Mike Gundy: More Than OK

[Note: This post appears in the October 5 edition of Flyer News]


I didn’t need to hear him. I didn’t need to know who he was. All I needed to know was what I saw on the television from across the dining room in the Kennedy Union.

The sound was down and there was a coach dressed in a bright shade of orange with an even brighter red face screaming. I knew it was bad because he had gone outside the orange backdrop.

You know what I mean. The backdrop adorned with the team logo that sits behind those speaking at a post-game press conference. The coach was outside the area that he was supposed to be in, and that spells trouble. Just ask John Calapari or John Cheney.

I went straight back to my apartment and thanks to the genius that is YouTube I was able to quickly find this rant and enjoy it.

The coach is Mike Gundy and he coaches the football team at Oklahoma State University (OSU) and needless to say, he was not happy. If you have yet to see this rant, look it up. It’s good. It may, in fact, be the best coaching rant this side of Dennis Green.

It was an intensely angry rant, but unlike most press-conference rants that came before it, Gundy actually made a point. Herm Edwards has a knack for the obvious. Allen Iverson and Jim Mora love to repeat choice words, but Gundy made a point, and that makes it all the better.

Gundy criticized a local reporter, Jenni Carlson, for her recent column in which she wrote about an OSU quarterback, Bobby Reid, who was recently benched. Gundy claimed that three-fourths of Carlson’s article was fiction, and that there was no need for Carlson to criticize a college football player’s actions off the field.

At one point in the article (which I skimmed) she actually makes a reference to the benched quarterback wanting to be coddled in his mothers’ arms: “Does he want to be coddled, babied and possibly fed chicken?” Low blow, Ms. Carlson. Keep those gloves up.

Gundy responded to the low blow with hard right hooks. He called the article garbage, and the editor that let it out garbage. Strong words, but an overall good message.

Keep in mind that this was following a game that OK State beat a decent Texas Tech team, and this is all that Gundy said following that impressive victory. He was so angry that he used the time set aside for post-game discussion to blast a reporter.

Gundy’s point is a valid one and raises an interesting debate. Are college athletes scrutinized too intensely by the media?

Gundy’s stance, and the correct one, is: yes, they are.

Don’t get me wrong, I think that anything college athletes do on the field is fair game. By playing for these schools and accepting their scholarships college athletes have to understand that a certain level of on-the-field scrutiny in the media comes with the territory. As long as it stays on the field. The point that Gundy made is that there is no need to attack the off-field character of an amateur athlete.

Professional athletes are, for the most part, grown men. The can handle it. They play their chosen sport for a living and accept all that comes with it. With the landscape of professional sports in this country being what it is, professional athletes are treated as celebrities, and that celebrity status comes with constant scrutiny on the field and in life. Just ask A-Rod. College athletes are not professionals, so they shouldn’t be treated as such.

Kudos to Gundy for sticking up for his now backup quarterback. He’s right. Say what you want about Reid’s play, but leave his personal life and character alone. He’s just a kid. There is no place for that.

The sad part is that Carlson sticks by her story even though Gundy pointed out specific things that he claims were flat out wrong. Carlson will not be punished for her seemingly irresponsible reporting, but will instead be praised because of the ubiquitous attention her employer has gained.

Maybe she’s the one that needs to be benched.