Mike Gundy: ‘Third- and fourth-down conversions weren’t good for’ OSU vs Tulsa
Oklahoma State football coach Mike Gundy breaks down what went wrong for the Cowboys in a 19-12 loss to Tulsa on Sept. 19.
STILLWATER — It’s over.
Not officially, but effectively.
The Mike Gundy era at OSU, glorious as it was for the better part of two decades, ended Friday night. Losing by 66 at Oregon was reprehensible. But getting beat 19-12 … at home … coming off a bye week … by Tulsa? That’s unforgivable.
The fans have turned on their favorite son, and for good reason.
“Fire Mike Gundy,” chanted some, loud enough to be heard on the ESPN broadcast.
Hopefully it doesn’t have to come to that. A midseason firing would be ugly. The on-field results wouldn’t change. You think Doug Meacham or Todd Grantham is guiding this team to a bowl game?
No, the Cowboys are cooked.
It’s too late for a Hail Mary. The only call is to take a knee and run out the clock.
Gundy should resign at season’s end. His representation and whoever is in charge at OSU — that’s an altogether different mess — need to negotiate Gundy’s buyout number to whatever is mutually palatable. Shake hands. Move on. That would be best for Gundy. Be best for OSU, too.
Maybe it’s naive to think Gundy would go down without a financial fight, but what he means to OSU and vice versa is too sacred to be sullied by dollars and cents.
Gundy has won 170 games at his alma mater. Among active coaches, only Kirk Ferentz at Iowa (206) and Clemson’s Dabo Swinney (181) have more wins at their current school.
Eight times Gundy has won 10-plus games. The Cowboys had an 18-year bowl streak, which of course was snapped last season.
The sustained success Gundy accomplished at OSU has evaporated in an instant. The Cowboys have lost 11 consecutive games against FBS opponents. They were punked at Oregon, but at least the Ducks are contenders.
To get outmanned for three and half hours by Tulsa is worse. OSU scored 12 points over the course of 12 drives. The Cowboys failed to convert a key fourth-and-1 in the third quarter. They allowed 146 rushing yards to a back, Dominic Richardson, who used to wear orange.
The Cowboys came close to rallying in the fourth quarter, but this was a game Tulsa controlled until the Golden Hurricane got tight.
The most damning part of Friday night: It wasn’t flukey.
Tulsa was the better team. Tulsa deserved to win.
Gundy opened his postgame news conference by addressing the Cowboys’ inefficiency on third (4-of-15) and fourth downs (1-of-4). Of course that’s just a coach diagnosing what went wrong on a particular night, but it felt awfully granular. The Cowboys’ problems are grand.
Forget about the deck chairs. The ship is sinking.
“In 21 years it’s a different position than I’ve been in,” said Gundy, when asked about hitting rock bottom. “As I say every week, my job is to evaluate the overall program, players, the systems … And then I have to make a decision on where we’re at based on what we have. That’s what I do. We’ve certainly been in a different situation a lot of years in a row, but currently we’re not in that situation.”
We should’ve seen it coming. OSU’s 27-7 win against UT Martin was the first sign that this team — with a remade roster and completely new coaching staff — was just as bad, maybe worse, than last year’s.
OSU beat UT Martin by 20. UTEP beat UT Martin by 25. Southern Illinois beat UT Martin by 27.
Oregon beat OSU by 66. Oregon beat Montana State by 46. Oregon beat Northwestern by 20.
Tulsa’s only win before Friday was against Abilene Christian. Tulsa lost to New Mexico State by seven. Tulsa lost to Navy by 19.
OSU isn’t just a basement-level Big 12 team. The Cowboys might very well be the worst team in the Power Four ranks. Tulsa is in Year 1 of a rebuild under first-year coach Tre Lamb. And the Golden Hurricane made Gundy and the Cowboys look foolish.
OSU misses injured-quarterback Hauss Hejny, who, in a very brief sample, looked more dynamic than Zane Flores. Not that this loss or the Oregon one is on Flores. Not at all. He doesn’t have an offensive line to block for him, a running game to complement him or a defense to back him up.
But don’t cry for the Cowboys. Tulsa starting quarterback Kirk Francis was out with a concussion. The Cowboys got carved up by a guy named Baylor Hayes, a redshirt freshman making his second career start. Hayes followed Lamb to Tulsa from East Tennessee State, where Hayes played in two games and attempted a grand total of 30 passes.
Tulsa, having opened American Conference play last Saturday, rolled into Boone Pickens Stadium on short rest. OSU had an extra week to prepare. To wallow in the Oregon loss and take out that pent-up frustration on their turnpike neighbor.
Gundy couldn’t motivate the Cowboys for this? Couldn’t outcoach Lamb? Gundy’s been coaching football for as long as Lamb has been alive.
A fanbase that had every right to check out after the Oregon game showed up on this Friday night. But even the most ardent among them had to be dejected with the result.
Gundy is the greatest coach in OSU history. He’ll have his name painted on the field or a statue erected outside of it. Or both. The longer this lasts, though, the more tarnished his legacy becomes.
It’s a shame that it came to this. Truly.
“Mike Gundy IS Oklahoma State football,” Gundy’s eldest son, Gavin, posted after the Oregon loss. “Period. No debate. No asterisks. No ‘yeah, but.’”
That part of the rant was right. Mostly.
Mike Gundy was OSU football.
Joe Mussatto is a sports columnist for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Joe? Email him at jmussatto@oklahoman.com. Support Joe’s work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.