STILLWATER – One Oklahoma State administrator was looking at his watch and he saw the first Mike Gundy news conference before the opener of the 2022 football season was creeping past the half-hour mark. He whispered,” this is normally where it get’s interesting.” He’s right, the longer Cowboys head coach Mike Gundy goes the wider ranging and potentially more controversial the topics and comments can become. Thursday (Aug. 25) Gundy never gave national pundits that like to borrow comments from Gundy any ammo. However, Gundy when asked about his next win, the No. 11 or No. 12 Cowboys are favored over Central Michigan on Sept. 1, instead dropped a huge hint that he may stay on and coach Oklahoma State longer than he had hinted at previously.
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Gundy has won more than any other football coach at Oklahoma State
“We’ve been very fortunate here to have a lot of success. Knock on wood, I feel better than I have in years and years here, I’m thinking way on down the line,” Gundy said as he prepared for his surprise comment of the day. “I thought at one time at 65 I would check it in. I don’t see that happening now if I feel good. I’m worried about working down the line and trying to work with the commissioner and work with Dr. Shrum and Chad (Weiberg) and Reid (Sigmon) and our board of regents. We are all tugging one direction now and build this (football) and at some point somebody is going to take this over and it is going to be a helluva job. That is my goal right now rather than the next win. I want to win next Thursday.”
Now, Gundy couldn’t help when asked about the 2016 meeting with Central Michigan and the officials mistake that produced an untimed down at the end of the game that resulted in a “hail Mary” hook and ladder game winning play that took an Oklahoma State 27-24 win and turned it into a 30-27 win for Central Michigan.
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Former CMU and current Dallas Cowboys quarterback Cooper Rush was instrumental in that upset in 2016.
“At some point when I’m done I’m going to write a book,” Gundy said. “I have so much stuff that I don’t know if you will be able to get it in an actual book. There will be a good chapter on that. At some point I want to figure out how I can get that win back. If I could, then I would already be at 150 (coaching wins) right now. There has to be some circuit judge that would say they won the game in regulation.”
You could almost divide the news conference in to 20-minute halves. The first half was more football and Gundy talking about his players and how they are heading into the season. Players that are veterans like Spencer Sanders and Brock Martin, players like Trace Ford and Braydon Johnson coming back from injuries or ailments, and young players like Kendal Daniels and Dominic Richardson that he wants to see play. The second half of the news conference had more non football, such as Gundy’s meeting on Tuesday with new Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark when he visited Stillwater and OSU campus.
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Gundy is happy, and it is obvious.
“I had a long meeting with him, maybe an hour and 10 minutes,” Gundy said of the meeting with Yormark. “He wants information. He meets the criteria of people that try to learn and be out there and be innovative. He agrees with all of us that the conference realignment has just started, just getting started now. I don’t want to speak for him, but one thing about him is he’ll tell you the truth. He is a straight shooter. I’m in heaven, I have a commissioner that is a straight shooter; I have a President that is straight shooter; and an AD that is a straight shooter. I’ve never been so happy in my life. I’m a straight shooter, sometimes it works against me, but I am.”
Shooting straight, Gundy explained that the job is easier for him know than it was back in his early days.
“I feel good. We have a big staff, and I don’t really do anything anymore,” Gundy joked. “Honestly, I don’t. My youngest, Gage is here, and he will come to my office and see me at my desk, and I will be thinking. He says, ‘you don’t do anything, you just sit there.’ I say believe it or not they pay me to think, so I am thinking.”
Okay and Central Michigan is heavy in his thoughts. Gundy spoke of the Chippewas with respect, and he should. I firmly believe that this team is the best team Oklahoma State will play in the non-conference. Mark my words, and Gundy’s Central Michigan is no cupcake. Oklahoma State should beat them, but mess around and this Chips team is as capable as that one in 2016.
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Gundy respects CMU head coach Jim McIlwain and the Chippewas.
“Just watching last year, highly competitive, very physical upfront. I see a lot of MAC football because they play during the week,” Gundy elaborated. “I’ve watched a lot of it. They are exactly what I see from that conference. They are physical upfront. Their back is physical, and he is part of what they are. The head coach is a good play caller. From the outside looking in, they believe in toughness The quarterback is athletic and they had a really good pass rush last year. They don’t try to do too much and they are good at what they do.”
They run a lot of RPOs on offense, play a 4-2-5 on defense. Call them modern with a streak of neanderthal football in their DNA.
“There is some old school to what they do,” Gundy continued. “They want to get into tight end wings. They want to get in unbalanced. There is a little bit of Les Miles offense to them.”
Which takes us back that it has been 18-years since Les Miles football was Oklahoma State football. Now, 18-years of Mike Gundy football and according to Gundy that could go one to be 28-years or more of Gundy ball.
