Oklahoma State Football Hires New Defensive Line Coach

The Oklahoma State Cowboys have made their first coaching change during the college football offseason.

It's not often that Mike Gundy makes changes to his Oklahoma State football staff, but he did so to kick off the 2024 offseason. The defensive line room will be under new rule as the Cowboys hired a new position coach. 

On Thursday, the Cowboys announced the hiring of Paul Randolph as he'll oversee the defensive line room. Randolph has seen plenty of stops over his coaching career, which has been at Indiana, Texas Tech, Memphis, Arizona State, Pittsburgh, Tulsa, Rice, Alabama, West Virginia, Toledo, Illinois State, Valdosta State and UT-Martin.

With each of those stops combined, Randolph has spent 26 years in the college football coaching scene. He's been known to be a great recruiter in his career, too, doing so at elite programs such as Alabama.

Oklahoma State alum Greg Richmond was the defensive line coach, which he started doing in 2018. 

Now, Randolph joins Gundy's staff on the defensive side of the ball, which is led by defensive coordinator Bryan Nardo, who just finished his first season in Stillwater. He established a new 3-3-5 scheme and having Randolph come in and help with the defensive line will be huge for the program.

While this is the only domino on the coaching side of things, the rest of the moves made by the program this offseason are helping the Cowboys gear up for what could be an incredibly special 2024 campaign. 

With the new 12-team playoff format, it wouldn't be shocking if the Cowboys are playing meaningful playoff football next season, especially if they're able to finish climbing the ladder and win the Big 12 title for the first time since 2011.

The offense is returning its entire starting lineup, so it'll be interesting to see how the defense performs to back them up and how good the Cowboys can be from the get-go next season. 

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