Mike Gundy THE FIRST DECADE

STORY BY KEVIN KLINTWORTH

PHOTOGRAPHY BY GREG BULLARD, GARY LAWSON, JAMES SCHAMMERHORN, PHIL SHOCKLEY AND BRUCE WATERFIELD

IN THE FALL OF 2014, MIKE GUNDY WILL ENTER HIS 10TH SEASON AS THE HEAD FOOTBALL COACH AT OKLAHOMA STATE.

Gundy is the WINNINGEST COACH IN THE PROGRAM’S HISTORY with 77 victories. Only two coaches, Pat Jones and Jim Lookabaugh, have had longer coaching tenures in Stillwater with 11 years each. In 2010, Gundy was the BIG 12 COACH OF THE YEAR, and in 2011 he was the NATIONAL COACH OF THE YEAR. POSSE Magazine recently visited with the former Cowboy quarterback about his tenure as the OSU football boss and the future of the program.

POSSE: As a now veteran head coach, how prepared do you think you were to assume that role in 2005 when you became one of the youngest head coaches in the country?

Mike Gundy: I would say I was a very average candidate, especially when you look back at the information you gather and learn and process over a period of time as a head coach. And the patience that you develop in dealing with a number of di erent personalities from coaches to administrative support to players, I was probably 15 or 20 percent as prepared in regards to what I am now — and I’m still not the finished product. If I became a new head coach now, I think I would have a better feel and understanding and appreciation for administrators and athletic directors and the chance they take by hiring younger coaches. It’s a tremendous risk. If it works out, it’s a benefit with a big upside. You have a young coach that’s got a lot of enthusiasm and can grow on the job. However, there’s always a chance that it won’t (work out) because you have a young guy who may not be able to deal with the demands and all the personalities and all the pressures on your plate as a head coach.

PM: There would definitely seem to be a limit in regards to how prepared you could be as a first-time head coach. An o ensive coordinator and a head coach have two vastly di erent job descriptions.

MG: I think you’re right. It’s di erent than anything you’ve done leading up to becoming a head coach. And one thing I’ve always said and really believe that has helped me is this: I coached 11 years before I was ever on a sta that had a winning record. And I when I look back, I think I learned more from those teams and those sta s than maybe from a sta that had a winning record and was able to get into a bowl game. Because I saw a lot of mistakes made that I thought, at some point, I would like to eliminate if I ever had the opportunity. You learn on the job and the statement is true in that there’s not a lot of preparation other than what you believe in, in regards to coaching young men and your own personal beliefs and philosophies. I think you can have some of that instilled in you from other coaches. But as far as handling the entire operation on a daily basis, there’s not really any preparation.

PM: Do you have someone that you consider a coaching mentor?

MG: I think Pat Jones has probably had as much influence on me as anyone, just the way that he prepared us for everyday life when I was a player and just the toughness part of football. And I was able to grow and grab and hold onto things from all of the coaches (I worked for). My first head coach was obviously Coach Jones. And then Bob Simmons had some good ideas and things that he had worked on with BILL M c CARTNEY (at Colorado). And then CHUCK REEDY at Baylor had some di erent ideas from his days with DANNY FORD at Clemson and then RON VANDERLINDEN at Maryland. I thought he was a great recruiter and great with parents, and then, obviously I came back here to work for Les Miles. His work ethic and o ensive mind had a lot to do with my career. So I don’t know that there was any one person. When it comes to the thick and thin, ultimately, I’m going to do what I want to do so maybe I got a little bit from each coach.

PM: If someone in 2005 had told you where the OSU program would be in 2014, would you have been happy?

MG: I don’t think there’s any question I would have been. I felt like this was going to be a six-to-eight year project for us to get to the point that we could compete for a conference championship. At times, the public and people outside of the program would say ‘well that’s way too long.’ We’ve had some good years here at Oklahoma State, historically, but we have had a number of really di cult years. In my opinion, in college football, you don’t change tradition and perception in three or four years. And I’ve said this before, we have just barely started to change the way people look at Oklahoma State football. And it will take it another 10 or 15 years before it will stick, and that’s why we still have a lot of work ahead of us. But if someone had told me we would be in a situation in which we had won a conference championship and competed for a couple of more, been ranked in the top 10 several years and in the top 25 consistently, gone to a number of bowl games, then I would have said we’ve done pretty well up to this point.

PM: What do you remember about your first game as head coach against Montana State?

MG: I’ve said this before many times, but I guess I wasn’t smart enough to realize just how bad we really were. We just weren’t any good. We had good kids and all of that, but we didn’t have a system in place. We didn’t have structure, accountability or discipline. We were learning a new o ense with a new head coach and coordinators. There was just a lot out there. They (Montana State) were a decent team that year. They had a decent quarterback for any level (the reigning Canadian Football League O ensive Player of the Year TRAVIS LULAY). We couldn’t move the ball. We couldn’t score points. I look back at it now and think how lucky we were to get out of that game with a win. It was 15-10 or something and we just weren’t very good. We had a long way to go.

PM: Was there a point when you thought that success, at least at the level you envisioned, might not happen at OSU?

MG: Not really, and I’ll tell you why. I guess I’m repeating myself here, but I wasn’t smart enough to realize that we weren’t very good and that it couldn’t happen here. I knew that Mr. Pickens and Coach Holder were committed to trying to win in football. And that others would follow their lead. We were trying to build our facilities. We had long-range plans for an indoor facility. When I look back, I think our coaches bought into it. I feel like one thing I did well early on was to never give anyone any reason to believe that it wasn’t going to work in the long term. We had all kinds of issues along the way. We lost (linebacker) Orie Lemon for a season. We