In between work stops today I heard Mark Rodgers say O State’s new president in a sequence of recent tweets has said no to future Bedlam competition.
How sad. But not sad for OU, but sad for the fact the enabling in regards to Mike Gundy and his football program apparently will continue in Stillwater.
Only this time it won’t come from T Boone Pickens or Mike Holder or the O State Board of Regents.
Here’s the brutal truth about Oklahoma State football the previous decade…they appear to be afraid of competing at an elite national level yet want to be compensated as if they were Alabama, LSU, Oklahoma, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Florida, Georgia and Clemson.
To be elite in any sport or any human endeavor for that manner you can’t cower from playing the best. You have to realize that to get better there are times you have to lose or even some times get your ass kicked to get better.
Oklahoma State won’t play anybody and that’s been the truth since 2011 when after the season Holder and Pickens scheduled Gundy’s team to play Florida State in a kick-off classic, which btw was a very entertaining game in which O State lost.
Then came the Gundy theatrics. The ultimatums he would do the scheduling or do his coaching at Tennessee or Arkansas or some other locale which would woo the Mullet King.
And this is where Oklahoma State in my view made the bed in which they find themelves today…namely on the outside looking in at the elites in college football. Instead of parting ways with Gundy… they paid him at an elite level.
In that same period of time Joe C’s program has played Notre Dame home and away, Ohio State home and away, Tennessee home and away minus a covid game, Army home and away minus a covid game, and scheduled LSU for a home and away.
In that same period of time in bowl games and/or playoff games Joe C’s program has played Alabama twice, Clemson, Auburn, LSU, Florida, and Georgia.
OU won some of those games, yet got their ass kicked off the field in the LSU game. That was a beat down loss as was the USC game back in the 2004 national championship game under Bob Stoops.
But you know what Joe C didn’t do? He didn’t recoil from those setbacks and schedule his program as if they were a collective bunch of entitled pussies who’s mommies and daddies couldn’t handle those tough losses to USC and LSU.
Here’s another truth about O State football they are one of four programs in this Big 12 and the previous Big 12 who have never made it to the Big 12 Championship Game. The other three are Kansas, Texas Tech, and West Virginia.
What Joe C said to Bob Stoops and Lincoln Riley after the tough losses is basically…get better. Recruit better. Coach better. Compete your ass off and earn your salary. Let me know as your AD what I can do to help you make us an elite national program again. I’ll do the scheduling.
Truth be known, neither O State or Texas have been the second best team in this Big 12 the past two years. That team would be Matt Campbell’s Iowa State Cyclones who have my complete and total respect for what they’ve done with their program of late.
Iowa State has beaten OU twice so far in Campbell’s tenure and almost beat them in the Big 12 Championship Game last December at Jerry’s World.
Let’s assume for a second I’m Joe C and I just lost Lincoln Riley to the NFL.
Let’s assume I need to hire a new head coach. Would I take Matt Campbell, Alex Grinch, or Mike Gundy?
Not even close who wouldn’t be in the top two on that list.
And that’s the problem in Stillwater. That being, an honest and introspective look at why they’re not going to the SEC might prove helpful looking towards the future. The admission it’s not OU’s fault.. but O State’s own doing and they’re not big enough to admit it publicly.
Truth hurts.
I could use a music video after that. Have a nice Tuesday. Enjoy the fall-like weather. To be young again, eh.