How Mike Gundy almost ended up at Tennessee

Photo Attribution: USATSI

Kudos to my colleague at CBS, Jeremy Fowler for snagging this story.

I know a lot of you (probably myself included) never thought for a second Mike Gundy was heading anywhere besides Stillwater National Bank at the end of last season, but Gundy said something vastly different today to Fowler.

He said he almost became the coach at Tennessee.

You should go read the entire thing but here were a few of my parts:

One of Gundy’s three sons was Googling Knoxville schools. Another asked him what a Volunteer was. He didn’t know, but for a moment, he thought he wanted to find out full-time.

“At some point, that’s where we thought we were going to go,” Gundy said.

Whoa.

He and wife Kristen weighed their options, then slept on it. He drove to work the next morning and realized he just couldn’t do it. He cared deeply about OSU, and he wanted to find common ground with athletics director Mike Holder. He called Tennessee and told them he was flattered but couldn’t take the job.

Gundy then talked about his relationship with Mike Holder:

“We have long-range plans. I just needed to know what the plan was. That way, no matter what it was, I knew going in what it was. I have to feel comfortable with that.”

Again, go read the whole thing — it’s good, and Fowler is a good reporter.

And the wrong major sports coach almost left OSU a few months ago.