Mike Gundy said at his regular Monday press conference today that preoccupation with cell phones has made today's athlete harder to coach than those in previous generations.
"Focus and preparation is different now then it ever has been. And the players that we coach come in and they're not like guys that we coached 10, 15 or 20 years ago. Because your generation spends all their time looking at their phone," Gundy said. "My generation spent all our time in the front yard playing games. And so they were more ready to go into college athletics. They understood all the dynamics of it compared to young people nowadays. They don't spend as much time around football, they spend more time playing some game on a phone. Because of all that, and the training that takes place, there's more parity in college football.
"I know that seems a little extreme, but I've talked to several college coaches in different sports, not just football, baseball and basketball, and over the last four or five years, we're coaching young men that are talented athletically, but don't have some of the natural football, basketball or baseball skills because they don't watch it and pay enough attention to it and they don't play it in the front yard."
It's an interesting take, but one that contradicts a different opinion Gundy himself provided just a month and a half ago.
So while players of his generation grew up playing sports in the front yard and spending their college summers by the pool, today's players spend their time training or on their phones.
There's certainly some truth to that along with a dash of exaggeration. I just wonder if September Gundy and October Gundy would think if they ever got to meet each other.
