Reader Thoughts: On Snowflakes, That OU Decommit and Why One Fan is Done With Gundy

The reader emails were spicy this week (they always are the week after a Bedlam loss), but we’ll start with the most mild one. As always, thank you for sending your thoughts my way.

Is it true that Gundy de-committed from OU and that he played baseball at OSU? Shockingly I have never heard of either of these nuggets before. -FS

That … wow … appears to be true! I’d forgotten about that, even though Gundy himself talked about it a few years ago before his 100th victory.

Pat Jones was entering his third season at the helm for OSU, winning a combined 18 games the previous two years. His projected starting quarterback that fall, sophomore Ronnie Williams, had appeared in just five games the year before. Meanwhile in Norman, it was true freshman quarterback Jamelle Holieway who led the Sooners to 11 wins with an Orange Bowl victory against Penn State.

“I committed to OU and then ended up coming here,” said Gundy earlier this week, “because I felt like my best chance to get on the field early was here.” [NewsOK]

As for the actual snowflake rhetoric from Monday … I mean, whatever. I think two things can (and probably are) true at the same time.

1. Gundy should be more concerned with how his words come across (Part XIII of the 2018 season).
2. Recruits don’t care and their parents probably even like it because *whispers* nobody Gundy is talking about thinks they’re actually the person Gundy is talking about.

I feel nothing. (not in general, just about this). I don’t know what people expect. This is how every generation acts to the generation two or three generations after it. Gundy is not unique in that sense, even if his platform (to bitch?) is bigger than most.

This next one is a doozy.

I can no longer defend Mike Gundy as the head football coach at Oklahoma State. He needs to go. Here are a few (well, more than a few) of my reasons.

1.  The lack of conference championships. One in 14 seasons at the helm is not enough. We can talk ad naseum about why it didn’t happen in 2012-13-16 and 17, but the fact remains, it didn’t happen. 

2. The 2-12 record in Bedlam. The record itself is disgraceful and at times the coaching has been as well. The road to everything “bling” runs through Norman. Find someone who can get it done.

3. The flirting with Arkansas and Baylor resulting in the 5 million per year/rollover contract. He’s overpaid. Not based on market but based on results, he’s way overpaid. Go ahead @ me. “I don’t give a s***what they think.”

4. The hiring and retaining of coordinators and staff who simply can’t put together successful game plans on a consistent basis. He used a Google search to get Yurcich who has been as up and down as Florida-Georgia Line on a fishing trip with a bottle of Jack! 

He pulled the trigger on firing Spencer about two years too late, then replaced him with Jim Knowles from the powerhouse of DUKE!!! Are you kidding?! That’s like Mr. T. leading sensitivity training. He’s running the same defense that got Bill Clay fired years ago. He’s in over his head and I had a feeling he would be. In the ACC, aside from maybe Clemson, you don’t have to defend elite spread uptempo offenses. This conference has four or five. 

5. His handling of QBs. Add Cornelius to the list of QB issues he’s faced of his own doing. Reid over Robinson, Cate over Weeden, Garman over Rudolph. He’s never made the right decision without being forced to. 

6. The disregard for recruiting, particularly on defense. Why is it so difficult to get a couple of four star guys on defense every class?! It’s the difference in key wins and losses. Period. Gundy seems to not care. He also seems to think this “diamond in the rough” theory works across the board. I promise Boone Pickens didn’t put 300 million into the program to see classes rank in the 40s. Or to see a defense rank in the 70s. Brings me to my next point.

7. The bickering with Boone and Holder. Hasn’t flared up recently, but once a year it crops its ugly head up. 

8. The non-con scheduling. It’s improving, but I can’t say it’s fixed until we stop seeing D-2 teams on the schedule. It’s that simple. And he’s fought scheduling going back to the Florida State game in 2013. 

9. Special teams. At what point does this become a priority again? Like it was under DeForest. Special teams cost us at least two games this year and has been on a steady decline for oh 3-4 years now. Why don’t we have a ST coordinator? Is it that expensive? No, it’s not, but Gundy’s ego says, “I can handle this. Been doing this a long time. I know what this team needs.”

Maybe you don’t anymore, Mike. Maybe you’ve been doing this for too long. Maybe, you’re not being held accountable for your public political statements, and your antics, and your media policies, and your overall decision-making in regards to this program, because you’re too comfortable and complacent.

You’ve said yourself practice pretty much runs itself at this point. Maybe what this program needs to take the next step, which is winning championships, is a new head man. A new type of Cowboy Culture that demands champions ON the field as well as OFF of it. 

And don’t tell me “Gundy’s the best we can get.” At this point, I’m doubtful. Look, I sat through the 90s. I watched 0-10-1. It was bad. Real bad. But appreciating what Gundy built, which has been mostly historically good, doesn’t mean the fan base is required or expected to be happy with complacency. I think I’m done rambling. Run this if you want and use my name. Thanks for all the work you do, KP!! -Travis B.

That’s how you write a dang email!!!!!

I don’t agree with all of Travis’ points, but he makes fairly compelling arguments regardless. I also think he was pretty fair in how he assessed everything. Mostly, though, I enjoy the banter and the back and forth and the debate and the discussion about it all.

I always go back to the record, though. We can talk about all the other inputs, but the bottom line is the output, right? The bottom line is Ws and Ls. Like any other company. And there have been a ton of teams better nationally than Gundy since he took over in 2005.