UPDATE: Mike Gundy has turned down what would have been a significant pay raise at Tennessee to remain at Oklahoma State, according to multiple reports and a tweet from Gundy himself.
Gundy, a former Oklahoma State player and assistant coach, has been the head coach at his alma mater the past 13 years. And now, for the second time in five years, he’s turned down Tennessee to remain with the Cowboys.
Not long after veteran college football reporter Brett McMurphy tweeted that Gundy turned down a six-year, $42-million offer (plus incentives) from Tennessee, the coach tweeted, “Cowboy For Life."
Cowboy For Life! #GoPokes #okstate
— Mike Gundy (@CoachGundy) November 29, 2017
Read more on GoVols247: Gundy turns down Tennessee, stays at Oklahoma State
PREVIOUS STORY: Tennessee may now be targeting Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy to lead the Vols football team.
Multiple outlets, including ESPN and WNML, are reporting that Gundy has had phone conversations with Tennessee officials and may be meeting with John Currie on Tuesday in Dallas.
With Duke's David Cutcliffe and Iowa State's Matt Campbell out of the picture, Tennessee has turned its coaching search focus to Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy. Three sources told me UT has interviewed Gundy, perhaps in Dallas. UT offered Gundy in 2012 but he said declined.
— Jimmy Hyams (@JimmyHyams) November 28, 2017
GoPokes.com reported that Gundy had informed his athletic director that Tennessee was interested and called "the intensity on the Tennessee side is extreme."
Monday afternoon, ESPN's Chris Lowe reported that Currie and Gundy did meet in Dallas. He also said that Peyton Manning called Gundy last week to pitch the Tennessee job.
"Vols are prepared to make Gundy one of the SEC’s highest paid coaches if he takes the job," Lowe reported.
Tennessee AD John Currie has made his pitch to Mike Gundy today in Dallas. Oklahoma State is home for Gundy, but he talked last week by phone with Peyton Manning and was impressed. Vols are prepared to make Gundy one of the SEC’s highest paid coaches if he takes the job.
— Chris Low (@ClowESPN) November 28, 2017
Gundy is the winningest football coach in Oklahoma State history with a 113-53 record. He's been head coach for 13 seasons and was a former assistant and played quarterback for the Cowboys. He's had a very successful run at Oklahoma State--- you can see his full bio here. He's also gained national attention for his amazing mullet, which he's called a powerful marketing tool.
“I’m going to say that the dollar figure is somewhere in the millions for the amount of time that we’ve had on the air for that,” Gundy said about his signature hair style at this year's Big 12 media days. “We need to get our brand out there at Oklahoma State. If you look back it, you say, ‘What did you get out of it?’ Well, OK, all of that happened at a time when nobody was talking about Oklahoma State football. Nobody was talking about college football, but our brand was out there all across the country.”
He's married to his wife Kristen and has three children, Gavin, Gunnar and Gage.
On Sunday, it was reported that Tennessee nearly hired Greg Schiano for the job, but social media backlash nixed that deal. Currie then reportedly turned his attention to Duke coach David Cutcliffe, who was Tennessee's offensive coordinator during the successful Phillip Fulmer era, but Cutcliffe said he was not interested.