Mike Gundy Goes on Tangent Saying ‘In Most Cases’ Negative People Voicing Opinions ‘Can’t Pay Their Own Bills’

STILLWATER — Mike Gundy went on another state-of-the-world tangent on Monday.

In the midst of a six-game losing streak, Gundy, Oklahoma State’s coach, was asked about whether his time as an assistant coach helped him in dealing with the ups and downs of a season. It’s a solid question because as a head coach, Gundy hasn’t needed to deal with struggles of this magnitude because of the Cowboys’ successes under him. But somewhere in the midst of answering that question, Gundy referred back to a question about the nature of his job being different than more traditional lines of work in that thousands of people are watching the product he puts on the field, where Gundy went on to say this:

“In most cases, the people that are negative and voicing their opinion are the same ones that can’t pay their own bills,” Gundy said. “They’re not taking care of themselves. They’re not taking care of their own family. They’re not taking care of their own job. But they have an obligation to speak out and complain about others because it makes them feel better. But then, in the end, when they go to bed at night, they’re the same failure that they were before they said anything negative about anybody else.”

Gundy, according to USA Today, is set to make $7.75 million in 2024. That, again according to USA Today, makes him the highest-paid coach in the Big 12 and the 17th-highest-paid coach in the country.

As part of the quote that was more than 800 words long, Gundy also said that he refuses to watch the news because he is tired of people “complaining and bitching” about something instead of trying to to find a way to make it better.

There were 52,202 fans in the stadium, according to OSU’s box score, for the Cowboys’ 42-21 homecoming loss to Arizona State on Saturday that made the Cowboys 0-6 in conference play. That crowd thinned dramatically during the halftime weather delay, but some stayed to see the Cowboys get outscored 21-7 in the second half. Arizona State running back Cam Skattebo had more all-purpose yards (274) than the Cowboys had yards of total offense (270). Toward the end of the tangent, Gundy had a message to OSU fans.

“But I think what’s important for all the Oklahoma State fans to know is that we’re very aware of what’s going on, and at some point in life, we all have to put trust into somebody,” Gundy said. “And I think they need to trust that we have a good plan for what’s going on here in the big picture, and we have answers. Sometimes they’re not short term. Sometimes they might be long-term answers.”

So that as little context as possible is lost, here is Gundy’s full quote and a tweet with the audio of that quote:

“I coached 11 years before we ever won more than five games. I don’t know that that helped any because being a head coach is so much different than being an assistant coach. It’s not even on the same level. As an assistant coach, in my opinion, you’re responsible for your players. You’re responsible for your recruiting area. As a head coach, I’m dealing with 215 people, and so, it’s much different.

“That’s why, in my opinion, I have to have a better feel for a broad picture of the organization in general. Kind of the synopsis of all of this is that this place has had tremendous success for 18 and a half years or 19 – I can’t do the math real good. But unfortunately in life, most people are weak, and as soon as things start to not go as good as what they thought, they fall apart and they panic. And then they want to point the finger and blame other people. You see it happen in everyday life. People do it all the time. That’s why I refuse to watch the TV and watch the news because I get tired of people complaining and bitching about this and that versus just doing something about it and trying to figure out a way to make it better.

“Well, that’s what happens in college athletics. And as Jenni said – she’s exactly right – it’s just on the bigger stage where people can voice their opinion. And in most cases, the people that are negative and voicing their opinion are the same ones that can’t pay their own bills. They’re not taking care of themselves. They’re not taking care of their own family. They’re not taking care of their own job. But they have an obligation to speak out and complain about others because it makes them feel better. But then, in the end, when they go to bed at night, they’re the same failure that they were before they said anything negative about anybody else.

“But here, what we try to do, as I mentioned to the team all the time, is that the very most important thing that you can do in life is make sure that you’re maximizing your opportunity to be the best person and be as successful as you can at whatever trade it is that you choose to do. Now sometimes we not we might fall short, which in most cases, as I mentioned earlier, 50% of the people do on a Saturday. And I tell them, ‘Look, that doesn’t make you a failure, OK? What makes you a failure is if you have a bad attitude about it, you’re not going to try to improve, and if you shut it down. Then, in my opinion, you’re a failure.’ Now that’s debatable. That’s just my opinion, and that’s the way that we hold ourselves accountable in this organization.

“For example, you guys have followed Oklahoma State football for a long time. There’s been times that we play teams that had eight to 10 players drafted on it. We had no business being on the field with them. We might have lost 37-35 at the end of the game. So you ask yourself, ‘Does that make us a failure?’ In my opinion, no. So there’s just a big picture.

“But I think what’s important for all the Oklahoma State fans to know is that we’re very aware of what’s going on, and at some point in life, we all have to put trust into somebody. And I think they need to trust that we have a good plan for what’s going on here in the big picture, and we have answers. Sometimes they’re not short term. Sometimes they might be long term answers. And then secondly, in the end, the very best thing that people can do, as I tell our players, is 100% be in, buy in. You got to be on somebody’s team. Can’t go through life by yourself.

“And so those are long answers and a broad picture for the way that we hold ourselves accountable. And so I’m going to go into a meeting at 1:30 and have a similar conversation with the team but it’ll only last about two minutes because they’ve heard this for me 1,000 times during their career, and they understand. And so what tell them is that we as a staff, me as a head coach, have been working over the last two days and put a lot of time and effort in to give you guys a plan. Now we’re asking you to buy in and execute this plan, and then on Saturday, go play and turn it loose and have some fun and compete. And that’s the message I’ll give them, and that what I am looking for is guys that are willing to do that. That’s called being a team. That’s called being a part of an organization, and it’s really that simple for us.”

Mike Gundy held his weekly press conference by Zoom today due to weather. He was asked about how his time as an assistant coach prepared him for handling the ups and downs as a head coach. #OKState pic.twitter.com/kHG1QhcKL8

— Scott Pfeil (@scottpfeil) November 4, 2024