Eric Bailey
Tulsa World OSU Sports Reporter
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STILLWATER – As Oklahoma State’s players left the field after a disappointing 19-12 home loss to Tulsa, orange-and-black clad fans tried to lift their spirits.
“We still love you,” said a fan.
“Keep your heads up,” another supporter yelled.
“It’s not y’all’s fault,” a voice screamed, louder than the others.
“It’s Gundy’s fault.”
Mike Gundy is on the hotseat. It’s hotter than it’s been in his 21 seasons at Oklahoma State.
As the home band played the school fight song, the 58-year-old coach signaled “O-S-U” as he departed Lewis Field.
Gundy will always be loyal to his alma mater.
But is the feeling reciprocal?
During a 17-minute press conference where he explained what went wrong after the 11th loss in the past 12 games, he was asked if he should keep his position as head coach.
Gundy praised the OSU fans who attended before saying about his job security: “Those aren’t decisions I make. My decision is to do exactly what I mentioned earlier – get these guys, keep moving forward and go on down the road. That’s what we do.”
It was an impressive crowd. The school said 48,842 were present for the Friday night game following an embarrassing 69-3 loss at Oregon two weeks ago.
The early cheers after the Cowboys took a 3-0 lead following the opening drive gave way to boos when the Golden Hurricane scored 19 unanswered points.
OSU quarterback Zane Flores heard the boos as well as the “Fire Gundy” chants that were voiced by angry fans.
“It’s understandable. The fans want to win, just like we do. So I understand why they’re frustrated,” Flores said. “But I’m just trying to stay in the team. Our team is the only one that’s in there every day, working, watching film, practicing together.
“It’s just staying together and trusting each other.”
Gundy has been encouraging to his team.
“Coach has been awesome. You know, he’s continuing to motivate us,” Flores said. “You know he knows what we’re feeling. We know what he’s feeling, so we’re all kind of in this together. But you know him, he’s motivating us. He’s taking one day at a time. You know he’s working his butt off too.”
OSU can’t allow things to unravel with his fragile program.
This is unfamiliar territory for Gundy, who has had 18 winning seasons during his previous 20 years.
“We have to keep working as a group. We share it. Coaches have to do a better job of coaching. We have to stay in our system,” he said.
“In 21 years, it’s a different position that I’ve been in, but as I say every week, my job is to evaluate the overall program, players, the systems and then be able to put it down and think about it,” Gundy said. “What do we need to do to improve? And then I have to make a decision on where we’re at based on what we have. And that’s what I do.”
Gundy thought he’d solved an important equation after the Oregon setback. The playbook was too complex. Simplifying things was the goal for the past two weeks of preparation time for the Hurricane.
But the bye week before Tulsa didn’t prove advantageous, it was quickly determined.
“The concepts were fine, we just have to continue to get better at them,” Gundy said. “I told them all just now, as we continue to go through the season with the new systems on both sides of the ball and the new players, we just have to stay with what we’re doing, continue to get better and do some of the more basics.”
The regular season is one-quarter complete. Nine Big 12 games await, starting with a physical Baylor team coming to Stillwater for a 2:30 p.m. contest on Saturday
This can be viewed as a clean slate. But big picture thoughts cannot be afforded right now.
OSU needs to get better week-to-week, quarter-to-quarter and possession-to-possession.
“I can tell they’re all hurting, which is good,” Gundy said about the locker room after the defeat. “There’s no finger pointing, which is good, because it’s difficult for them. These guys, they work hard, they put a lot of time in, as we all know, and they want success.
“So I don’t know if it’s as easy as a clean slate, because we can’t get rid of the three games we’ve already played. But one thing we can do is, as coaches, we can continue to work and put together plans that we think, based on what happened in these first three games, gives us a chance to play well in the next game.”
eric.bailey@tulsaworld.com
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Eric Bailey
Tulsa World OSU Sports Reporter
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