Mike Gundy Reflects on 48-34 Win in 400th Game With Oklahoma State
Wins are always important in college football, especially if they come on the road against a conference opponent you’re battling for position in the conference standings. Oklahoma State picked up such a win on Saturday as they beat West Virginia 48-34, a win which not only moved the Pokes to 3-1 in Big 12 play and helped their cause to get to Arlington and the Big 12 title game in December but gave Mike Gundy a win in his 400th game with the OSU program.
“I’ve been very fortunate to be around a lot of good people,” Mike Gundy told Robert Allen of the Cowboy Radio Network and Pokes Report of his 400 games with Oklahoma State. “We’ve built this program through a lot of years, and we’ve done some things that anybody in the state of Oklahoma thought we could ever do and we’re still doing them. I don’t think anyone in the state of Oklahoma thought we’d win the last three games and we’re still doing it. The long-term commitment to what we have and just continuing to try and build and grow the Oklahoma State way, it’s different than other places, I mean there’s thing that we have to do and ways to get it accomplished. I’ve just been, Kristen and I have been very lucky. We’ve raised three boys all through the same school system. We’ve had some ups and downs, me and the fans and the administration, but that’s the way it is. You’re never going to accomplish anything without having some disagreement because if you have no one disagreeing, then just one person’s thinking. We’ve been able to do that for a long, long time and I’m very fortunate that I’m in a position to be in one place that long. This a good group of young men, you can tell every time you’re around them. This group here is special. This is not the most talented team that we’ve had; we’ve had teams with three or four NFL high-round draft picks. But this is a special group of young men that are willing to fight and compete for each other.”
Gundy played quarterback for the Cowboys from 1986 to 1989, playing with two of the greatest college football players of all-time in Barry Sanders and Thurman Thomas, while helping the Pokes to two 10-win seasons.
He then joined the coaching staff as a wide receivers coach in 1990, was a quarterback coach from 1991-1993, the OC/QB coach in 1994 and QB coach in 1995. He left to be the pass game coordinator and QB coach at Baylor in 1996, then a wide receivers coach at Maryland 1997-99 and the passing game coordinator and QB coach for Maryland in 2000.
He then rejoined the Oklahoma State staff in 2001 as the offensive coordinator and took over as head coach in 2005. He has a 161-77 overall record. He’s taken the Pokes to 12-straight bowl games, 17 games overall with an 11-6 record.
His teams have also had some rather notable wins, including wins over Alabama and most recently the largest comeback win in program history over one of the best programs in college football history, Notre Dame, in the Fiesta Bowl following the 2021 season.
It’s been an up-and-down career in Stillwater, with most of the time being spent up. Gundy’s recently told the media that he plans on coaching well past 60 years of age, he’s currently 56, and that should mean plenty of more wins and fun times in Stillwater.
