Gundy’s high jinks
Have Mike Gundy’s antics outlasted their welcome during a rough season?
STILLWATER — My sandwich was only halfeaten two weeks ago when Mike Gundy’s Monday press conference began in Boone Pickens Stadium. So I wrapped it and placed it back in the box-lunch container.
Soon enough, while Gundy was talking about Taylor Cornelius or the defensive collapse against Iowa State or some issue afflicting OSU football, Gundy’s labradoodle had found my lunch and thus had found hers.
Kenzie has been a staple at Gundy press conferences this season. As prevalent as Robert Allen. Kenzie hasn’t started barking questions— maybe she figures she’s heard all the answers— and instead does what dogs do. Nuzzles up to her owner. Sniffs strangers. Looks for halfeaten sandwiches that could use a good piece of cheese.
It’s a strange sight, a dog at a football press conference, but that’s part of the Mike Gundy Good-Time Hour this season. Drinking smoothies and wishing they were spiked with vodka, while answering questions about the offensive line. Peeling off a Cowboy pullover to reveal a referee’s striped shirt, hailing OSU’s
stripe-the-stadium efforts. Plus Kenzie. ESPN meets Animal Planet.
All great fun for college football’s most quirky coach, who this season has trumped even his internationally-famous mullet haircut.
If only the Cowboys were winning. OSU has lost three of four games since Big 12 play began, with a victory only over Kansas, and the Cowboys must win out to reach double-digit victories for the fourth straight season. Ten wins long has left the radar; can OSU just get to six and be bowl eligible? Starting with Saturday night against sixth-ranked Texas, the schedule is difficult.
And when high success is replaced by mediocrity, a coach’s high jinks don’t seem so quaint.A little too much Nero for the masses.
Hmmm, Gundy said when I asked him about it. “Honestly, I never thought about it,” Gundy said. “As I’ve said before, I’m having the most fun I’ve ever had in my life as a football coach. Love Oklahoma State. Love the players I coach. Enjoy the moment. I’m just having a good time and kind of be myself. I don’t ever see changing to make anybody else happy.”
In his defense, this Gundy is much preferable to the Gundy we saw the last time the Cowboys struggled. In November 2014, OSU was 5-6, headed for its first losing season in nine years, and Gundy went all dark and disturbed the week of the Bedlam finale, acting like a coach who wanted to be fired. Joyless, reticent, almost resigned.
Then Bob Stoops punted to Tyreek Hill, the Cowboys pulled a massive upset and Gundy was back to his old self. Has been ever since. And the Cowboys won 30 games in the three seasons thereafter, and OSU football took its place among the top 15 programs in the nation.
But now the Cowboys are flirting with ninth place in the Big 12, and the hair and the dog and the stripping to reveal a bare chest or a ref’s shirt aren’t quite so charming.
“We’ve been very lucky,” Gundy said. “We’ve won so many games and we’ve established a culture with really quality young people. I’m enjoying everything going on.
“People can say ‘well, how could you enjoy what you’re doing, because your record … is 4-3?’ Well, I am. I enjoy the challenge. I want to see us play better. I want to see how much better we can be in two weeks (preparation). That’s just the way I see it.”
By the way, Kenzie was absent from the press conference this Monday. Half-eaten sandwiches stayed half-eaten. An admission by Gundy that the losing has sobered the OSU camp?
Nope. “She had to go to the beauty shop,” Gundy said.
Every dog needs a little grooming. Perhaps the same has happened to Gundy’s football team, too.