Example of Cowboy Culture Spilling Out All Over this Season
STILLWATER – Oklahoma State can look in the mirror this week. That was not the case last week with Texas arriving in town hauling in their entitlement issues, still. The Longhorns believe they are better than everybody else and ask any head football coach at the Division I level, that can be as crippling as losing your starting quarterback especially if your starting quarterback is one of the “silver spoon” players in your locker room. Traveling to Manhattan, Kan. to catch up with fellow successful blue collar program in Kansas State, these are two programs cut from the same cloth. In fact, one (Oklahoma State) coached by a former quarterback, assistant, and offensive coordinator who admired and took notes on the success of the older coach that turned K-State from America’s losingest college program to a Big 12 Conference champion.
“Well, I think of Coach (Bill) Snyder,” answered Mike Gundy when asked what came to mind when I said Kansas State. “But, it’s the discipline and the simplicity and the toughness and play-hard that he created that has carried them through it. You see a lot of it on their teams now, that he was able to create. I used to go to watch Coach (Eddie) Sutton in practice in basketball. And he coached this defense and he coached these certain things, and then they were really good at it and they held them accountable for that. And that’s what they did. It’s all the same. It’s full circle.”
Gundy has good reason to pay attention and follow along with what Kansas State is doing even now with Chris Klieman in charge. The dynamics and the culture of the Wildcat program are very similar as they were under Snyder. They are similar to what Gundy has created inside the West End Zone and the Oklahoma State program that has led to 17 straight winning seasons and made Oklahoma State the second most successful program in the Big 12 over the past decade plus including another win last Saturday over Texas, the ninth in the last 13 meetings with wealthiest football program in the league, maybe in America.
“So, the core of it, the basic principles have stayed the same,” Gundy said of Cowboy culture. “And, as I have gone through this a lot of years, I learned I didn’t really know I just accidentally never changed the core. And then made tons of mistakes and then corrected them. And then we developed a culture that takes a long time to instill in the players. And it’s even a little more tricky nowadays because social media has changed the perception of everybody, all of us in this room and everybody in that building, and the way people see people, the way people see themselves and so on so and forth. For that, we have to make more adjustments, but I have been very fortunate that most of the people that are in that building with me have been with me a long time.”
Social media does two things that are detrimental to driving and perfecting a strong team culture. Social media tends to be more about the individual and less about team or group accomplishments. More important, social media only showcases one’s best moments. You look at somebody’s social media and you only see high marks, good things. Nobody posts their mistakes. When is the last time you saw a social media post from an athlete about losing? Never, unless you follow Tim Tebow. When is the last time you saw a quarterback post video of an interception?
Social media does not promote accountability. It also doesn’t do much to teach and advance younger players to graduate to contributing status. That all has to be done by the people ingrained in the culture. Gundy calls himself and the Cowboy culture fortunate.
“This thing runs itself, the culture runs itself. I don’t really do much anymore,” Gundy said. “I just kind of stay out of the way and try to govern the main people. And there’s not any way in the world we could have won that game (Texas) if we didn’t have that culture that we have here, because in most cases when you’re looking out there with the personnel we used at times they’re going to panic. The coaches panic, then players panic, because they look out there and they’re like, ‘Okay, you have (Talyn Shettron) on the field. You have (Cam Smith) on the field, you have (Stephon Johnson Jr.) on the field. You have six on the field on both sides of the ball. We have guys on the field that shouldn’t even be lined up playing, much less against Texas. And so, the coaches do a good job of the one thing I ask him to do, be patient have poise and teach and coach and correct. I don’t want screamers. I don’t like yellers. I don’t like guys that are running out of control. You know, your veins are popping out of your head, because then the kids panic.”
That is obvious being on the sidelines and in the locker room. Gundy’s long-time preaching of attitude and body language frustrates opposing teams as they look over and never see the Oklahoma State sidelines dejected, frantic, or in a state of disarray.
Gundy is now 155-70 in his tenure as head coach. While he has now 9-9, an even .500 vs. Texas, he is 9-5 against fellow blue collar cultured program Kansas State. Those games are tough because the two teams are looking into a cultural mirror.
“The best example I give when I talk to the staff is when you’re raising children, if you let them get away with anything at any given time, like my third one, he got away with everything because I’m tired,” Gundy said talking about son Gage, current senior quarterback for No. 1-ranked Stillwater in Class 6A-2. “Honestly, I’m just tired. I mean, he comes in a little late, ‘Ah, that’s OK. Whatever.’ If it doesn’t have to do with respect then I waver a little bit, so he hadn’t been raised as structured as the other two. It’s the same thing with the players. Any little thing we let them get away with, we turn around next week and it’s going to be worse. It’s a full-time job to keep 140 of them accountable, but then also understand there’s personalities we’re dealing with and nobody is the same. I think coaches for years tried to coach everybody and treat them the same. None of us are the same. None of us in this room are the same. And that’s the adjustment that has to be made.”
At Oklahoma State the right adjustments have been made along the way, sometimes by trial and error, but they’ve been made just the same and product is what you experienced last Saturday in Boone Pickens Stadium. Hopefully, again this next Saturday in Bill Snyder Family Stadium, but that name on that stadium tells you this one will be more difficult.