Mike Gundy Sent Joel Lanning a Note after Win Over OU in Norman

One month before Mike Gundy’s latest chapter of Bedlam took place, his team handily had a weekend off before dispatching Baylor 59-16 during Homecoming weekend. That same day while Gundy was at home, a then-unranked Iowa State team traveled south to Norman to take on the 3rd-ranked Sooners sans starting quarterback Jacob Park.

Joel Lanning the Cyclones’ starting QB-turned middle linebacker currently leads the team in tackles (94) and solo tackles (36), has 6.5 tackles for loss, 2.5 sacks, two pass breakups, two QB hurries and an interception.

And when needed, he’ll go in and take snaps at quarterback. Against the Sooners, he passed for 25 yards and rushed for 35 to go with his eight tackles, a sack of the elusive Baker Mayfield and a fumble recover. Well, Mike Gundy thought that was pretty cool. It was.

Gundy came away impressed with the two-way player and would have reached out publicly had it not been a potential distraction.

“If it wasn’t tied into Bedlam … I’m not a big social media guy, but I just wanted to commend the kid for what he did,” Gundy said at the time. “I don’t care if he played the Giants. To play linebacker and get 8 tackles and then play quarterback. That’s a true team player, and I think that’s awesome for the kid. I don’t care who he plays.

“Just to be able to say, ‘OK, I’m playing linebacker. You need me at quarterback. I’m going to play quarterback, and I’m still going to make 8 tackles.’ That’s pretty special. His mom and dad ought to be proud of him. That’s pretty awesome.”

On Monday, following his team’s home loss to Oklahoma and in preview of its trip to face Lanning’s Cyclones in Ames, Gundy revealed that he went the more traditional route and sent Lanning a hand-written letter.

The SportsCenter star who’s made a name for his off-field antics over the last year-plus, admitted that he’s “an old-school, throwback guy” who apparently appreciates the personal touch a hand-written note imparts — almost as much as he appreciates “old-school” guys that will play both ways.

“I think I told you guys a couple weeks ago I wrote him a note,” said Gundy. “When I watched him play two ways, I don’t care if he’s playing the New England Patriots, the L.A. Rams, whoever … to play inside backer and have eight tackles and then play quarterback in the same game, I thought that was awesome. That’s old school stuff. That’s throwback. We haven’t had a guy do that here since 1995. I don’t know that it’s real easy to do that nowadays. … For a young man to compete like that and be willing to play both … that’s awesome.”

Although Gundy admits to receiving one of Bill Snyder’s famous hand-written notes after playing the Wildcats on an injured knee in the late 1980s, he says that’s not why he started the practice years ago.

“I have done that from Day 1, and the guy I copied was Pat Jones,” said Gundy. “Pat Jones taught me in my first year of coaching that there’s nothing like a hand-written letter. I said ‘Coach, you don’t have to worry about that cause I can’t type.’ That was prior to email but you know you would have an assistant type out a letter and you would sign it. Well, I can’t type and I’m not going to take the time to do that.

“So, he taught me in 1990, he said ‘You need to learn to write hand-written notes to people. People enjoy those and they feel more personal.’ And so that’s who I copied.”

Kyle Kempt took over Iowa State’s starting quarterback role that week in Norman and has gone 4-1 since. But Lanning saw spot duty behind center in four wins. Hopefully, if Gundy writes Lanning another note, it’s not one congratulating him for another upset win.