Mike Gundy

Mike Gundy
Sport(s)	Football
Current position
Title	Head coach
Team	Oklahoma State
Conference	Big 12
Record	57–30
Annual salary	$2.1 million[1]
Biographical details
Born	August 12, 1967 (1967-08-12) (age 44)
Place of birth	Midwest City, OK
Playing career
1986-1989	Oklahoma State
Position(s)	Quarterback
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
1990 1991-1993 1994-1995 1996 1997-2000 2001-2004 2005-present	Oklahoma State (WR) Oklahoma State (QB) Oklahoma State (OC/QB) Baylor (QB) Maryland (WR) Oklahoma State (OC) Oklahoma State
Head coaching record
Overall	57–30
Statistics
College Football Data Warehouse
Accomplishments and honors
Championships
1 Big 12 South Division (2010)
Awards
2010 Big 12 Coach of the Year

Mike Gundy (born August 12, 1967) is the head football coach at Oklahoma State University. He was previously the Cowboys' quarterback from 1986 to 1989. Gundy became Oklahoma State's coach on January 3, 2005. In 2007 he received national media attention for his heated criticism of a newspaper article on one of his players.^[2][3]

Biography

Playing career

At Midwest City High School, Gundy played quarterback, and was voted Oklahoma Player of the Year in 1986.^[4] Gundy was heavily recruited by the Oklahoma Sooners but in the end signed with the Oklahoma State University Cowboys. He became the starting quarterback midway through his freshman year. Gundy would become the all-time leading passer in Oklahoma State and Big 8 Conference history.^[4] Over the course of four years, Gundy threw 49 touchdowns and 7,997 yards, including 2,106 yards in 1987 and 2,163 in 1988.^[4] He led the Cowboys to bowl wins in the 1987 Sun Bowl and 1988 Holiday Bowl aided by two Hall of Fame running backs, Thurman Thomas and Barry Sanders.^[5][6] He also led OSU to three 10-win seasons.

Mike Gundy held the record for most consecutive passes attempted without an interception at the start of a career by a freshman in Division 1 history with 138, until Baylor freshman Robert Griffin broke it in 2008. Coincidentally, Baylor was playing against Gundy's Oklahoma State team when Griffin surpassed the mark. After the game, Gundy was able to personally congratulate Griffin on the accomplishment.

Coaching career

Early positions

When Gundy graduated, he joined Pat Jones staff as an assistant coach. He was wide receiver coach in 1990, quarterback coach from 1991–1993 and offensive coordinator from 1994–1995.

Gundy was quarterbacks coach/passing game coordinator for Baylor during the 1996 season. He was on staff with Larry Fedora at Baylor and would rekindle that relationship when he became head coach at Oklahoma State, bringing Fedora on as his offensive coordinator. After the season, he moved again, this time to Maryland where he was wide receiver coach and passing game coordinator from 1997–2000 for the Terps.

Oklahoma State

In 2001, the Oklahoma State University head football coach job became vacant when Bob Simmons resigned and a search produced Les Miles and Mike Gundy as the finalists. Miles was hired as head coach and Gundy was brought aboard as offensive coordinator. The team would go on to three straight bowl games in Miles's last three years as head coach and when Miles left in 2004 to take the LSU job, Gundy was named immediately as Miles successor and the 22nd head coach at Oklahoma State.

His first season saw the expulsion of eleven players from the team and the Cowboys struggled to a 4–7 record winning only one Big 12 conference game.

In his second season, the Cowboy offense began to click and the Cowboys would finish 7–6 including a victory over the Alabama Crimson Tide in the Independence Bowl.

In 2007, the Cowboys again posted a 6–6 regular season record and a bowl win over the Indiana Hoosiers in the Insight Bowl. After their second straight bowl appearance, Gundy was rewarded with a contract extension through the 2013 season.^[7]

2007 media controversy

On September 22, 2007, Gundy made comments that became the subject of a nationwide media controversy. Following his team's victory over the Texas Tech Red Raiders, Gundy was so disgusted with an inaccurate news article that he refused to discuss the game or to answer any questions about the game. Instead, he commented for 3 minutes and 20 seconds about the newspaper article. The article was critical of one of Gundy's players, and Gundy launched into what ESPN called a "tirade" against the journalist who wrote the story.^[2][3] Video clips of the coach's impassioned speech were watched more than 2,000,000 times from video streaming sites such as YouTube,^[8][9][10] where it became one of the ten most-viewed clips of the day.^[11] Jenni Carlson of The Oklahoman wrote the original article discussing Bobby Reid, the former starting quarterback, and reasons why he might have been demoted to second-string. The OSU coaching staff publicly supported Reid earlier in the year, but later demoted him with no public explanation to the media.^[12] The article was titled "Reid is still the most talented signal-caller, but attitude is reason for change."^[13] However, the bolded headline read: "QB Change: All About Attitude". Carlson said that Reid was still the most talented quarterback on the team but that he got "nicked in some games and sat it out instead of gutting it out."^[8] Gundy professed his feelings about the article, in essence calling the writer and the editor "garbage", because they were picking on an amateur athlete.

In this post-game press conference, Gundy called three-fourths of Carlson's column "fiction." He noted two statements in the article that were false: 1) That the coaches said Bobby Reid was scared and 2) they made the decision because of a threatened transfer by Donovan Woods. Gundy bluntly stated, "That ain't true" and "That's not true" respectively. During his weekly news conference the following Monday, Carlson asked the coach to point out what he thought were the factual errors in the article and Gundy replied, "I don't have to," preferring to leave the matter behind him and unwilling to talk to the individual who had written the article he was disgusted with.^[8] Carlson replied that she can't report her errors to the paper unless she knows what they are.^[14] Gundy said, "I'd rather just let it go."^[8][14] Gundy was asked two more times by reporters from other papers, and again declined to elaborate.^[11][15] He said that his only regrets concerning his post-game statements were that he wished he had written down what he wanted to say, because he had more to say. At the post-game press conference, Gundy tried to relate to Carlson by saying in essence that he hoped that Carlson becomes a parent, in order to understand how difficult it is to console a young person whose feelings have been badly hurt by pointed criticism of some perceived shortcoming, even when then youngster had tried their best.^[11] Gundy called the 21-year old Reid a "good kid" who does everything right and is undeserving of such criticism.^[11] He also made the now famous quote, "...Come after me! I'm a man! I'm forty!" during the rant, which has often been the subject of humor. Reid's mother says that the story was malicious and untrue.^[16] She pointed to one thing in the article that she said was untrue; she said she did not feed her son chicken from a box meal after the team's loss to Troy University.^[17]

In a column the following Tuesday, Carlson wrote that she also would like to let it go, had Gundy not questioned her credibility. She wrote, "I will not stand on the sidelines and allow someone to attack my credibility."^[8] She challenged Gundy to point out even one statement from the article that was not factually correct.^[8] The Oklahoman sports editor, Mike Sherman, also stood by the story.^[18] Mike Griffith, president of the Football Writers Association of America, called Gundy's behavior "completely inappropriate."^[8] CBS Sportsline's Dennis Dodd went further saying, "Mike Gundy needs to be reprimanded, definitely suspended, probably fined and maybe fired."^[19] OSU athletic director Mike Holder stood behind Gundy, saying that "nothing is more important to us than our student-athletes."^[11] College football coaches were divided in their opinions. Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh said, "I feel like the coach at Oklahoma State summed it up very well. I’m in agreement with him."^[20] However, Oregon State coach Mike Riley said that dealing with both criticism and praise is just part of a player’s learning experience. Riley said, "They’re young men, but I think college is all about growth and development. The scrutiny part of it is part of our life, and they have to be educated about that."^[20]

The article generated discussion about what constitutes fair criticism for players that welcome the adulation of the press when things are going well for them.^{[10][12][15][18][19][21]} In Gundy's criticism of Carlson, he said that she would have never written the piece if she were a parent like himself. There are some concerns that the remarks constituted a form of sexism and about whether Gundy would have launched a similar attack on a male sportswriter.^{[11][12][21][22]} The Association for Women in Sports Media said that Gundy handled the situation in an "unprofessional manner."^[8] Football fans were divided on the issue. Most thought that Carlson's story was unfair and that Gundy did the right thing in sticking up for his player, but that he probably should have shown more restraint. Others thought that Carlson had a right to run the story and that Gundy overreacted. Polls and message boards have shown an overwhelming majority of fans support Coach Gundy, while reporters have been solidly behind Carlson.^[23][24]

2008 season

In 2008, Gundy led the Oklahoma State Cowboys to their best season in 20 years. They were ranked in the top 15 for most of the season. The season ended with an appearance in the Holiday Bowl, where they lost to Oregon. Gundy was rewarded with a new seven-year contract worth $15.7 million. The contract, which extends through the 2015 season, went into effect on January 1, 2009.^[25]

2009 season

Gundy led the 2009 Cowboys to another solid season. Going into the 2009 Bedlam game, the Cowboys were 9-3 and poised to win their first-ever Big 12 South title and notch only the fourth 10-win season in school history. However, the Cowboys were beaten by Oklahoma 27-0, and went on to lose the Cotton Bowl to Ole Miss.

2010 season

The 2010 Cowboys rolled through the regular season, finishing with a share of the last Big 12 South title (the Big 12 dropped the divisional format after the 2010 season). Along the way, they set numerous records for points scored, as well as total and individual yardage.

With a 48-14 victory over Kansas on November 20, Oklahoma State won 10 regular-season games for the first time ever. It was also only the fourth 10-win season in the school's 111-year football history; Gundy has had a hand in three of them (two as quarterback, one as head coach).

A loss to Oklahoma in the final regular season game kept the Cowboys out of the Big 12 Championship Game. They did, however, rout Arizona in the Alamo Bowl for their school-record 11th win.

2011 season

The Cowboys entered 2011 with their highest expectations since the Thurman Thomas/Barry Sanders era in the late 1980s. They opened the season ninth in both major polls. Gundy's Cowboys didn't disappoint, starting the season 9-0, the best start in school history. With a 52-45 win over Kansas State, the Cowboys rose to second in the AP Poll and Bowl Championship Series (BCS) rankings, the highest national rankings in school history. On November 18th, Oklahoma State lost to Iowa State to all but dash their BCS titles chances in double overtime 37-31.

Personal

Gundy and his wife, Kristen, have three children, Gavin, Gunnar and Gage.^[4] His brother, Cale Gundy, was a starting quarterback for the University of Oklahoma in the 1990s and is currently the running backs coach for the University of Oklahoma.^[26]

Head coaching record

Year	Team	Overall	Conference	Standing	Bowl/playoffs	Coaches#	AP°
Oklahoma State Cowboys (Big 12 Conference) (2005–present)
2005	Oklahoma State	4–7	1–7	5th (South)
2006	Oklahoma State	7–6	3–5	T–5th (South)	W Independence
2007	Oklahoma State	7–6	4–4	T–3rd (South)	W Insight
2008	Oklahoma State	9–4	5–3	4th (South)	L Holiday	18	16
2009	Oklahoma State	9–4	6–2	2nd (South)	L Cotton	25
2010	Oklahoma State	11–2	6–2	T–1st (South)	W Alamo	10	13
2011	Oklahoma State	10–1	7–1
Oklahoma State:		57–30	32–24
Total:		57–30
National Championship         Conference Title         Conference Division Title
†Indicates BCS bowl game. #Rankings from final Coaches' Poll. °Rankings from final AP Poll.

References

1. ^ "Oklahoma State Payroll Database". TulsaWorld.com. http://www.tulsaworld.com/specialprojects/databases/higheredpay.aspx?appSession=55610444314297&RecordID=52921&PageID=3&PrevPageID=2&cpipage=1&CPIsortType=&CPIorderBy=. Retrieved 2007-09-11. 
2. ^ ^{a b} "Mike Gundy Fired up over Article". ESPN.com. September 22, 2007. http://sports.espn.go.com/broadband/video/videopage?videoId=3034151&categoryId=2564308. Retrieved 2007-09-25. 
3. ^ ^{a b} Forde, Pat (September 22, 2007). "September sizzles with shockers, coaching controversies". ESPN.com. http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=forde_pat&id=3035258. Retrieved 2007-09-25. 
4. ^ ^{a b c d} "OSU Biography - Mike Gundy". OKState.com (Oklahoma State University). http://www.okstate.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/gundy_mike00.html. Retrieved 2010-11-28. 
5. ^ "1988 Holiday Bowl article". holidaybowl.com (Pacific Life Holiday Bowl). http://www.holidaybowl.com/game-history/1988.html. Retrieved 2008-10-13. 
6. ^ "Sun Bowl recaps". elpasotimes.com (El Paso Times). http://www.elpasotimes.com/sunbowl/ci_4688717. Retrieved 2008-10-13. 
7. ^ "OSU To Recommend Contract Extension For Gundy" (Press release). Okstate.com. 2007-11-30. http://www.okstate.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=200&ATCLID=1330237. Retrieved 2007-11-30. 
8. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h} "Columnist responds to Gundy's tirade". September 25, 2007. http://www.sportingnews.com/yourturn/viewtopic.php?t=277308. Retrieved 2007-09-25. ^{[dead link]}
9. ^ "Oklahoma State Football Coach Mike Gundy Upset". YouTube.com (Oklahoma City: KOCO-TV). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoMmbUmKN0E. Retrieved 2007-09-25. 
10. ^ ^{a b} Hale, Cody (September 25, 2007). "Immune to criticism? - Brown empathizes with Gundy". The Daily Texan (Texas Student Publications). http://media.www.dailytexanonline.com/media/storage/paper410/news/2007/09/25/Sports/Immune.To.Criticism-2989287.shtml. Retrieved 2007-09-25. 
11. ^ ^{a b c d e f} Cohen, Andrea and John Helsley (September 24, 2007). "THE COACH: Gundy only wishes he'd said more and that he'd been better prepared". NewsOK.com (The Oklahoman). http://www.newsok.com/article/3133454. Retrieved 2007-09-25.  (paywall)
12. ^ ^{a b c} Horning, Clay (September 24, 2007). "Now we know what stirs Pokes coach". The Norman Transcript. http://www.sapulpadailyherald.com/sports/cnhisnscolsports_story_267005942.html. Retrieved 2007-09-25. 
13. ^ "Reid is still the most talented signal-caller, but attitude is reason for change". The Oklahoman. September 22, 2007. http://www.newsok.com/article/3131543?pg=1. Retrieved 2007-09-25. 
14. ^ ^{a b} Cohen, Andrea (September 24, 2007). "Gundy: I don't have to explain inaccuracies". NewsOK.com (The Oklahoman). http://www.newsok.com/article/3133224. Retrieved 2007-09-25. 
15. ^ ^{a b} Lebreton, Gil (September 26, 2007). "Gundy’s mom forgot to tell him: Stupid is as stupid does". StarTelegram.com (Fort Worth Star Telegram). http://www.star-telegram.com/sports/columnists/gil_lebreton/story/247645.html. Retrieved 2007-09-26. ^{[dead link]}
16. ^ "OSU player's mom speaks out about article on her son". ABCLocal.com (KTRK Houston). September 26, 2007. http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=sports&id=5677281. Retrieved 2007-09-26. 
17. ^ Doyle, Matt (September 27, 2007). "Bobby Reid's mom discusses incident". TulsaWorld.com. http://www.tulsaworld.com/sports/article.aspx?articleID=070927_2_B5_hShes52827. Retrieved 2007-09-27. 
18. ^ ^{a b} Trammel, Berry (September 24, 2007). "Other Voices: Gundy was out of bounds with rant". SeattlePi.com. http://www.seattlepi.com/cfootball/333014_voices25.html. Retrieved 2007-09-25. 
19. ^ ^{a b} Dodd, Dennis (September 23, 2007). "After Gundy goes off, maybe next move should be out". CBSSportsline.com (Columbia Broadcasting Service). http://www.sportsline.com/collegefootball/story/10368451/1. Retrieved 2007-09-25. 
20. ^ ^{a b} Ruiz, Don (September 26, 2007). "Pac-10 coaches divided over criticism of players". TheNewsTribune.com. http://www.thenewstribune.com/sports/story/164750.html. Retrieved 2007-09-26. ^{[dead link]}
21. ^ ^{a b} "Was Gundy mad at a columnist or a woman? You make the call - Coach's tirade makes an issue of gender". SunTimes.com (Chicago Sun-Times). September 25, 2007. http://www.suntimes.com/sports/slezak/572771,CST-SPT-carol25.article. Retrieved 2007-09-25. ^{[dead link]}
22. ^ "Let's just take a little breather". MyrtleBeachOnline.com (The Sun Times). September 25, 2007. http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/seanhorgan/story/198314.html. Retrieved 2007-09-25. ^{[dead link]}
23. ^ "Vote: Was Gundy's rant justified?". ESPN.com. http://proxy.espn.go.com/chat/sportsnation/polling?event_id=3167&action=1&question23433=94128&question23434=94131&question23435=94134&question23436=94136&question23437=94142. Retrieved 2008-09-06. 
24. ^ "Football fans react to OSU coach outburst". KSWO.com. September 24, 2007. http://www.kswo.com/Global/story.asp?S=7117553. Retrieved 2007-09-26. 
25. ^ "Gundy given new deal". http://www.tulsaworld.com/sports/article.aspx?subjectid=93&articleid=20081206_93_B3_OSUcoa814109. 
26. ^ Shinn, John (2007-09-25). "Gundy on Gundy". The Norman Transcript. http://www.normantranscript.com/statenews/cnhinsall_story_268122718.html. Retrieved 2007-09-27. 

External links

• Official website
• Oklahoma State profile

Persondata
Name	Gundy, Mike
Alternative names	Gundy, Michael Ray; Gundy, Michael R.
Short description	American college football player, college football coach
Date of birth	August 12, 1967
Place of birth	Midwest City, Oklahoma, United States
Date of death
Place of death