, again, that goes back to the expectation level that Coach Gundy has set for this program. We have higher expectations than that so when it just appeared that that was not going to be met, I felt like, for the good of the program, it was time to make this decision so that we could start the process of getting the program where we want it to be. And that's, it's hard. I think the first decision is what is the decision, and the next decision is what is the timing of it, and that, in a lot of ways, can be a harder decision because I've not yet seen when is a good time or perfect time to do something like this. There's no such thing. It is a hard thing to do, and there's consequences of however you do it, but I felt like, in this case, we needed to do it now so that we could position the program to move forward in the future."

On the timing of the move -- on a Tuesday during game week…
"Again, there's no time that's good, and like I say, this was not something that last week I was thinking that we would be doing here today. But there are things that we have to do once the decision is made, right? There's a lot of steps, and it was more important for me to get those things right than to hurry up and make the decision and so it was just about what was in the best interest of moving the program forward in the long term. I mean, I get that there's things right here in the here and now, this week, today, tomorrow, but we also have to be looking at what's better for the program over the next year, two years, five years."

On whether he regrets not making the move at the end of last season…
"My expectation was that we would be winning football games this season, right? So, no, that was not. I don't look back on that and think we should have made that decision then. I feel very comfortable with the decision that we made to go into this football season and see where we could go."

On the team's reaction to the news when he informed them…
"I think it would be about like you would expect. It was just quiet. This is, in some cases I'm sure, the first time that most of those players have been through anything like this, and I get that, right? I'm very sensitive to that, and so my main message to them is, 'Look, there's nobody in this room that this is their fault, right? And there are a lot of people here at OSU that are here for you and your coaches, the staff here.' So I feel really good about the support that we have around them. They're here to play football, and that has not changed. They get to go to practice this afternoon. They've got a game this weekend, and that's what we want them to do and want them to have fun doing it, want them to compete and I think that's our expectation."

On priorities in the search for a new head coach…
"We'll have the opportunity, I think, to get into that later. I don't really want to spend a lot of time on that... I think football, the game has changed, and so I think that as we have discussions with potential candidates for our football coaching search, I'm going to be interested in hearing how they see building the program, building the vision for how they establish a winning program. Look, we've proven that we can win here. Again, that goes back to the success that we have had under Coach Gundy. We've proven that we have a lot of support for this program. The ingredients are here, and I feel very, very confident about that. I know that I will be able to talk about that with any coaching candidates. This is a place that you can win football games."

On what transpired over the four days between the Tulsa game and Tuesday's decision…
"I met with Coach Gundy this morning, and I'm not going to get into details of that conversation. I feel like that's between he and I, as I would feel that way about anyone. But I can tell you that it was a good conversation. I really appreciate the way that Coach Gundy handled everything in that conversation.... It was more important, I think, for me to get this right. I think a lot of that is because here we are dealing with a coach that's in his 21st season and has had a lot of success here and so I just wanted to make sure that we were able to handle all of that the right way, and that takes time. I'm not worried about this week or the next two weeks. I'm worried about next year, two years from now, five years from now."

On whether Gundy was presented with the opportunity to finish out the season, given his history with the program…
"That was not discussed."

On whether the decision to part ways was more difficult, given his close working relationship with the program prior to becoming AD…
"Yeah, yeah, like I said, this is never easy. These are people that we work with every day, and we know their families. We know their wives. We know their kids... This was not a place that I thought I would be standing on September 23rd of 2025."

On his own health, just a few weeks removed from major heart surgery…
"I'm doing good. I feel good. I feel blessed. I've told a couple people: 'Don't ask me to throw any hay bales around anytime soon, but other than that, I'm doing good.'"

On whether OSU is positioned to succeed in the new NIL/revenue sharing era…
"I feel really good about the investment that we've made here. I feel great about the support that we have here. I think, again, all you have to do is go back to the game on Friday and, remind you that this was a Friday night football game and coming off a 3-9 football season and coming off the game before, and we had a full house. We have 123 suites that are sold out. We've got 3,600 club seats. This place has support, and there are people who are committed to winning here. Our donors are committed to winning here and giving us the resources that we need to win here. Our administration is supportive. We have won football games here, and we can win football games here. It's not like I'm going to be talking to candidates about some kind of dream or something that's never happened here before. I'm going to be talking about continuing the standard that has been established here, and we have the support for that. We need to continue to grow that support. This is a continued opportunity for the OSU family to come together and support this program."

On the importance of staying relevant in the college football universe…
"I believe that we are in a window of time here that is critical. Television contracts for conferences will be coming up in the next five years, and that has typically been the trigger for conference realignment. And so I think we are in a critical period, and I think winning is a big part of setting yourself up for success in whatever happens, right? And so it is important that we get back to the standard of Cowboy football. It's important that we make a really good decision with the hire, and it's important that we get behind him and support him at a level that he can be successful with this program."

On whether this pressure has shortened the timeline to make these types of major decisions…
"These are new times. I don't know if they're unprecedented times or whatever, but as the game changes and all the rules around the game and when the portals open and all those things, I think those do have an impact on some of these types of decisions. You all are aware we're not the first school that has a coaching opening this season. So, yes, 10 or 15 years ago, this would have been highly unusual, but we're not playing under the rules that we had 10 or 15 years ago. So we have to adjust to all of the different intangibles or the different things that you've brought up."

On the potential timeline for hiring a new football coach…
"I think that virtually everyone that we'll be looking at is going to be coaching. But I think that what this does is it allows us to be in a good position for moving as soon as they are finished with their coaching but also helps us be able to lay a lot of groundwork about our program again and get it ready for success, answer those questions that any candidates may have about our program. So that's what we'll be doing over the course of these next few weeks."

On the source for Gundy's contract buyout…
"It'll come out of just our revenues, our operating budget, those sorts of things. No, it's not a small amount of money, especially today when we're trying to do revenue sharing and all of those things. But it is just part of it, and we will honor our contractual obligations."

On his message to fans who may not agree with the decision…
"I think the message is regardless of what you think about the decision, regardless of what you think about me, that's not what it's about. This is about the program. It's about the university. And if you love OSU and you love Cowboy football, then we need you behind it. That is what makes it successful is we have to have the family come together and align and get behind this program. And there's lots of ways to voice your disagreements with me or my decisions, and I'm always open to that, right? I'll listen to anybody that wants to give me their opinion. But I hope that we can take off the table not supporting this program because I don't understand what good that that does for anyone. And I don't believe that'll be the case... Again, I just point back to our Friday night football game and that crowd. I think that is a great, perfect example of what this place is about. And so I think they'll be there. They'll be behind this team now and moving forward."

On a realistic timeline for a new staff to get the program back on its feet…
"I'm not going to put a time frame on it. I think that would be doing a disservice to our next coach. That's something we can certainly talk about in the process and something that he may want to address that question when he gets the opportunity to stand up here and do that. But I'm not ready to do that right now. I'm certainly not going to do that to him. Whoever that is."

On rallying support from the fan base ahead of the search…
"We're always trying to increase our donations and increase our revenue and all of those things. And so, we'll continue those efforts for sure... We can go out and hire a great, great football coach. But if he doesn't have the resources that he needs to compete at this level of college football, it's not going to matter. It's not going to work. And so I anticipate that our fans will get on board with that. Our donors will get on board with that, just like they have.

"Again, I go back to – we aren't lacking for support. I know there's people out there that think that we are. But this is not the 1980s OSU. We have come a long, long way from then. I would invite any of you to see how many other schools have 123 suites in their football stadium, something that was unfathomable back then. Now, not only do we have them, but they're full. So I just say that to say I feel really good about the support that we have here.

"But the competition is intense. And we're not the only school trying to win football games. We're not the only donor base that is supporting their program in order to do so. So it is just competition. And we've got to continue to step up and compete at the highest level if we want to win at the highest level."

On whether he plans to target candidates with OSU ties…
"That can be a factor, I think, as it is probably at any school. It's not the only factor. We've had a lot of success here with our with our alums – Coach (Gundy) obviously being one of the best examples of that -- but we've also had a lot of success here with non-alums. And so we will be looking for the best person for the job regardless of that."

On the remaining coaching staff…
"The most important thing to them is their livelihood and their families. But they are under contract, and they're under contract to work here right now. And so I've asked them to stay focused on that and primarily for our team, our student-athletes. And I believe that they will do that... The most important thing is that we need them to bring this season on to completion and then we can go from there. And I believe they'll do that."

On how Doug Meacham and Rob Glass will share their responsibilities:
"Everything in between the lines is going to be Coach Meacham. And everything outside the lines will be Coach Glass's responsibility. So I think that's a great combination. Obviously with Coach Glass, we have somebody that's been here for as long as Coach Gundy has been, knows the program inside and out. And I have a lot of trust in him. I think he's got trust among the entire football operations. And I think what that does is it allows Coach Meacham in this time to focus on the team and not be worrying about all the myriad of other things that's part of a football coach's duties and responsibilities these days. And it's enormous, right? All the moving parts that are involved with that. And so right now, because we are in the season and things are moving, I wanted to make it to where Coach Meacham could focus on the team. Game planning for upcoming Baylor and Arizona next week and those kinds of things and not be worried about all of the other moving parts. I think Coach Glass has that covered."

On the importance of a healthy football program on the university and the athletic department, beyond realignment…
"President Hess and I have those conversations, as I think every athletic director and president around the country are having those conversations. And that is part of why this is not just an athletics decision. This impacts the entire institution. I think it's, you can read all kinds of articles almost every day about the value that an athletics department brings to the institution in terms of the national reach and the marketing and promotion of the institution. The number of eyeballs that are on games every Saturday, those kinds of things. It's a marketing arm that is hard to put a dollar figure on. And so I think those are all important to the institution, to enrollment, to donations across the board. And those are the conversations that I've had with President Hess. And like I said, he's been very, very supportive."

On his message to recruits who are currently committed to OSU…
"I think what we would ask is just give us a little bit of time. Wait and see what it is that we do, and then you can make that decision."

On how December's signing day plays into the timeline for finding a new head coach…
"I'm aware of the timeline and all the implications of that. And so yes, that will all be in consideration, but not at the expense of getting who we think is the right coach for the long term."

On the decision to elevate Doug Meacham…
"We had some conversations about that. And I think for a number of different reasons, I felt like that he was the person that, by elevating him to that position, would be the least disruptive to all of the other positions. If we were elevating someone else, I think it could create more moving parts than we already have. He is an alum so he has an understanding of this place and the culture and the program and so that was also a factor."

Final statement…
"Just one thing I will say is that we look forward to continuing to celebrate Coach Gundy and his accomplishments. There'll be a time and a place soon for that to happen here, and we will do those things. We're very appreciative of everything he has done for this place, for this university, and for this program. Thank you."

Oklahoma State University Athletics

Chad Weiberg Press Conference After Cowboy Football Parts Ways With Mike Gundy

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