Originally published at: Mike Gundy Takes Blame, Says Gameplan for Oregon Was ‘Too Complicated’
‘Tried to do too much on defense, tried to do too much on offense, and we ended up not being able to execute being good at anything.’
To quote someone on X (Twitter), “Mike Gundy is Oklahoma State football!”. Can you argue with that?
Wasn’t complicated for the Oregon offense or defense to figure out.
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Mike Gundy is OSU football. So too now are 66 point defeats. Not even Bob Simmons managed that level of ineptitude. Maybe its time for OSU to hang its hat on someone else.
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Seems to be a trend. Previously it was a young QB can’t start because the system is too complicated. Now the game plan for the defense is too complicated. So you’re telling me that you’re recruiting players that are so dumb that your game plan is too complicated for them. This sounds like a coaching issue.
Side note: Montana State scored 13 points against Oregon last week. Montana State.
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When I hear “simple” all I hear is conservative and bland. We all knew going in that we had a very small chance of winning, so IMO, this was a perfect opp. to throw the kitchen sink and do some unique stuff.
I’m trying to have some grace knowing our QB1 is out and we only had a week to change our playbook for QB2, but I have a hard time believing that we don’t have anything in place other than a super stale offensive attack.
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also it sounds to me like he just didn’t do his job… He might take the blame but waiting until Thursday to *think* about saying something feels like a dropped ball
This. I’ve been following OSU football since the 80’s and Gundy making comments about needing to “play simpler and run more” screams out some of the most excruciating OSU football (Pat Jones) that I’ve had to witness. So maybe we wouldn’t have had a couple of pick sixes, but we would have had even less offense, zero points, and Oregon would have scored three or four more “traditional” touchdowns. And as far as defense goes, what is simpler than stopping runs up the gut?
I honestly do like Gundy and believe he’s done well for us, but let’s face it. We can’t get a whole lot worse unless we go “simpler” as he’s saying. He just seems so out of touch at times. As our coordinators go, so goes OSU football. He either needs to step down, or let his coordinators do their job.
I can go back to the kate 70’s when Jim Stanley was the coach. Other than having Terry Muller we had no offense and the play book had four pages. Off tackle right, off tackle left, up the middle and punt. Welcome to OSU football 1978.
We are the 2025 version of Nim Stanley on offensive play calling. The fact that Meachum was a lineman at OSU should tell you what you need to know ow about his offensive mindset and creativity. I am not questioning the intelligence of a lineman, just his imagination in conceiving effective plays.
It may be time for him to retire but I always respect his refreshing honesty. I may be wrong but I don’t think a whole lot of coaches say things like this is my fault. It certainly was an “oof” of a game.
Perhaps my naivety, but I figured these veteran coaches would have game-planned 3 or 4 teams during the summer and had prepared packages to roll out: that should have held at least on defense but even on offense they’ve worked with ZF and know his strengths (and the OLs too).
Yes, HCMG should know better than motivate an opponent.
Mike Gundy needs to absolutely announce his retirement now, so Chad has time to select Gundy’s replacement well before the portal opens.
With that said, OK State played the Phil Knight professional team, $40M+ payroll for this year vs. ~$14M over the last 3 years. The entire country (all teams outside the BIG 10 & SEC) should tell ABC / ESPN, FOX Sports, NBC Sports, & the NCAA to go F themselves; we are going back to an amateur model of free education, free room & board playing a game the players supposedly love.
College football is no longer about college, no longer about education; the media companies have whor_ed the sport for money to keep themselves afloat!!! It’s time to put an end to their BS!!!
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Well said. OSU has a mix of things going on that is impacting the football program immensely. Coaching issues and the new college football landscape being primary contributors. For me looking from the outside the issues are so intertwined it’s hard to tell for sure how things can be fixed at OSU. The fact of the matter is there are likely several things that need changed in order to fix things, some of those fixes may be out of OSU’s direct control. What I do think though and just my opinion is that the current state of the program is likely worse than when Gundy began his head coaching career at OSU. I don’t have any facts or empirical evidence that supports that, it’s just an anecdotal based feeling. At this time I’m looking to Chad Weiberg to step up and start taking some action, the sooner the better. Chad is in a position to understand the problems the program faces better than anyone. I’m willing to forgo this season if that is what it will take to get this ship righted as quick as possible. The reason being is that next season will be on us before we know it and we are going to have to face Oregon once more and I’m not sure the program can survive an outcome in that game similar to what happened last weekend. Also selfishly I’d really like so see some payback. Go Pokes!!
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“The entire country (all teams outside the BIG 10 & SEC) should tell ABC / ESPN, FOX Sports, NBC Sports, & the NCAA to go F themselves;”
18 of the top 25 are from the Big 10/SEC. 5 of the remaining 7 are ND, Miami, Clemson, Texas Tech and FSU. All of those are pretty well funded, NIL-wise. So that leaves you with South Florida and Utah. If you think the South Floridas and Utah’s of the world are popular enough to make the TV networks care about being told to F themselves…then youre wrong. You had better hope your Commissioner finds a way to put more money into your pockets via those TV deals, or that your University finds a way to make get deeper pockets. Youre paying Gundy and staff very well. So you have money. NIL isnt your biggest problem. Its just the laziest excuse
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“What I do think though and just my opinion is that the current state of the program is likely worse than when Gundy began his head coaching career at OSU”
That brings up a very, very good question. I think youre right. I assume the fan base is more divided. The ground is far shakier. The future is more in question. You dont have a clear cut option for the HC replacement like you did when Miles left. The landscape definitely plays a part in the uncertainty.
This exists today. NAIA, Ivy League, and most of the lower divisions have basically done this. We could give up all of the media trappings and go join a league with Southern Nazarene or OBU. But what you are really saying is you were fine with the haves vs. have-nots when we were in the party of haves, but don’t seem to like the fact that our administration wasn’t paying attention to the landscape and quickly relegated us to being a have-not.