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Five Thoughts on the Mike Gundy to Tennessee Saga from Tuesday

Published

6 years ago

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Man, what a day. I did not wake up on Tuesday thinking You know what’s going to happen today? Mike Gundy is going to have me sitting refreshing Twitter for three hours while I try to figure out how the hell you actually register a private plane.

And yet, here we are.

A day after Pat Jones said Gundy was offered the Florida job, Gundy reportedly met with Tennessee in Dallas to discuss their opening. Numbers were tossed around, jokes were distributed via twitter dot com and eventually Brett McMurphy put the saga to rest for the day by reporting that no decisions are expected to be made until later in the week.

Before we get to the five thoughts, I have an apology. I have felt lousy about this for most of the day, but I wrote a headline that said “Gundy reportedly offered over $8M” based on something Robert Allen said on the radio. That headline should have said “Gundy reportedly could be offered over $8M.” It was a rookie mistake, and I can’t stop thinking about it. So I’m sorry both to Robert and to those of you reading. Words matter, small words matter, all words matter and we need to be better than that. So I’m sorry.

Let’s jump in.

1. Money (always) talks (probably)

Speaking of the money, what do we think it actually is. Allen said double Gundy’s salary ($8.2M) could be on the table, but there’s a big difference between could be and is. Bruce Feldman said “around $6M” and Chris Low of ESPN said the “Vols are prepared to make Gundy one of the SEC’s highest paid coaches.”

The top SEC salaries currently are Nick Saban ($11M), Dan Mullen ($6M) and Gus Malzahn ($4.75M) so really that phrase could mean anything. Kevin Sumlin was making $5M a year, but he was fired. Butch Jones was making $4.1M a year at Tennessee (less than Gundy) so you would presume it’s going to be more than that.

Anyway, based on what Gundy told the Tulsa World over the weekend, Tennessee is going to have to throw a number on the table that would take your breath away.

“I’m very happy in the situation I’m in,” Gundy told the World. “But one guy said, ‘Well what if they call and give you a six-year deal at nine million dollars a year?’ I don’t know. I’d probably have to listen. You know? Something crazy.”

2. UT is desperate

Here’s the part that makes me 5 percent concerned: Tennessee is rich ($140M revenue) and desperate (you watched what happened with Greg Schiano, yes?) When you combine wealth and desperation, you often get outcomes that are irrational. Logic says that it would take something irrational for Gundy to eject from Stillwater, and because this is such an unusual, unprecedented situation, that might be what we’re about to get.

Tennessee has also gone 50-50 since 2010. For context: Texas Tech has gone 51-49. Tulsa has gone 52-50. Tennessee is “DUKE’S HEAD COACH JUST TURNED US DOWN AND WE’RE A TOP 10 PROGRAM DAMMIT” levels of desperate. That’s going to make me sleep a little less than I normally would tonight.

3. Timing is odd

There are a lot of strange angles to this story that nobody is really discussing. Like, why did Greg Schiano almost get the job before Mike Gundy? Also, why did Gundy (allegedly) give Florida a hard pass before talking to Tennessee? And why would Gundy do all of this a month after touting boosters who have asked him what he needs following the Bedlam game and a few days after telling the Tulsa World he’s never felt this stable in Stillwater?

I think it’s all pretty simple. I love my job at CBS Sports. Love it. Could not enjoy it more than I do. But if ESPN hollers at me and says something along the lines of “Yo, let’s meet, we’ll double you up to do the same thing,” then I’m taking the meeting. My boss would tell me to take the meeting. We would all take the meeting.

Where it gets interesting is whether or not I would take the job. I value a lot of things more than I value money. I wouldn’t want to move. I wouldn’t want my day to day to change. Of course, if you make the number high enough, you sort of have to take the job, right? But for everybody, that number is different. One of my buddies and I always talk about how everybody has a number for everything. I don’t know if rich people think like this. Maybe you run out of needing money at some point. I don’t know what that world is like. And I don’t know how Gundy is wired.

I’ve watched most of his press conferences and interviews for the last seven years, and he seems to value a lot of things (way of life, stability, etc.) over money. We’re about to either see that 1. All of that was true or 2. The number got too high.

4. About that flight

I get paid money to understand and interpret things on the internet, and I legit cannot figure out what the hell is going on with this airplane that was scheduled to travel from Knoxville to Stillwater on Tuesday afternoon. That plane had the tail number N111UT. Here is what the flight schedule looked like. Very straightforward.

Screen Shot 2017-11-28 at 11.00.46 AM

Except it wasn’t. The plane never took off. My initial hypothesis is that Gundy was meeting with Tennessee in Dallas (which he was) so Tennessee simply scheduled the flight just in case he took the job. They would meet him and his family back in Stillwater and everyone would fly to Knoxville for a party.

But apparently that tail number is not the tail number for the plane Tennessee would be using.

So … no idea. But then Kendrick Marshall of the Tulsa World, who was at the Stillwater airport, tweeted this. And if you get on FlightAware.com and search for it, the plane has in fact been blocked. Hopefully ESPN does a 30 for 30 on this plane someday.

5. Gundy: Good for business, going nowhere

After Bedlam I told Mrs. Pistols, “Well, no Christmas presents for the kids this year.” Today at lunch I told Mrs. Pistols, “The kids can have Christmas presents again.”

Here’s the deal — and I know this might not be the best take — Mike Gundy is good for business. For me. For people who cover Oklahoma State for a living. For college football in general. He’s good for business because he wins … a lot. He’s also good for business because he might be insane. Gundy is fun as hell to have in Stillwater, USA and I hope he never leaves both because he’s a terrific coach and because covering Todd Graham or Tom Herman seems like it would be the biggest grind.

So my cards are on the table there.

But not only do I not want Gundy to go anywhere. I don’t believe he will. Could Tennessee get insane tonight and give him $10 million a year and that’s a wrap? Sure, absolutely. But they won’t.

And Gundy won’t leave. It’s too good here. He has job security for life. He has a challenge (OU) and a foothold (Texas). He’s walking the line we all want to walk between complacency and overwhelming difficulty. He has boosters giving him the keys to their storehouses. He has peace with the triumvirate of Boone Pickens and Mike Holder (although Carson posited an intriguing theory on the pod on Tuesday that Gundy is leveraging this against OSU to push Holder out).

He has a QB1 son in high school. He has a mini Cabela’s that he lives in. He has more tractors than he could ever ride in his lifetime. He has a kingdom. He has it all.

Would he discard all of that for more cash he’ll never spend? For a shot to get hammered by Alabama every December? Gundy preaches culture more than a Fortune 500 CEO. He proselytizes about relationship over winning. About continuity over instant success. For his players that means what you do off the field matters more than what you do on it. For him and his coaches that means tending to what you built. If he gets stupid money then I guess I get it. But if it’s close, then all of this applies. Does he mean it, or is this over?

I think he means it, but we’re about to find out.

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