Six-win seasons won’t show that Gundy is in prime
Mike Gundy had to stop and think when asked if he would be making any New Year’s resolutions. “I don’t smoke,” he said. “I don’t drink tall boys.” He chuckled. “There were times this year I went straight to the whiskey.” Oklahoma State fans can empathize. This year caused plenty of consternation for Cowboys everywhere. In the coaches’ offices. In the locker room. In the stands. OSU showed it could beat any team on its schedule, which made it all the more difficult when the Cowboys proved equally adept at losing to any team on its schedule. This was a team capable of better. The fault for why it wasn’t is
shared. Players needed to execute better. Assistants needed to scheme better. But ultimately, the buck stops with Gundy.
He must be better in the new year.
In truth, 2019 might be the biggest year of his coaching career. Get back on course, and the failures of 2018 will become a blip of the radar of the program’s most successful coach. But fail to right the ship, and the Cowboys could be heading for Downward Spiral Straits.
A good first step would be winning on the last day of 2018.
What happens Monday in the Liberty Bowl will have an impact on how fans feel about this season, this program and this head coach. A victory over Missouri secures the 13th consecutive winning season and would be much preferred to having alosing season for the first time since Gundy’s first yearas head coach.
“Do you want me to remind you how much I’m concerned about fans?” Gundy said, referencing his fart-sound-infused diatribe from earlier this year, when I asked him about fan perceptions during a bowl news conference Sunday.
I decided to remind him fans are the ones who buy the tickets and donate the funds.
That seemed to soften Gundy’s tone a bit.
“I have to be concerned with what’s going on internally in the organization more so than people outside the program,” he replied.
I guarantee you, what’s going on internally is a concern to lots of Cowboys. No one expected this season to be perfect as OSU replaced Mason Rudolph and James Washington and several other pivotal players. Add a change of defensive schemes, and troubles were sure to arise.
And they did.
But not necessarily because the defense was new or the replacements were bad. The Cowboys simply played uninspired football against Kansas State and Baylor and TCU, all teams that OSU was better than.
How does that happen? There never seemed to bea commitment to a consistently high standard of play — just look at all the penalties this team committed and continued committing even late in the season— and while yes, the fault is shared, standards emanate from the head coach.
Even though he recently tweeted that he was in his prime, having a team that wins only six games won’t convince many folks.
Something Gundy said after his initial jokes about New Year’s resolutions gave the impression he realizes that not only must his teambe better next year but also he must be better for it.
“Be the best person that I can be and provide for our team and make sure the 200 people in our organization — players, coaches, administrators, families— have the best experience they can have,” he said of what he aspires to do in 2019.
Cowboys everywhere have to hope Gundy keeps
that resolution.