In his 19th season atop the Oklahoma State football program, Mike Gundy is both one of college football’s most-tenured head coaches and among the sport’s more enduring successes.
The Cowboys have made 17 consecutive postseason appearances with Gundy at the helm of his alma mater, and they’ve posted seven seasons of 10 or more wins.
Notably, Gundy also has never shied away from speaking his mind. His infamous “I’m a man! I’m 40! Come after me!” press conference rants ranks alongside Allen Iverson’s “We’re talking about practice, man!” and Dennis Green’s “You wanna crown ‘em, crown ‘em” press conference diatribes.
Monday, on the heels of Oklahoma State’s rather stunning, 33-7 beatdown at the hands of Kane Wommack’s visiting South Alabama squad, Gundy was questioned about the success of Deion Sanders and Colorado, after the Buffaloes improved to 2-0 with their dramatic, two-overtime, come-from-behind-win against rival Colorado State.
Colorado, now quite famously, has more than 80 new players on its first roster under Coach Prime, and it also has a No. 19 national ranking as well as that 3-0 opening.
“Somebody asked me about (Deion Sanders) three or four weeks ago; here’s the thing with Coach Sanders: I don’t know him. Here’s what I like: he’s doing to do what he wants, the way he wants to do it and he believes in it and he doesn’t care what anybody else thinks,” Gundy said in his press conference. “Now, he may be making more from Burger King and Aflac (commercials) and whoever else and it may not matter, which all the power to him. But, from a distance, what I see is this is what he believes in and this is what he did.”
Coach Prime has added multiple new national endorsement opportunities since his arrival at Colorado, and he likewise has helped fuel record sales revenue for Buffaloes merchandise.
Gundy, however, did question how Colorado might need to structure its practices with such roster turnover and a presumed absence of core depth in the program.
“I’m guessing that they would have to practice against each other all the time because their roster numbers would be down,” Gundy said. “But it’s worked out for (Deion Sanders). Now, I haven’t really seen them play much. I saw them play a little bit against TCU, but I haven’t seen them play anymore.
“The part I did see is his son (quarterback Shedeur Sanders) is making a lot of plays, a really good player, making a lot of plays and they’re playing to his strengths. I thought that was good.”
Gundy touted the impending arrival of both Colorado and Deion Sanders to the Big 12 Conference in 2024.
“It will be great for our conference, but he’s certainly proved that you can get rid of your whole team and bring a new team and play good,” Gundy said.
Oft recruited by other schools to leave Oklahoma State, Gundy also admitted that both the success of Coach Prime at Colorado, as well as the overall more pervasive nature of the NCAA Transfer Portal, has forced Gundy to reassess the Pokes’ approach.
“I mean because more players will move around, so I don’t think you’ll have the core that we’ve always had here,” Gundy said. “And that’s kind of what I was talking about in answering (the) question.
“We’re going to have to find ways to supplement it because history is telling us over the last couple of years that there’s a percentage of your team that was going to go somewhere else. And if they do, we have to try to find other guys to come in here that are in the same maturity level and age group and then get them in the system and try to get them coached up.”
Gundy and the Cowboys play their first Big 12 tilt this week, when they visit Iowa State – which also suffered a Group of 5 loss last weekend. The Cyclones were beaten on the road at Ohio.