Mike Gundy says he's ready to coach another 10 years
Difficult as it may be to believe, Mike Gundyhas been perpetually 40 years old for darn near a decade now. It was Sept. 22, 2007 when Gundy issued his infamous rant, which means... doing some math here... carry the one.... he'll be 48 years old by the time the 2015 season - his 11th as Oklahoma State's head coach - kicks off.
And in a recent interview with Bill Haisten of the Tulsa World, Gundy said he could coach 10 more. “I’m just as energized now as when I started,” Gundy told the paper. “I hit a wall and I kind of fell off, but I’ve broken through now.”
The interview touched a number of subjects, including his regret at pursing the Tennessee and Arkansas jobs in 2012. “Sometimes, you think the grass might be greener,” he said. “But I’ve always been happy at Oklahoma State.” Chasing those jobs drove friction between Gundy and program benefactor T. Boone Pickens, a wedge so great that the two are just now finding common ground again.
Gundy also said he was interviewed twice by an NFL team following Oklahoma State's 2011 Big 12 championship season, but he cancelled a third interview with the team he declined to name. The Jaguars, Dolphins, Rams, Buccaneers, Raiders and Colts changed head coaches following the 2011 season, so your process of elimination begins there.
But Gundy said now, more than a decade in, he's gotten the Cowboys' program to a level where the club can not only win, but sustain that success from year-to-year by holding on to his assistants, and he's ready to enjoy the fruits of that labor.
“For the first six or seven years, this job was difficult,” Gundy said. “I don’t want anyone to think I didn’t enjoy it, but it was very difficult. Keep in mind that until (2011), this program’s overall record was below .500. We had never really won a championship here. We tied for one in ’76, but that was it until (OSU captured the 2011 Big 12 title). We had to work very hard to reach a point of winning fairly consistently."
