Gunnar Gundy is Legit and Don't Be Surprised By His Development

STILLWATER – Okay, I think we’ve waited long enough. Pokes Report has yet to do a story on the fact that Mike Gundy is no longer the only Gundy out there on the field everyday with the Oklahoma State Cowboys football program. Honestly, that’s not exactly true. His three sons have spent varied amounts of time on the field at practices and on the sidelines during games. It’s just none of the boys has been an official member of the program until this January when Gunnar enrolled and took a place in the locker room as a preferred walk-on.

If we want to set history straight then we have to go back to his days wearing blue and gold as a Stillwater Pioneer where Gunnar Gundy was 32-5 as a starter in Class 6A-2 and took his team to the State Championship Game two years in a row as a junior and senior. He threw for 7,689-yards in his prep career and that included 90 touchdown passes and just 12 interceptions. He had scholarship offers to several Division I FBS schools including Eastern Michigan and Toledo.

Texas Tech defensive coordinator Keith Patterson was evaluating in the spring before Gundy’s senior season and told me, “He’s the best quarterback I’ve seen this spring.” Patterson took that back to Red Raiders head coach Matt Wells, who called Mike Gundy and asked about Gunnar. Ultimately, Tech decided not to recruit the son of another Big 12 head coach.

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Gunnar stands with the other program newcomers in January.

There is no doubt that being Mike Gundy’s son helped Gunnar a lot in his development and knowledge of the game, but it hurt in advancing his opportunities in being recruited. In the end that didn’t matter.

“I want to go to Oklahoma State,” Gunnar told me during his senior season at Stillwater. “It is the school that I’ve always wanted to plat for, and I want to play for my dad.”

During the first media availability this spring in spring football, right after the first practice, Stillwater News-Press sports editor Jason Elmquist asked the head coach what it was like to have his son on the practice field as a player.

“I actually forget he’s there,” Mike Gundy said and I’m pretty sure it’s more like he tries to forget Gunnar is out there. “I have so many things going on in practice that I’m trying to watch and then when I scan to certain things I’ll see him, when I talk to the team, which all through the offseason, and then I’ll look over there and see him and then I’ll remember he’s there.

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Gundy out there the first day of spring football.

“So, it’s a little unusual, but I kind of prepared myself for that, Gundy continued. “The good thing is I have so many other things going (during practice) that I get zeroed in on certain things and then I’ll forget and then I’ll see him and I’ll have to do a little double take.”

Of course, the question had to be asked about the number. At Oklahoma State 12 is not a retired number. On defense, safety Kanion Williams is currently wearing it. For a quarterback to wear it, that has to be special or not. Recent quarterbacks to wear 12, the number Mike Gundy wore as the four-year starting quarterback from 1986-89, include walk-on Ryan Sherry and Daxx Garman.

“He’s always had (No. 12) so it’s pretty cool,” Mike Gundy said of Gunnar wearing the family number (Cale was number 12 at Oklahoma). “I wasn’t sure what number he was going to be honestly, but I guess it worked out for him that he was able to get that so that was pretty cool.”

During the winter off season work with Rob Glass and staff, Gunnar progressed and by the end of the work he has put on a few more pounds, got his 40-time down to the 4.7 range, was stronger, and fired off a 32-inch vertical jump.

“He’s got a good arm and he works really hard,” starting quarterback Spencer Sanders said during spring. He can spin it and he’s a lefty, that’s cool. He’s one of us.”

“Gunnar, he’s a cool guy,” back-up quarterback Shane Illingworth said after the spring game. “He’s a good dude. A humble dude. He works his tail off, too. He’s not a guy who thinks things are going to be handed to him.  

“He goes and grinds. He’s a grinder. That’s what he is. He’s super athletic. Can throw a good ball. As time goes on, people are going to see that he’s just a football player. He can go out there and make some plays. Kid’s the real deal.”

The real deal, that he is, but because of his last name he is going to live in that world where people are going to doubt him. Gundy has a strong arm and an advanced knowledge of the game. His biggest challenge this spring adapting to the faster tempo of the college level. 

Fans are going to think he’s being handed opportunity because his dad is the head coach. Teammates are going to wonder if he can be trusted or if he’s like a CIA operative planted in the locker room and on the practice field filling his father full of the things players say and the feelings they have.

“That’s a tough situation for him,” Gundy said as head coach but also father. “His dad’s the coach. It’s not easy. Call it like you want. Get the elephant out of the room. It’s not easy to be in his position. Maybe I chewed someone out during practice, and Gunnar has to be in the locker room, listening to someone who’s not very happy with coach Gundy at that moment.”  

Gunnar can handle that. He’s quiet and he’s smart. He knows better than to jump out and defend his father in the locker room. That kind of stuff has to play out and usually it doesn’t mean much and it rarely lasts very long.

“Someone might not be very happy with Gunnar’s dad, and I have prepped him on how to handle that. Kids are kids,” Mike Gundy added. “Sometimes, they get mad at coach Gundy or one of the assistant coaches.”

The situation that may be hard will be when Gunnar goes into a game for the first time, not the spring game, but a real football game in Boone Pickens Stadium in the fall. I was there to hear then head coach Bob Simmons’ son, Nathan, booed off the field at old Lewis Field.

Mike Gundy is a polarizing personality, and he has his detractors as well as his supporters. I can see when Gunnar goes in those detractors will be heard.

I’ve talked with Gunnar several times about what to expect then. Is that a far way off? A couple of years except for maybe in a blowout non conference game, barring an unusual rash of injuries to quarterbacks. Gunnar could be as high as third on the depth chart this fall. More likely fourth.

Gundy was asked about his progress.

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Gundy showed his arm quality int he spring game.

“That’s pretty much all I watch on an offensive set, because that’s just my life,” Gundy said after the spring game about watching the quarterbacks live in practice and in games. “And I admit that. I don’t watch the big guys up front. I watch them on tape, but I don’t watch them during the games, because that's not my life.  So, I watch everything Shane does. I watch everything Spencer does, and Gunnar and Peyton and Bullock.”  

After the spring game when Bill Haisten of the Tulsa World asked if he had seen Gunner’s underhand forward pass?

“I saw that,” head coach and dad said. “He’s been watching too much of (Patrick) Mahomes’ cut-ups. I wouldn’t give him too much credit, early, right now,” Gundy said. 

I will. He’s got guts and despite knowing how harshly he may be judged, Gunnar Gundy keeps plugging along. He told me recently one of the things he’s learned about being in college football is that it is not all forced on you. It is still up to you on how much you want to work and advance. That will play to Gunnar Gundy’s advantage because he wants to work and he will.