Good Day Grover Pickers,

Welcome to Week 5. I miss what football was like way back in week 4.

OK State and We Are Not OK

What if I told you…
The boy raised to be the hero of the story, the undeniable legend, the inevitable one who did mostly the right things in mostly the right ways, even he could not avoid the ending.

Oklahoma State fired Head Coach Mike Gundy this week and sent one of the founding myths of college football straight to heaven.

There was a time when college football was local. Colorful teams with colorful, homegrown, coaches and players supported by local fans, some of them alumni but most just fans, cheering for a team from your state’s favorite sleepy college town.

That original myth- that ‘our school’ represents ‘our state’ (or town or region) – with ‘our boys’, does not matter, functionally or emotionally, anymore. It hasn’t mattered for many years, but the game kept that old cloak around. The idea was important in the definition of ‘college’ football.

Mike Gundy grew up in Midwest City, a suburb reliant on Tinker Air Force Base just north of Oklahoma City. He is the son of Ray and Judy Gundy. Ray is a tough Okie native who made a career as a computer specialist at the base. Judy is remembered as the archetypical sports mom.

When Mike was born, Midwest City was barely 20 yeas old. His world was two parents and two siblings, a freshly built neighborhood, sports and church. His father provided the discipline. Short haircuts, hard work, respect, play to win everything and root for the Oklahoma Sooners.

Gundy’s childhood was the common GenX suburban lifestyle of late 20th Century America. Drinking from a garden hose, running through the neighborhood until dark, and listening to music on AM radio. The perspective of America from the shadow of Tinker was Vietnam, school desegregation, stopping the Russian nuclear threat, Reagan, Waylon and Willie, and Johnny Paycheck’s “Take This Job and Shove It”.

From the Oklahoman, August, 1989:

“You get the feeling that it never rains or even gets cloudy near the Gundys’ home in Midwest City . . . that the Gundys all know, very clearly, who they are and what they represent . . . that the football cheers will never turn Mike and Cale, the confident but clear-headed football heroes, into insufferable ego trippers.”

Mike Gundy was the star quarterback for four seasons at Midwest City High School. As a senior he led the Bombers to the state 5A Championship in 1985, beating Muskogee 40-36 on a 76-yard touchdown drive in the final 2 minutes. He was named the Oklahoma Player of the Year.

His father attended OSU for a time, but this was an OU household. Barry Switzer his own self recruited Gundy to Norman, but Mike Gundy chose Stillwater. He chose them.

Judy Gundy cried over that decision.

Oklahoma State was the Ag school. The second school. It was only 5 years since State dropped the “A&M” from its name. Stillwater was a backwater, even in Oklahoma. Norman, just on the other side of Oklahoma City from Midwest City, was THE football school. The Sooners were 6-time national champions and would add a seventh in 1985.

Four years after making his mom cry, after choosing Oklahoma State, QB Mike Gundy had led the Cowboys to their only back-to-back 10 win seasons. He was the Cowboys all-time leader in passing yards. He remains the leading passer in the history of the Big 8 Conference.

After a time, Mike Gundy chose to return to Stillwater to coach. Eventually, he’s named the head football coach. He has a quick temper. He’s full of entertaining, and honest, quotes. His hair was still short, for awhile, before the famous mullet. He always coached to win. And the Cowboys won.

It’s as if Joe Paterno grew up in State College or Bear Bryant was from Anniston or Steve Spurrier graduated from Plant City High School. That’s the thing that makes Mike Gundy choosing Oklahoma State singular, mythical, and emblematic of what college football was. He’s the Oklahoma school boy legend who stayed home. He’s ‘one of us’. He punched above his weight class, and so did OSU. He was the one to make make OSU football relevant.

Twenty seasons later, Gundy leaves Stillwater as the all-time winningest coach in the history of OSU, by a whopping 108 games over 2nd place. He’s 2nd all-time in Big 12 wins. Ten of OSU’s eleven 10-win seasons involved Mike Gundy as a player or coach.

Gavin Gundy, Mike’s oldest son, said it properly on social media, even if he is emotionally tied to everything:

“Mike Gundy IS Oklahoma State football. Period… He is the most important name this program has EVER had. Without him, you’d have nothing to brag about, nothing to watch, nothing to cry about. Let’s be clear: before Gundy, OSU football was a damn afterthought. He made us nationally respected. He gave Stillwater relevance… So when you bash Mike Gundy, remember this: he’s in the record books forever. His legacy is carved in stone. He MADE Oklahoma State football.”

Oklahoma State fired its biggest legend, the guy who chose them over the Sooners and everybody else, on a Tuesday morning just three games into the season.

What changed?

Not Mike Gundy.

The money changed. The power of players changed. The stage got bigger than Oklahoma or Texas or the Big 8 or the Big 12. College football evolved into a corporation. Brands overtook the institutions. Transfers. The IMG Academy’s of the world. Playoffs. TV. COVID. Gambling. Administrators. Boosters. Did I mention money?

One day Gundy walks onto the turf at Boone Pickens Stadium and everything familiar, everything bedrock to his being, has evolved. Nobody in Stillwater, not Gundy, not the administration, not the boosters, seems to embrace change very well.

Gundy’s mom died in 2020. The state of Oklahoma grew. It is home to more than 1 million more people now than 1970. Vietnam is long over, Church attendance is in a tailspin, and the neighborhood kids don’t play in the street anymore. You can’t tune in AM radio on Spotify. Everybody still drinks from the garden hose, but not directly. We wait until the hose water is packaged into a disposable plastic bottle and re-branded as “President’s Choice Pure Artesian Well Water”, before we take a sip. Everything has changed, but not Mike Gundy and not OSU.

Today, college football players expect to get paid. They expect raises each year. Gundy’s skill had always been recruiting Top 50 classes and coaching them up into the Top 20 on the field. He did that in Stillwater, in the shadow of the mighty Sooners. Lately, he’s been coaching them up so some other team can pay them.

All those fans who rode with the legend from his freshman year of high school through winning the last Bedlam game against the rival Sooners aren’t cheering anymore.

“This is a place you can win football games. Coach Gundy has proven that,” Athletic Director Chad Weiberg said at his press conference on Tuesday.

Enough folks around Stillwater think there can be more. Should be more. Because of Mike Gundy, OSU believes they deserve more. But they do not believe in Mike Gundy anymore.

Oklahoma State will learn that the Legend didn’t let them down, they let down the Legend. The administration is in flux, the AD hasn’t had a signed contract for over a year, the growing donor base is at odds with itself, and it appears everybody involved expected the kid from Midwest City to smoothly add “Chief Paymaster” to his duties and keep on winning.

There will still be good stories in college football’s new age of professionalism, but we will not see Mike Gundy’s hero story arc again. Nobody has time, money or love for the idea of the local kid whose whole life, whose values, temperament, and heart, create the full legend of an entire underdog school over 40 years.

It felt right that Mike Gundy existed at Oklahoma State. It meant college football kept a slim tether to its rich, regional, foundational myths.

That time has passed. That feeling is gone.

I miss it.

Also Not OK

Dabo –

Dear Clemson, please read the previous ‘obituary’ about Mike Gundy’s career at Oklahoma State and shut the hell up about firing Dabo. You have never, nor will you ever, do better.

“Danger” Russell Wilson –

Play until they drag you off of the field or you throw a 4th down pass into the tunnel. Whichever comes first.

Dallas Cowboys-

Jerry’s Boys will not be the first team in the history of sports to trade away its best player AND win a championship in the same season.

Ike Hilliard –

The Falcons fired wide receiver coach Ike Hilliard this week after a 30-0 loss to the Carolina Panthers and their elementary-school-sized QB. I’m sure that will fix everything in Atlanta.

Know Your Shanahan’s

Following up on last week’s very popular “Know Your Lombardi’s” segment…

Mike Shanahan: Offensive Coordinator, Indiana Hoosiers
This is the guy responsible for hanging 63 on Illinois last week. He was a tight end at Pitt and played very, very briefly for the Jets, Bucs and Montreal Alouettes. He will be rumored for head coaching jobs soon. He is NOT RELATED in any way to Mike or Kyle Shanahan.

Mike Shanahan: Retired and Tan Coach
A Super Bowl-winning head coach with the Denver Broncos. Credited with salvaging John Elway’s career with running backs and contributing to the pre-mature end of Robert Griffin, III’s career. He is the father of Kyle.

Kyle Shanahan: Current Miserable NFL Head Coach
The current head coach of the San Francisco 49ers, known for his innovative offensive mind and leading the team to multiple Super Bowl appearances. His name is tattooed on the ankle of his college roommate, Chris Simms. He is the son of former NFL Head Coach, Mike.

Tony Hale: Actor
Voted by The Commissioner as “Most Likely to Play Mike Shanahan in the Movie About IU’s Cinderella Championship Season” due to facial similarities and comic chops.

PROFESSIONAL COLLEGE FOOTBALL

Notre Dame v Arkansas

The way it works is if Arkansas wins, that’s a bad look for the ACC. If Notre Dame wins, that’s good look for the Big10. Those are the rules. I don’t make them.  

Ole Miss v LSU

This week, Ole Miss Head Coach Lane Kiffin got a 30 for 30 documentary on ESPN AND his daughter, the one he says is most like him, dropped the news on social media that she’s dating an LSU linebacker named “Witt’.

All this led fans in Gainesville to wonder, “Hey, you think that Witt guy will transfer to Florida when we hire Kiffin in December?”

LSU Coach Brian Kelly is the currently the second winningest active head coach in college football with 199 victories, trailing only Kirk Ferentz’s 207. That is why Kelly is adored by tens of people.

Texas A&M v Auburn

Auburn basketball coach Bruce Pearl retired this week, a move timed so he could force an historically compliant and incompetent Auburn athletic department to hire his son, Steven, to be the new coach. Steven, whose entire coaching resume is “Auburn with my dad”, got a 5 year contract.

So, if you are an Auburn fan, you have to wonder, “Does Hugh Freeze have children?”

Yes, Hugh Freeze has children. There are three we are aware of, all daughters.

Ragan is an Executive Assistant for Auburn Football.

Jordan is the head volleyball coach at Lee-Scott Academy and lives in Auburn.

Madison, according to Instagram, is on-or-about 20 years old , lives in Auburn, and has an extensive collection of sun dresses.

Those are your future Auburn coaching candidates.

It would be the most Auburn-SEC-college football thing ever for Hugh Freeze to retire and force Auburn to name one of his daughters as the new Head Coach, only to have a guy named “Tom Freeze” show up at the press conference, claim he is Hugh’s secret son from a previous relationship in Tampa, and demand the Auburn coaching job for himself by right of primogeniture. I expect Auburn’s leadership would say, “Oh, well, yeah, that sounds right. Sorry, ladies.”

Embarrassing Texas A&M Fact– The only Power 5 football team to employ a head coach who is also a graduate of the Ivy League? The Aggies! Mike Elko is a 1998 Penn grad. So Elko can spell ‘Chaw’, but has no idea how to spit it? Or does he only spit into a 12th Century chalis?

Northwestern v UCLA

In the case of both schools, the coach before the current coach who will lead his team on Saturday is replacing a legendary alum. (Pay attention Oklahoma State).

It’s not going well for anybody, except Tennessee, which no longer employs UCLA QB Nico “Im-a-gonna-Leave-here-too”.

For those who believe the Big10 is a better conference than the SEC, consider that Northwestern and UCLA are the two worst Big10 teams. The worst team, by record, in the SEC is Florida. Relative to the SEC, the Gators suck. Relative to UCLA or Northwestern, the Gators are the ’85 Bears.

New Mexico v New Mexico State

The 115th playing of the Rio Grande Rivalry kicks off in Albuquerque Saturday. Expect sunshine and a high of 75 with no humidity. The football will be ‘meh’, but Albuquerque is under-appreciated as a city and the sunset will be insane. There will be worse places to be this weekend, for instance, Stillwater.

UGA v BAMA

The Bulldogs are coached by an alum who is neither a lovable personality nor a person who will ever be more culturally important in Georgia than Richt, Donnan, Goff or the guy who coached Hershel. 

Bama is coached by a guy who I’m sure thinks he knows what it might feel like if the Tide lose this game to the Bulldogs, and he believes he can handle it. 

However, I suspect Kalen DeBoer will wish he was picked up in last week’s rapture, or, in case he failed to qualify for such an event, he might prefer to be fired by Oklahoma State to at least avoid the unhinged, unmitigated, undeserved, unbearable and undignified commentary on Finebaum next week.

If Georgia wins, the Bama dynasty is officially and finally over. If anyone wants to argue the point, please take it up with Vanderbilt.

Penn St. v Oregon

The Big10’s version of New Mexico vs New Mexico State, but the weather is not as good.

Idaho v Montana

Two top 10 FCS powerhouses face off for the right to build a platinum and silver mine on 7,000 square acres of forested mountains near the state line.

Montana Head Coach Bobby Hauck may be the closest thing we have left to Mike Gundy in college football. Hauck is from Missoula. He graduated from Montana. He is the winningest coach in Montana and Big Sky Conference history.

Idaho Head Coach Thomas Ford, Jr. played at Linfield. He won the National Indoor Football League championship with Tri-Cities Fever in 2005. Ford’s brother, Tracy Ford, played for the Vandals in the 2000s. And isn’t that a very likely background story for the secret son of Hugh Freeze to reveal when he barges into the introductory press conference at Auburn?

PROFESSIONAL PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL

Vikings v Steelers in Dublin

Sending Carson Wentz and Aaron Rogers to an island is not a bad idea, but why do we have to disturb the Irish in the process?

Lions v Browns

The Browns might lose every remaining game 3-0 given the skill of their defense. BONUS: Lions OL Penei Sewell vs. any and all of the Browns DLs is must-see TV.

Eagles v Bucs

For the Bucs, you have to stay out of third or fourth and tush. 

For the Eagles, consider invoking NFL Rulebook Article 2, Section 22, Rule 3, which permits the offense to throw one forward pass per down, provided it’s from behind the line of scrimmage and involves an eligible receiver. This rule pre-dates the organization of the NFL by 14 seasons. The Eagles should try it.

Ravens v Chiefs

A “Dolly Parton Without Makeup” Game.

Both teams are/were very good. Like Dolly, when fully in character they look great, sound great, are quick, fun, sassy and bold.

However, one of these teams is leaving the game with 3 losses in four games.

That’s more like Dolly at home or traveling in her RV. No makeup, no sequins, no big blonde wig. Just another anonymous Wal Mart shopper in East Tennessee wearing Sponge Bob pajama bottoms, a stained hoodie, and worn out Crocs.

Which team gets all Dolly-d up?

Packers v Cowboys

The Comeuppance Bowl for Jerry Jones. Why must Dak suffer for the sins of the father?

Happy Picking,

The Commissioner