The Top 5 Quotes from Mike Gundy’s Pre-Bedlam News Conference

STILLWATER — Bedlam brings a lot of eyeballs, and that was evident by the increased number of media at Mike Gundy’s Monday luncheon.

Gundy spoke for nearly 40 minutes in the Boone Pickens Stadium press box ahead of what could be the final Bedlam at 2:30 p.m. Saturday, as the Sooners will be in the SEC next season while the Pokes stay in the Big 12.

Here are five of Gundy’s best quotes with the full video from Gundy’s news conference posted below.

Parties with The Boz

For a second consecutive Bedlam, Mike Gundy told a hilarious story regarding Brian Bosworth.

If you don’t remember, Gundy last year recalled his first Bedlam in 1986, saying he was “a little scared of Boz” because Bosworth was “on a different type of artificial nutrition” than Gundy was.

Well Monday, Gundy recalled stories of going to parties in Oklahoma City while the two were in college — back when, Gundy said, the game was a true rivalry where players on both teams weren’t as friendly with one another.

“The summer before my sophomore year, I would go to parties in Oklahoma City, and they would say, ‘Well, Bosworth and (Paul) Migliazzo and some of those guys were here.’ So I had to make a decision whether, were we going to have confrontation there and who was with me. Those guys, I can kick them in the shin and run like hell, but I’m not dumb.

“So we had to make those decisions because what kind of frame of mind was Brian going to be in at that point? I don’t know. Had he taken a vitamin C and had a few drinks? Well, he might not be a guy you want to talk to at that point. He’d get real red across his face. It was a rivalry then. Now, it’s not as much anymore, unfortunately, because of the way it is. But it’s a very important game. I don’t want to push past that.”

Things are developing quickly, as Bosworth responded in a tweet, asking to meet Gundy at the 50-yard line to “exchange pleasantries the old fashion way.”

How Barry Handled Media Attention

From one extreme from the 80s to the other — Barry Sanders.

Sanders’ name has popped up quite a bit as of late surrounding Oklahoma State — not because of Bedlam but because of Ollie Gordon.

With Gordon’s 271-yard performance against Cincinnati, he joined Sanders as the only players in program history to rush for more than 250 yards in consecutive weeks.

Like dashing past defenses on the field, Gordon is bursting onto the national radar. Doak Walker and Heisman Trophy talks have started, which led Sellout Crowd’s Jenni Carlson to ask what it was like seeing Sanders start to step into the national spotlight.

“There is no exaggeration of his humble thought process daily,” Gundy said. “The nutritionists that we have that feed our team and stick things down their throat — vitamins and gummies that give them energy and all the stuff we have now — they could not have worked when he [played] because he lived on Snickers and cookies. And he ate a little bit of food, not much.

“He roomed right across the hall from me. Of course we’d walk back and forth all the time, and he was always eating candy. He lifted more than anybody else. He trained more because he liked to do it.”

Gundy said when they would pull away from teams, Sanders would tell the coaches to take him out so he could watch his friends play.

There was also a story about a bunch of sticky notes being on Sanders’ locker with media that wanted to speak with Sanders, and Gundy said those notes would just stay there because Sanders didn’t enjoy doing a ton of media. Heck, he wasn’t too thrilled about waking up in Japan to accept the Heisman Trophy.

“The [story] about him not wanting to accept the Heisman is the truth,” Gundy said. “He was just fine sleeping. But he liked to sleep a lot. He slept in the locker room at halftime. Literally slept in a locker at halftime. Fell asleep in the Holiday Bowl on the bench in the second quarter.”

Now Sanders somewhat regularly does commercials — like for Nissan’s Heisman House. And he has a documentary coming out on Amazon Prime.

“People change, right?” Gundy said with a laugh. “Started looking at his bank account, ‘The Lions aren’t paying me anymore. I need to find a little money here.’ But he’s done good with that. Barry is a very intelligent person that nobody knows because he doesn’t talk.”

A House Divided

A fun aspect of Bedlam is that it not only divides the state, but it also divides some households — including House Gundy.

Mike went to OSU, but his brother Cale quarterbacked at OU. Then Mike started coaching at OSU, and Cale was a longtime assistant at OU. Mike said when his mother was around, Bedlam wasn’t talked about — ever.

“On gameday, I didn’t get anything from people outside of, ‘Good luck. We love you. We love Cale. Hope both of y’all have a good game,'” Gundy said. “What the hell does that mean? We both can’t have a good game. Somebody’s gonna win. Somebody’s gonna lose. But that was kind of an illustration of what went on during those times.”

Cale no longer coaches the Sooners, and Mike said the two talk quite a bit about football, but not necessarily Bedlam.

“He is a very intelligent, very experienced, very knowledgeable coach,” Mike said. “So for me to not use him as a resource for information would mean I’m not a very smart person. And I know a lot of people think that at times, but I’m not so dumb to not use his knowledge and information about the game and what he sees and what we do about upcoming opponents. But he and I do not speak specifically about Bedlam.”

Cowboys and Sooners Will Play Again — Eventually

This game will be marketed as the final Bedlam, but Gundy said the teams are bound to meet in a bowl game down the line.

Shoot, there might be another Bedlam game in a month for the Big 12 championship the way things are going.

“We’ll eventually play them again,” Gundy said. “I think it’ll be in a bowl. SEC and Big 12 have a lot of bowl matchups. I think that’ll probably be the next time. Regular season, in my opinion, is history.

“Because they can finagle bowls now. They don’t have a pecking order like certain leagues do. They would love to instigate that through a bowl. That would be my guess — that’ll be the next time it’ll happen.”

The Cowboys and Sooners could meet in a New Year’s Six Bowl with no conference tie-ins, like the Cotton, Fiesta or Peach bowls. The Big 12 and SEC are also tied with the Texas Bowl and the Liberty Bowl. Bedlam on Beale Street does have an interesting sound to it.

Gundy Says Cowboys ‘Can’t Get Out of Our Box’

Despite the pomp and circumstance surrounding this Bedlam in particular, it doesn’t sound like Gundy is putting the game on a pedestal.

Sellout Crowd’s Guerin Emig asked Gundy about the finality of this Bedlam game and what it would mean to the OSU fanbase if the Cowboys played well. Gundy started his answer by saying that Kansas State was a much bigger game based on where OSU was at (2-2) going into that game.

That could come off as alarming to the OSU faithful, but Gundy’s point was that every game is a big game because the games at the end of the season aren’t as big unless you do well throughout the season.

“We don’t have pro football, so half, 45%, of the state wears orange, 45% of the state wears red and 10% wears blue and gold — whatever, some percentage of that,” Gundy said. “When they go to work, they’re talking trash all week. Everybody is doing it because I get the text messages. From that standpoint, yes that’s true [Saturday’s Bedlam is a big deal].

“… But we — I and we — can’t get out of our box or we will not play well. We’re not good enough to get out of our box and lose sight of what we have to do and then recover. Now, I’ve had teams that could. This team is not in that position.”