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Mike Holder on Mike Gundy’s Timeline: May 1 Seems ‘A Little Ambitious’

Mike and Mike do not agree.

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Following Mike Gundy’s conference call on Tuesday in which he touched on myriad topics but most notably the coronavirus pandemic, the national fallout was swift and at times callous. It was not a pretty scene.

Oklahoma State University felt the need to issue a statement to clear some things up after Gundy spoke (he doubled down on his comments on Wednesday, by the way), and Mike Holder cast some doubt on their validity as well.

First, here’s what Gundy said about his timeline.

“There’s a lot of smart people in this country that are now working,” said Gundy. “And I’m thinking in three or four weeks, we could have the test … available for people that aren’t sick, based on, can we test the employees, the hundred people that work in our building, and we can swab them and clear them to come into the building and get back to work.

“Once we’ve done that, I’m looking to start testing the players and bring them back. How fast that can happen based on the tests that are available? I can’t say right now, but that’s the plan. We have to have a plan, and the plan right now is for that to start on on May 1. It might get [pushed] back two weeks. I don’t know, I can’t make that call. But if it does, we’ll start with the employees in this company, the ones that come in this building. Then we’ll bring the players in. Slowly but surely, we’ll test them all in.

“Is it 100 percent? No, it’s not 100 percent. But there could be people that work in this building that maybe are older, maybe have some type of underlying health condition. Maybe they don’t come back. But the majority of the people in this building who are healthy and certainly the 18-, 19-, 20-, 21-, 22-year-olds that are healthy, the so-called medical people that are saying the herd of healthy people that have the antibodies may be built up that can fight this, we all need to go back to work.”

In a statement on ESPN.com, OSU athletic director Mike Holder said, “May 1 seems a little ambitious.”

May 1 does seem a little ambitious, but that’s sort of beside the point here. The bigger point is that you host a long conference call with a bunch of people you know are going to be tweeting and writing about this, but you clearly haven’t gotten on the same page as your athletic director. How does that happen?

Again, if we’re talking about the logistics to get to the Camping World Bowl, then whatever. But this is a big deal. The biggest event of most of our adult lives, and the entity you work for (as well as your boss) have to release statements that (at best!) clarify what they believe you meant to say.

The lack of communication and lack of deference in something as sobering as this are incredible, not to mention the fact that they might run up against what the Big 12 has deemed permissible.

So we can keep talking about how Gundy is just trying to resurrect the economy or provide hope to those who need it, but all I see is a recklessness with his verbiage, tone and plan that belie the seriousness of the situation.

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