Mike Gundy: Oklahoma State Just Getting Started Building Tradition

Mike Gundy made maybe the best point I’ve ever heard him make Monday.

“Whether the Oklahoma State people like it or not, OU is traditionally a top-10 team in the country. I’m going to say since 1950, they’re a traditional top-10 program. Over the years, it has been toe-to-toe, and Saturday was a perfect example of that. We came up a little short, but people now say, ‘If we keep working at it and doing the right things, we can continue to build.’

“We started building tradition in football about eight years ago,” Gundy said. “Prior to that – I love all the people who played here before – they didn’t have the means. They didn’t have Boone Pickens. They didn’t have the stadium. Our facilities weren’t very good. We did what we could do. We committed to basketball and other sports, and we’ve been fabulous at ’em. We committed to football in the last eight or 10 years, and we’ve started building tradition in football.

“How long has Michigan had tradition? How long has Notre Dame had tradition? How long has OU? How long has Texas? Long time. So we’re working, and I won’t be able to finish it. I’m not gonna coach long enough to finish the tradition that it takes to be a year-in, year-out top 10 team. I feel like we’re a year-in, year-out top 20 team, and I’m comfortable with that.”

Although OSU lost to Oklahoma for the 87th time Saturday in a dramatic 62-52 fashion, Gundy and Boone Pickens are ahead of schedule. Millions of dollars can buy facilities, coaches and maybe wins, but it can’t buy a brand, and Gundy has already picked up that torch.

Before Gundy’s 13th Bedlam, he did something he said he rarely does.

“One of the few times I’ve actually run out and looked at the crowd,” Gundy said. “I don’t really get caught up a lot in things like that, but when I was halfway on the field, once I could finally get through the smoke and see, … it really hit me in how far that we’ve come.”

He said there were about 60,000 inside the stadium and 40,000 outside of it before the game. About 15 years ago, OSU’s plan was to make its game day experience like that of an SEC school, Gundy said.

The Cowboys are in a situation maybe on their own among all of college football. In terms of being a real contender, OSU is still an extremely young program. There were about 100 years of football played in Stillwater, but here are some stats to show you how far behind OSU is in developing a legitimate brand.

• 79th all-time win percentage: .516 (behind Ball State, Nevada and Marshall)
• 58th in draft picks: 157 (behind Virginia, Oregon State and SMU)
• 39th all-time in weeks in AP Poll (behind Purdue, BYU and TCU)
• 39th in bowl appearances: 27 (behind Maryland, Stanford and Arizona State)

The good news for Cowboy fans is that trend is reversing probably faster than any other program in America since 2009. Gundy has posted a .743 win percentage in 113 games since the start of the ’09 season, which would be the best mark for any college football program ever and is more wins in that period of time than Michigan (the winningest program of all time), Notre Dame (2nd), Texas (7th) and USC (8th).

“Can we go on a neutral site and play almost anybody in the country and it be a hell of a game?” Gundy said. “Probably.”

Although Gundy made great points Monday, talking about points per drive and defending his all-time quarterback, he shouldn’t have had to. The job he has done is spectacular, inheriting a mainstay in the middle of the Big 12 and, with help from an overwhelmingly wealthy donor, has thrust the program to the top.

OSU might not be a brand-named team like Michigan with its own FOX commercials or Alabama with its 11 national championships or even the team an hour and a half south. ESPN might still “little brother” the Cowboys every year Bedlam comes around or during any other big-time game for that matter and be shocked when OSU wins one of them.

But be patient, they’re getting there.

“I had two phone calls Sunday morning from very prominent people that are involved in Oklahoma State football that are very influential in a lot of areas, not only financially,” Gundy said. “And they said, ‘You just tell us what you need. We’re gonna make this happen.'”