STILLWATER — As he watches other Power Four football coaches around the country build NFL-style front offices to manage their programs, Oklahoma State’s Mike Gundy pulls back.
He saw what OU’s Brent Venables did in hiring a general manager, Jim Nagy. And Nagy has built his staff in the model of the NFL scouting departments he spent 18 years working in.
While Gundy has pushed to grow his recruiting staff, and brought in former Cowboy Kenyatta Wright to oversee business deals between players and the program, handing the role of general manager to someone other than himself is a bridge too far for Gundy.
“I know most schools are going to a general manager, which is basically taking over for the head coach and doing, I don’t know, 75% of what he does,” Gundy said. “I’m not comfortable with that. I’m not saying it’s right or wrong, I just feel like that’s my job.”
Over the last few years, Gundy worked with OSU leadership to increase his recruiting staff under director Todd Bradford. That group is nearing double digits now, with half of them strictly focused on scouting potential recruits.
Wright, a Cowboy linebacker in the 1990s before a stint in the NFL, had previously joined up with Pokes with a Purpose, the OSU collective that assisted athletes with name, image and likeness deals.
But when it became apparent that schools would soon be allowed to directly pay players — as a result of the recently signed NCAA antitrust settlement — Gundy brought Wright inside the walls of OSU football to brace for the future.
He was brought on with the official title of director of football business, but essentially, he handles the increasingly complex money side of player relations and recruiting.
The next step is getting a…
Source link : https://www.oklahoman.com/story/sports/college/cowboys/2025/07/06/oklahoma-state-football-mike-gundy-no-general-manager-hire-kenyatta-wright-osu-cowboys/84440181007/
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Publish date : 2025-07-06 10:30:00
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