Mike Gundy reveals how he came to hire Todd Grantham as defensive coordinator

After a disastrous 2024 season, Oklahoma State Cowboys head coach Mike Gundy decided to hit the reset button. That meant making changes all along his staff, including bringing in Todd Grantham as the team’s next defensive coordinator.

Gundy recently shared how he came to hire Grantham. It wasn’t because he had a long relationship with the veteran defensive coordinator. Instead, as he recently explained, it came down to recommendations from other coaches who he trusts.

“I don’t know how many people to bring into this,” Mike Gundy said. “But I also don’t want to tell you something that’s not true. So, I visited with some pretty prominent coaches and these guys have extensive backgrounds on the defensive side of the ball. So, I asked them, in particular, who would you hire if you were looking to hire a defensive coordinator? I trust these guys, and particularly, one who said, ‘If I was coaching, I would hire this guy to be my coordinator.’ That’s how it happened.”

Todd Grantham began his coaching career in 1990 as a defensive assistant at Virginia Tech. After bouncing between college and the NFL, he earned his first defensive coordinator job with the Cleveland Browns in 2005. In 2010, he returned to college where he held defensive coordinator roles at Georgia, Louisville, Mississippi State, and Florida.

“I didn’t know that guy — I didn’t know Todd. I didn’t even know where he was,” Gundy said. “And then I started the process and got involved in communications and had a very extensive interview with him, and so on and so forth. But that’s how it happened.”

Ultimately, Mike Gundy was looking for a defensive coordinator who could act as the head coach of the defense. In the interview, Todd Grantham convinced Gundy he was the coach capable of doing that.

“He came very highly recommended from people that I trust and understand defense. When I spent time with him, very well organized. Walked in, we had a four or five-hour interview, I don’t remember what it was. But he laid everything out in front of me. Had a plan for this. ‘This is what I want to do. This is how I’m gonna do it. These are guys I’d like to hire. You want to vet them, whatever. I’m not saying it’s perfect, but this is what I want to do and this is how I want to do it.’ Just laid everything out,” Gundy said.

“Essentially, when I walked away from the interview, he convinced me that what I needed was a head coach on defense. And I was very up front in communicating that to these guys, and then Todd, who you’re asking about, and he convinced me that he could be the head coach on defense, and I could let him do his job. Which is what I want to do.”

Last season, under Bryan Nardo in his second season as a defensive coordinator, Oklahoma State was 133rd in total defense, giving up 500.6 yards per game. The Cowboys were also 126th in scoring defense, averaging 35.6 points per game. Now, Todd Grantham will look to turn that around as the team’s fourth defensive coordinator in five seasons.