Welcome Back Jamie Blatnick!

STILLWATER – Oklahoma State fans will be excited to know that Cowboys head coach Mike Gundy and assistant athletic director for athletic performance Rob Glass have added another former Cowboy to the staff in football. Former Cowboys All-Big 12 defensive end Jamie Blatnick is back and will work as a coach on Glass’ strength and conditioning staff. It was needed as the strength staff for football lost two full-time coaches since the start of the 2020 football season plus a nutritionist. 

Mike Gundy said Blatnick is another really good example of how he intends to bring back former players in the program that played for him and understand the culture and the way the program needs to be in order to duplicate the success that current teams are striving to build upon.  

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Blatnick was so excited to get started he was down there meeting players almost before he was hired.

“In the future, I really believe that I will hire former players that have been here for most of our positions that become available,” said Gundy. “There are so many of them out there. They know me and they know the program and what works. There are too many of them to hire them all, but we will bring many of them back.”

Recent hires on the football staff have also included former OSU quarterback J. W. Walsh and former cornerback and NFL veteran with the New York Giants Michael Hunter. 

Blatnick played on Gundy’s best ever team, the 2011 Cowboys that finished third in the nation and dismantled Oklahoma 44-10 in winning the Big 12 Conference championship and then beat Stanford in overtime to win the Fiesta Bowl. That team finish 12-1. 

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Baltnick’s Bedlam interception is an all-time Cowboy highlight.

That season Blatnick finished with 50 tackles, 13.5 tackles for loss, 8.0 sacks, and an interception in the Bedlam game that he returned down the sideline in front of the Oklahoma bench and head coach Bob Stoops all the way to the one-yard-line setting up an OSU touchdown. Blatnick was first team All-Big 12 that season. He finished his career with 118 total tackles, 23.5 tackles for loss, 16 sacks, the one interception and two forced fumbles. He was a letterman in 2008-2011 and was also a three-time All-Academic All-Big 12 selection. 

“i feel like I’m back in college again,” Blatnick said at practice on Thursday. His first day on the job he assisted with Pro Day, which is something he knows a little about. Blatnick signed as a rookie with the Denver Broncos. He was with the Buffalo Bills in training camp a year later. He finished his football playing for the arena team owned by members of the rock band KISS, the Los Angeles Kiss. 

“I’m really excited to be back and around football and these players,” Blatnick added. 

He was so excited that back in March after he interviewed and was hired to start on April 1, he hung around and spent time getting to know some of the players in the West End Zone weight room. 

Blatnick is going to be a tremendous addition. He has worked some in strength training with athletes and has also worked in private business since his playing days. He told me his family will move to Stillwater when he can locate a home later this spring or early in the summer.