Jason Garrett is not the point of the problem, but he is the kind of name that can frame it: Tulsa Public Schools football has reached a place where the new athletic director, Eric McCurdy, is already saying the district has to get better. That is not a throwaway line. It is the clearest possible reaction to a regular season in which TPS varsity teams finished 20-70 overall and 5-56 in district play.
The numbers are stark enough on their own. Five TPS teams failed to win a district game, which means the struggles were not isolated to one program or one bad stretch. They were broad, repeated and hard to ignore. In a system with nine varsity head football coaches, results like that point to something deeper than a few close losses. They suggest a district-wide performance issue that now has to be addressed at the top.
A costly season in plain sight
What makes the record even harder to dismiss is the financial backdrop. During the 2026-27 fiscal year, those nine Tulsa Public Schools varsity head football coaches are making a combined total of $768,568. That does not automatically mean better football should be easy, but it does mean the district is investing meaningful money into the sport while the results remain well below standard.
McCurdy’s comment, “We have to get better in football,” lands because it is both simple and unavoidable. It does not overstate the situation. It does not dress it up. It acknowledges the obvious reality that the district’s football results have not matched the level of support, attention or expectation that comes with nine varsity programs and that kind of combined coaching pay.
The broader takeaway is that Tulsa Public Schools is at a turning point. A 20-70 overall record and a 5-56 mark in district play are not just bad numbers; they are the kind of numbers that force an athletic department to reconsider how it defines progress. McCurdy has made the first public statement of that reset. Now the harder part begins: turning the declaration into wins.
