In His Worst Loss Gundy Does What He's Done, He Rants About Fighting On

STILLWATER – The Boone Pickens Stadium crowd that was so vibrant to begin, so completely enthusiastic and dressed as requested in black, had emptied out partially at halftime due to the 16-3 deficit to Turnpike Rival Tulsa. By the last gasp in the fourth quarter when Oklahoma State was working a last second desparate drive, the stands were mostly empty. 

Oklahoma State fans didn’t want to see the end of a historically bad loss. The 19-12 verdict to Tulsa was the first loss to the Hurricane in Tulsa since 1951 and he first loss to Tulsa period since 1998. Ten wins in a row and seven of them coached by Mike Gundy. 

William Purnell-Imagn Images

Tough for everybody including Mike Gundy to see. 

The winningest head coach in Cowboy football history suffered his 90^th loss as the Pokes head man, it made for a neat symmetry of 170 wins vs. 90 losses, but this loss was the worst of Gundy’s time as Oklahoma State head coach. 

In his postgame press conference he had to answer repeated questions from CBS Sports.com’s Brandon Marcello on whether he was going to be fired that night (or Saturday morning). Gundy would collect $15 million on the way out the door.

When it was over and as we did the postgame radio interview, Gundy was reviewing what happened in his head. I’m not sure if he got much sleep on Friday night, it was hard even for the sideline radio reporter reviewing plays and situations in my head. 

At the end of the interview and pressed for what comes next, Gundy picked up the bit (horse racing term) and went on a mini rant, something he has done often in his time as head coach.

“For me, I’m frustrated for the team, frustrated for the fans, frustrated for everybody in the organization,” Gundy started when I pushed one more time. “Not in a bad way, but I want success for everybody. All we’ve had is success around here for 19 years. So, this is a difficult pill for everyone around here to swallow including me, but I’m not going to get into a mode where I’m showing visible, verbal frustration because our players are busting their ass. That is what I ask them to do.

“Nobody want to win more than they do and nobody wants to win more than the coaches,” Gundy kept adding. “That’s why I said earlier that I understand with the fans that they want to win and they get angry. I get it. They can get mad at me, but I as a former player and alum would appreciate if they would continue to support the players. That is what we do. They are young people, they are students, (supporting them( is what you would do with your own kids. If you are raising children and they don’t do good on a test, they don’t play a good little league game, they mess up in piano lessons, or they do something wrong, you support them. That is the most difficult thing for a human to do, especially today and in today’s world. That is why we have all the problems across the world.

Everybody needs to understand, I get it, I promise you that I understand, and I ain’t giving in,” Gundy continued voice getting louder. “I’m not quitting and we are going to fight just like we did the last couple of weeks. Nobody wanted to win more tonight than me. These guys are getting better, Zane’s improving, the coaches are starting to work together and getting a little bit better each week. I told the team, you were in there. I said, ‘Guys we will get back to work on Monday, coaches will work tomorrow and Sunday. We’ll get plans together and if you practice your ass off we’ll have a chance to beat Baylor.’ I don’t care what anybody else thinks when it comes to that. Everything else, I share it with them you know and that’s part of it. What do you think it’s like at my house? 

“I get it, I feel the same way everybody does,” Gundy started concluding. “Just understand, I’m the head coach and my responsibility is to get everybody in this building, aroudn 180 people and get them to work their ass off this weekend and on into Monday. That is what I am going to continue to do because this is what I love doing. There is not one ounce of me that is thinking about getting pissed off and not busting my ass tomorrow morning.

“I’m very appreciative of the fans, very appreciative of the crowd tonight, thie students,” Gundy turned back to the crowd and fans. “Students get angry too, right. They are all on social media and that is just kind of the thing to do. They were awesome tonight and I can only hope they will continue to come out next Saturday. We actually play on a Saturday, come out and be loyal and true and fight like hell for their team, yell for their team. That is the best thing that we can all do, being loyal and true to Oklahoma State.”

Like he stated, Mike Gundy is not going to quit and if the University is going to fire him within the season, they will likely have to pick him up and take him out of the building kicking and screaming.

That may happen, but my opinion is it does no good to fire a coach in September, except to declare that your program is dead and you are scrapping the rest of the season. The loss to Tulsa was, as I wrote, historically bad. There are nine more games. How many wins, any wins? I don’t know, Oklahoma State will likely be an underdog in every one of them. I know this, I’ll do this job, I’ll do my job on the radio with all the energy and all the enthusiasm I can. That is what you do. 

Either you do that or you quit. No matter how tough it is, no matter how much it hurts, quitting is not an option.