Why Mike Gundy’s Opening Statement Post-Bedlam Was So Fantastic

I’ve been thinking about one moment from Bedlam all weekend. It’s not Corn’s fourth-and-12 toss to Tylan late in the fourth. It’s not the missed extra point from Ammendola. It’s not the two-point conversion with 63 seconds left. The moment I’ve been thinking about happened after all of that was over, about 20 minutes after the clock hit 0:00 and Lincoln Riley and Mike Gundy shook hands at midfield.

The postgame rush onto any the field for this game (and most games) is chaotic. You go from four hours of order as it relates to field decorum, and then it’s just an amoeba of players, coaches, photographers, staffers, media members, cheerleaders, band members and sometimes fans all at once.

I found Mike Gundy early in the process and observed him as several OU folks came up to shake his hand and tell him some version of, That was a hell of a game. He was gracious, gave half smiles and mostly was trying to get his entire team off the field and into the locker room.

Off we sauntered into the tunnel and into the small-ish maze of rooms just off the visitor’s exit on Owen Field. The door to the press conference room was locked so we waited outside of it for 5-10 minutes while Gundy addressed his team and prepped for media availability.

When he entered and took the mic, I thought I heard his voice catch. It sounded heavy. Not as if he’d been crying but as if he’d been trying to not cry. This game means a lot in this state. Making $14,000 a day doesn’t change that.

Carson posted the video, and I’ve rewatched it a dozen times. I might be wrong here — it would not be the first time about something in a Gundy presser … in the last three weeks — but he comes off like a man who has been through some Bedlams. Like a man who gets broken once a year and spends the next 364 days putting himself back together.

I thought this was a great opening statement by Mike Gundy. This is all #okstate fans really want to hear and see out of their team in #Bedlam. And credit to him for coaching aggressively. Pulled out all the stops. pic.twitter.com/8E7aaZykC5

— Carson Cunningham (@KOCOCarson) November 11, 2018

There has been talk all year about complacency and laurel-resting and whatever other euphemisms are doled out when a team you thought was going to go 8-4 currently isn’t sniffing that number. There might be some truth in that. I have no idea. I do think he’s dialed it back in recruiting and that’s hurt him.

But I also thought it was pretty cool that somebody playing or coaching in his 28th Bedlam, somebody who has emotionally distanced himself at times, let go of what everybody who wears orange was feeling. Watch his mouth quiver at 0:09 (I know this is some Zapruder-level mania). That’s good stuff. That doesn’t happen if you aren’t supremely invested in what you’re doing and who you’re doing it with.

So we can (and will!) criticize Gundy for a million things over the next few months and years, but giving a crap should not be one of them. Carson said it well above — this is what OSU fans want to hear and see — and Gundy delivered it (as well as an absolute show) on Saturday evening in Norman.