Jerry Kill Talks Mutual Admiration Society with Mike Gundy

STILLWATER – The dynamics are interesting. Oklahoma State head football coach Mike Gundy always talks about how he really doesn’t talk a lot with other college coaches. Gundy has always kind of stayed to himself. One coach in the Big 12 that he has told me multiple times that he enjoys talking to has been the other coach that has been at it as long as he has, even a few years longer in former TCU head coach Gary Patterson. Gundy, an offensive guy, and Patterson, a defensive guru, would find some common ground at Big 12 coaches meetings and other events, such as Nike clinics.

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Kill shakes hands with Baylor’s Dave Aranda after the TCU 30-28 win.

Now, as a result of TCU’s desire to change head coaches and get a fresh start perspective Gundy will be facing as we documented, his former Biology teacher and a Midwest City linebackers coach in Jerry Kill this Saturday night at 7 p.m. inside Boone Pickens Stadium. Kill, who went on as a head coach at Saginaw Valley State, Emporia State, Southern Illinois, Northern Illinois, and Minnesota; is the interim head coach for the Frogs.

“Last year we talked before the game and so forth,” Kill told The Oklahoman of Gundy. Kill had come to Fort Worth to help his friend Patterson as TCU's special assistant to the head coach. Patterson called him the head coach of offense.

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Mike Gundy as an Oklahoma State quarterback.

“Just like anything else, we all go to work and so forth. I’ve got a great respect — he knows that,” Kill continued talking about Gundy. “He’s got a great football team. He really does.”

Kill had strong memories of Gundy even though his coaching and teaching time with the Bombers was just one school year.

"He was a leader, outstanding leader in high school,” Kill said of Gundy the high school All-State quarterback and Class 5A State Championship winner. “He studied the game, and the best thing is that he knew how to win."

Both Gundy and Kill have won as college coaches. Gundy is up to 145-68 in his 17th season as the Cowboys head coach. Kill has pieced together a 153-99 record in his 23rd year. He is 1-0 as the Frogs interim with that 30-28 win over Baylor last Saturday.

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Morris throwing to Quentin Johnston in the Baylor game.

My question to Gundy on Monday was whether he thought Kill or offensive coordinator and former Gundy assistant at Oklahoma State Doug Meacham was responsible for deciding to go with Chandler Morris, the Oklahoma transfer and son of former college head coach Chad Morris at quarterback. Morris ran all over the place and threw all over in helping TCU to 562-yards of total offense. He had 11 carries for 70-yards and a touchdown. He completed 29-of-41 passing for 461-yards and two touchdowns.

Gundy said he thought it was likely more of a Meacham call. Maybe it was, but Kill is quite the offensive mind now and not that linebacker coach Gundy saw at Midwest City.

“It was one of those things with Chandler where you don’t get a chance to see something like that very often in a young man’s first start the way he played,” Kill said of Morris and the offense for the Frogs. “It probably goes back to being raised by his daddy and so forth, but he carried us in the game. There’s no doubt about it. We don’t win the game without what he does.”

Kill likes to run the football, but he said he and the offensive staff knew Baylor would be tough to run on. What do you think they are saying about the Oklahoma State defensive front. Gundy thinks his defense will see more of the same out of Kill, Meacham, Morris and the TCU offense.

“We tried to mix it up as much as possible, but with his speed he can move around, too, so he was an added run guy that we needed because we only had one running back,” explained Kill.

Kill will be looking this week for ways to beat Oklahoma State and he said at his press conference on Tuesday, he knows that is what is happening in Stillwater.

“Great competitor,” Kill said of Gundy. “He was a guy that just found a way to win. That’s pretty much how he does in coaching. He finds ways to win.”