Rivalries Like Bedlam, All Games Different Now According to Gundy
STILLWATER – Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy was a little late to his own news conference for the second week in a row. He was running behind. I can vouch for that as he was watching tape of Oklahoma vs. TCU in his office before coming up to the press box level of Boone Pickens Stadium for the news conference. He got stopped on his way by some visitors and then by a golf recruit and his mom in on a visit from Australia. Hopefully, he’s the next Greg Norman or Adam Scott.
“I felt like I needed to talk to him,” Gundy said.
The head coach seemed to be in a good mood and loose coming off an ugly but needed victory 20-14 over Iowa State to push the Pokes to 7-3 on the season. It’s Bedlam and there was a good turnout and they want to talk Bedlam, so Gundy was asked from his experience as both a young quarterback and then a veteran does that help Spencer Sanders, now very much a veteran of Bedlam.
“I don’t think Spencer cares. He cares about every game the same. I don’t think any game makes any difference to him,” Gundy said kind of speaking for his quarterback. “And honestly, I don’t know if it does to any young people anymore. Society today is so different. Our players, as well as everybody else’s players in college football, they communicate through social media … Instagram and the two or three ways they communicate. They’ll talk to players on the team before we go play them on Saturday.”
Gundy used bowl games as an example and he’s right the communication between players on different teams in college, in the NFL, and even in high school is way different than the days before cell phones, the internet, and social media.
“We never talked to anybody. We didn’t like the other team,” Gundy said and some of us older members of the media in the room nodding heads. “We didn’t want to talk to them. When I was at Midwest City, I didn’t talk to people from Del City. We tried to take their girls. (laughter throughout the room) We didn’t want to talk to them. It’s not that way now. These guys are buddies. It trickles down from the NFL. Go to an NFL game an hour before when the players all come out. It’s a love fest. There’s nobody that’s the Steel Curtain versus the Cowboys. It’s just not that way anymore. I’m just being honest with you.”
It’s that way before college games too. There is not as much interaction as at an NFL game, but there is plenty. Later in the news conference Gundy was asked about his Bedlam playing experience and he remembered and told the story of being recruiting, even briefly committed to OU and seeing linebacker Brian Bosworth (Boz) on his recruiting trip. They were at a party in January and Gundy was wearing a coat, plenty of cloths and couldn’t help but notice Bosworth was in a tank top or a sleeveless t-shirt.
“I was a little scared of Boz [Brian Bosworth]. Boz scared me a little bit. Boz was on a different type of artificial nutrition than I was, period,” Gungy recalled vividly. Obviously, that’s a big dude, so I was a little concerned about it when I played him based on the artificial nutrition that he had going on that I didn’t have. But once the game started, it didn’t make a difference to me. I mean, if we’re gonna have a fight, we’re gonna have a fight.”
There was a brief moment in the first Bedlam game that Gundy was in that he went toe-to-toe with Bosworth and di not back down. Gundy was asked what if, what if he had gone to OU?
“I’d probably be the head coach at OU right now,” he answered. “I’m just saying I mean, that’s probably would have happened, but I’m in a great shape here. I don’t have to listen to all that down there.”
Gundy admits that the fans still have hatred for the rival. I can vouch for that. It’s always fun walking into the stadium in Norman. You don’t realize how many people seem to recognize you but don’t know your name. They have their own names for you.
“I just think the players live in a different world,” Gundy said of players. “They’re going to practice hard. They want to compete. They want to win, don’t get me wrong, but I just don’t know that there’s the bitter rivalry anymore with young people.”
For Gundy? The rivalry is there, and in his world winning matter a lot.
“Sure,” he answered. “It makes it easier during the year. Puts people in a good mood that wear orange.”