STILLWATER — Mike Gundy has set the wheels in motion for a coaching staff overhaul for Oklahoma State football. He will not retain coordinators Kasey Dunn and Bryan Nardo, sources have confirmed to The Oklahoman.
OSU officials have not commented on the firings, which were first reported by Brett McMurphy of Action Network.
The Cowboys just concluded their worst season in Gundy’s 20-year tenure as OSU’s head coach with the worst loss in that same span, 52-0 at Colorado last Friday.
It was OSU’s ninth straight loss, concluding a 3-9 season with no victories in Big 12 play.
Dunn had just completed his 13th season with the Cowboys and fifth as offensive coordinator. OSU averaged 27.2 points and 374.0 yards per game this season, a notable decline after Dunn’s previous four offenses had averaged over 400 yards and 29.5 points per game.
It was OSU’s worst scoring offense since the 2005 team averaged just 20.2 points per game. The last time OSU had fewer yards was 2009 when it averaged 367.3. OSU has averaged under 400 yards per game only three times in Gundy’s tenure.
Dunn rose to prominence on the OSU staff because of his ability to discover and develop under-the-radar receiver prospects. James Washington, once a two-star recruit who won the 2017 Biletnikoff Award, was the poster child for Dunn’s coaching talent.
Dunn oversaw the offenses of the only two OSU teams to reach the Big 12 Championship Game, coming in 2021 and 2023. But after averaging 431.8 yards and nearly 30 points per game last season — and returning nearly every offensive starter — OSU fell off significantly with lackluster play at quarterback and on the offensive line.
Defensively, OSU had the worst statistical season in its history, allowing 35.6 points and 500.6 yards per game.
The Cowboys’ previous worsts were 456.8 yards per game allowed in 2011 and 32.5 points per game allowed in 2018.
Nardo spent just two seasons as the Cowboys’ defensive coordinator. He was hired from Division II Gannon University specifically to install the 3-3-5 defensive scheme at OSU.
But after one season running that system, Gundy and Nardo adjusted to a style that allowed for more use of four-man fronts primarily in hopes of getting edge rusher Collin Oliver more involved in the pass rush.
But after Oliver and All-Big 12 linebacker Nick Martin were injured, the scheme shifted almost exclusively to a 4-2-5 that did not resemble much — if any — of the defense Nardo had been hired to run.
This story will be updated.
