Mike Gundy asked Oklahoma State to step up to the plate, and Oklahoma State has obliged by locking its chief in for the rest of the decade as one of the richest coaches in America:
Football coach Mike Gundy and Oklahoma State University officials have agreed upon a contract extension that would go through the 2019 season. The exact financial details were not released, but it is believed the deal will pay Gundy an average of $3.7 million annually.
Gundy's current contract goes through 2015 and pays Gundy approximately $2.1 million a year. It is believed that OSU initially offered Gundy a $1 million a year raise to $3.1 million per year, while Gundy's agent, Jimmy Sexton, was asking for something in the $4 million range.
Yes, Gundy is a man, and he's getting paid like it. Maybe now he can finally afford to have that mechanical bull installed in his bedroom.
While he may have been asking for more, $3.7 million a year isn't too shabby: Only five head coaches made that much last year according to USA Today — Mack Brown, Nick Saban, Bob Stoops, Les Miles and Kirk Ferentz — a club that's combined to win a dozen conference championships, eight BCS games and four (soon to be five) national championships at their respective schools. By contrast, last week's Fiesta Bowl win over Stanford was Oklahoma State's first BCS game, on the heels of its first outright conference title since 1926. Prior to that, Gundy was making less than two Big 12 head coaches (Mike Sherman and Turner Gill) who just got fired.
From that perspective, an expensive new "No Trespassing" sign to hang around its head coach's neck is another indication that OSU has no intention of chalking up a 23-3 run over the last two seasons as the glory years and settling back into mediocrity now that Brandon Weeden and Justin Blackmon are gone. (Another pair of All-Americans, offensive lineman Levy Adcock and safety Markelle Martin, are on their way out, too, along with a half-dozen other senior starters.) Easier said than done when Oklahoma and Texas are still out-spending and out-recruiting the Cowboys by a wide margin, and Oklahoma State can't even sell out Boone Pickens Stadium with the most explosive offense in the nation fueling the best run in school history.
There's still a long way to go to make Big 12 titles and Fiesta Bowls the norm. Obviously, though, Gundy is in it for the distance.
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Matt Hinton is on Facebook and Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.