With the 2024 college football season just a week away, Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy is laser-focused on getting his team ready for action. Known for his candid and sometimes controversial remarks, Gundy recently delivered a pointed message to his players: it’s time to put the distractions aside and concentrate on football.
As the season approaches, Gundy emphasized that the era of NIL negotiations and transfer portal discussions is officially on pause. “There’s no negotiating now. The portal’s over,” Gundy told reporters earlier this week. “All the negotiation’s history. Now we’re playing football. Just coaching and playing football.”
Gundy made it clear that the offseason’s business aspects, like NIL deals and agent negotiations, need to take a backseat.
He expressed frustration over agents continuing to push for more money for their players now that the season is starting. “Tell your agent to quit calling us and asking for more money. It’s non-negotiable now. It’ll start again in December,” Gundy stated firmly, signaling that his focus is now solely on the game and the players’ performance on the field.
Despite Gundy’s insistence on focusing solely on football, the offseason has been anything but quiet for Oklahoma State, particularly with the arrest of star running back Ollie Gordon for driving under the influence. Interestingly, Gundy did not bring up Gordon’s legal troubles when discussing distractions, despite the significant attention the incident has garnered.
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Gundy sparked controversy at Big 12 Media Day when he appeared to downplay the seriousness of Gordon’s arrest. His comments, which compared Gordon’s blood alcohol content of .10 to Oklahoma’s legal limit of .08, drew criticism from fans and media alike. “I started thinking about being a parent: I have a 28, 23, and 19-year-old kids. And first… I looked it up on my phone: What would be the legal limit in Oklahoma? And it was .08, and Ollie was .10, so I looked it up, and it was based on body weight — not to get into the legal side of it — but I thought, two or three beers, or four…” Gundy remarked. “I’m not justifying what Ollie did, I’m telling you what decision I made. I thought, ‘I’ve probably done that a thousand times in my life.’”
His comments were met with backlash, as many felt he was minimizing the seriousness of the situation. However, Gundy’s primary concern seems to be ensuring that off-field issues, particularly those related to NIL deals and agent negotiations, do not distract his team as they prepare for the upcoming season.
While Gundy is clearly determined to keep his players focused on football, his handling of off-field issues, particularly Gordon’s arrest, raises questions about where he draws the line on what constitutes a distraction.
As the season kicks off, all eyes will be on Gundy and the Cowboys to see how they perform amid the various challenges and controversies that have marked their offseason.
