Cale Gundy has spent three decades associated with the Oklahoma football program between his time as a Sooner quarterback and then as an assistant coach from 1996 up until just recently.
Ten days ago now, Gundy resigned from his position as receivers coach on Brent Venables staff after using an inappropriate word during a team meeting.
Just over a week after the surprising resignation, Millwood HS (OK) head coach Darwin Franklin reached out to invite Gundy to come speak to his kids at the school just north of downtown Oklahoma City.
How did the meeting come to be?
Well the idea to bring Gundy in came after a team meeting where upperclassmen talked about accountability as one of their core values for the 2022 season.
“If you’re trying to teach accountability, who better to come and speak to your kids about accountability than someone who is being accountable on the largest stage?” Franklin shared with the Tulsa World. “Someone who just spent a week in the fire. Someone who accepted responsibility and knows what it takes to walk out of that fire.”
Gundy also had to come to terms with walking away from the only career he's ever known, and one that he was paid handsomely to do, because of his mistake.
“My wife and I talk all the time that sometimes people make a mistake," Franklin went on to share. "Sometimes you got to extend some grace and people got to feel some love from people they know.”
For Franklin, because his relationship with Gundy stretched back to when they were kids before they reconnected when he took the Milwood job, he knew the heart of the man he was asking to come speak to his guys and saw how it could teach a very valuable lesson.
“You’re either in his corner or you think he’s scum. Who do we want our kids to grow up to be? Do we want them to just pass immediate judgment and be done with somebody? Or do you want them to have opportunities to fix what’s going on?
The Tulsa World did a nice job of taking a deeper look at the visit, which you can see here.