Deion Sanders Reacts to Mike Gundy's Oklahoma State Firing, Says 'He's a Winner'

Colorado football coach Deion Sanders praised Mike Gundy two days after the former Oklahoma State coach was fired following a 1-2 start to his 21st season with the program.

"I feel bad for the coach from Oklahoma State. Mike Gundy is a winner," Deion Sanders said at the 21:00 mark of Thursday's episode of the Colorado Football Coaches Show.

"If anybody out there that knows him and he gets this message: Coach, I love you. I appreciate you. I respect you. You are a hero to me, and I love everything about you."

Sanders continued, "All the meetings that I attended... he sits at the head of the table. He's the grand poobah. He's the guy that gives us direction, and correction. And I love him.

"So I don't know what he's going to do from here on, but that guy, I would love to just pick his brain, and learn from him, because he's a winner."

Sanders went on to defend Gundy's recent struggles with Oklahoma State, where the team followed up a streak of 18 bowl game appearances with a 3-9 record in the first year of the expanded College Football Playoff.

This season Gundy made headlines before a Week 2 matchup with Oregon, which the Cowboys ended up losing 69-3, when he said that his program had spent $7 million on its roster over the last few years while estimating Oregon had spent in the range of $40 million.

The former Oklahoma State head coach also said he believed in scheduling games "based on the financial situation for each school."

Oregon head coach Dan Lanning later said that Gundy's "numbers were off" in his estimation of the Ducks' NIL finances.

What Gundy hadn't been wrong about, however, was his doubts about his program being a competitive matchup for Lanning's.

"You can't expect the man to win out like he's been winning, when the game has changed and it takes finances, now, to win. It don't just take good coaching now," Sanders said. "It takes good coaching and finances."

Gundy departed from Oklahoma State as the winningest coach in program history, having gone 170-90 with a 12-6 mark in 18 bowl games. The Cowboys paid $15 million to buy him out from the remainder of his contract, per The Athletic's Justin Williams.