Mike Gundy Explains Why Leaders at OSU Have to Feel Uncomfortable

It got buried because Mike Gundy went off on ❄️❄️❄️ on Monday, but I thought what he had to say about leadership and what it takes to be a leader on Oklahoma State’s team was both good and interesting.

Two days after the Baylor game, Gundy bemoaned the leadership in Stillwater, saying the overall leadership in orange and black has been “down.” This isn’t unexpected of course when you lose guys like Mason Rudolph, James Washington, Chad Whitener and Ramon Richards, but I think Gundy thought he would be able to fill the void more quickly.

That may have started happening during Bedlam week.

“That was one of the things that I told y’all last Monday that I challenged the team … and we had some guys do that,” said Gundy. “It’s not that easy … this is my opinion, and I don’t care what anyone else thinks anyway.

“If you’re going to step up and be a vocal leader, you have to be willing to be uncomfortable all the time. Meaning if you’re tired in winter workouts and you’re not giving effort because you’re tired or you have a cold or your girlfriend texted some other dude and you’re upset and you’re not practicing hard. Or if you’re a little sore or you have an injury, and you’re not willing to lead all the time, then you can’t do it.”

That’s the good stuff! You can keep the snowflake and unemployment comments, this is legitimately compelling talk about running an organization at a high level!

“You have to be willing to be uncomfortable to be a vocal leader and do it all the time or then people look at us and say, ‘That guy’s really not a leader,’ added Gundy. “I thought we had some guys — and I’m not willing to share their names right now because they haven’t done it long enough for me to say they’re in a position that I would come out and say they can lead.:

Guesses: Tylan (100 percent), Tyron (90 percent) and Kolby Peel (no idea).

“They have to lead a long time and they have to do it all the time,” he said. “We did have 2-3 guys that I mentioned to the team that I thought were trying to do it, but it’s on a really short-term basis. Hopefully they’ll continue to do it.”

I guess one of my questions is, uh, why didn’t Gundy challenge them in this earlier in the season? I get that you want it to happen naturally — and maybe it has to happen naturally — but if you know guys are moving on, wouldn’t that be one of the main tasks for somebody who, by his own admission, does more overseeing than anything else.

One name that got brought up later on in the conversation was No. 13. The ? man. Tyron Johnson posted the third 100-yard game of his career against OU last Saturday and definitely looked the part.

“He did a good job in this game … of being a little bit vocal,” said Gundy.

I have to think that’s not usually a problem for Tyron!

“Tyron’s a guy we’ve talked about doing it,” Gundy added. “He’s trying to do it. It’s starting to come a little natural to him. He’s got to decide if he’s going to use English or actually Cajun when he communicates so everybody’s on the same page.

“I mean that in a good way. I love Tyron. He’s awesome. He competed in that game. Game wasn’t too big for him. He said, ‘Throw it to me and I’ll go, I’ll block, I’ll run, I’ll hurdle people.’ Those are the things you have to have to grow your program and continue to improve, and he certainly did a nice job Saturday.”

Regardless, I thought this was a cool nugget and a little insight into the way Gundy runs the program and how this 2018 team is progressing into the next season.