Mike Gundy Accomplished Two Very Important Things by Flirting with Tennessee

What a day. From 0 to Tesla to 0 in, what, 12 hours?

Mike Gundy flirted with Tennessee, took her out to dinner, bought her popcorn at the movie and left before the final credits rolled. And he made it home in time to turn down a reported $15 million in the process.

Sure, Gundy will be paid in Stillwater, and he will be paid well. He’s in the first year of a five-year $22.25 million contract. He makes $4.2 million this year and receives a $125,000 raise every year with an additional year tacked onto the end of the contract annually. In other words, he always has a five-year contract, until OSU says he doesn’t. He will make $27.8 million over the next six years.

But … $42 million?!

It will take nine years to reach that mark in Stillwater. It would have taken just six in Knoxville as Brett McMurphy reported that a six-year, $42 million deal was on the table. Is everyone understanding this correctly? Here are your five highest-paid coaches if Gundy signs.

Nick Saban
Dabo Swinney
Jim Harbaugh
Mike Gundy
Urban Meyer

The end.

So we can argue all day about whether it was right or wrong to once again make eyes at another color orange. I understand both sides of that. But I land on the side that we all would have taken a meeting that more or less doubled our salaries and made us one of the five highest-paid people in our given industries. I don’t hold that against anyone, Gundy least of all. How could you?

And yet, when Tennessee started swinging a bigger stick than most coaches will ever see, Gundy took his shirt off, held his hands out and said, “I’m coming home.” OK, he probably didn’t take his shirt off, but you know he did so later on in his hotel room when he was by himself.

turned down $42 mil cuz you just can’t put a price on this pic.twitter.com/Hv15gR8xkI

— Max Olson (@max_olson) November 29, 2017

Here’s the thing: Nothing materially took place today. Nothing. Just 12 hours of drama that somehow ended in talk of statues being built in Gundy’s honor and a possible parade running down Duck Street because he didn’t do something we didn’t even know was a remote possibility this time yesterday.

I know I breathed a sigh of relief, and I think most rational OSU fans did as well. I get that there are some folks annoyed with the back-and-forth and the hoopla. That’s fair, but that will also pass. The reality here is that most people only read the headlines or just past them. And those headlines say Gundy is staying at his alma mater even with a monstrous number on the table.

That’s what most people will remember. Folks don’t care that Tennessee wasn’t a great fit or that you’re never winning a SEC title in the east. They just don’t.

pic.twitter.com/lqAulxIBkv

— Southwell (@JustinSouthwell) November 29, 2017

Look at these quotes from recruits. Look at Twitter. Gundy galvanized a fan base with two words.

Will you take a meeting?

Yes.

Will you accept $42 million to coach our team?

No.

Crown him. And this is the genius of it. I think half the time Gundy falls ass backwards into this stuff, but he accomplished two very important things with those two words. Was this his intention? I have no idea. Probably not, but who knows.

1. Offseason misdirection. We just went 9-3 and had one of the most disappointing seasons of my tenure by losing three games at home quick look over there at all that cash wow that’s really a lot of cash and Tennessee might be a top 10 job ok I’m back where’s the statue.

2. The biggest stick. You know the only thing more boss than offering a man who hunts rattlesnakes the head job in Tennessee $42 million? Turning it down.

Big Daddy himself can walk into any living room he wants and say, “I will never leave Stillwater. I care more about your kid than any amount of money that could ever be offered.” Everyone says this, of course. But he can actually mean it. And he has the timeline to prove it.

So in the span of 12 hours, Gundy somehow re-engaged a semi-despondent fan base that hasn’t remembered yet it has to travel to a thing called a Camping World Bowl and given himself a trump card to play on the recruiting trail. And all it took was two words.

Yes.

No.

Gundy might be smarter than we think.