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Chris Low, ESPN Elder Author
STILLWATER, Okla.– Mike Gundy isn’t sure how the course of football history in the state of Oklahoma may have altered had he stayed with his initial option almost 40 years earlier.
Perhaps not.
However as Gundy, in his 19th season as Oklahoma State‘s coach, gets ready for Saturday’s video game with Oklahoma, the last Chaos match for the foreseeable future, he can still see his late mom, Judy, in the living-room of their Midwest City, Oklahoma, home, with tears streaming down her face after he informed her and his dad as a high school senior that he was going to Oklahoma State– and not OU.
Gundy had actually been dedicated to Oklahoma and coach Barry Switzer for about 2 weeks after making a check out to Norman. The Sooners were coming off a championship game in 1985, when vibrant freshman Jamelle Holieway took control of at quarterback, running the wishbone after Troy Aikman broke his leg previously in the season. Aikman carried on to UCLA, and Gundy started having reservations about whether Oklahoma was ideal for him.
Pat Jones, then Oklahoma State’s coach, talked Gundy into taking a check out to Stillwater.
” Which was unusual at that time, since when you dedicated to Coach Switzer, that was it,” Gundy stated today. “However I simply began believing, ‘Gosh, even if I’m a truly, truly great gamer, how am I ever going to get Jamelle Holieway off the field?’ Switzer was an effective individual in this state, and I still do not understand where I developed the guts, for absence of a much better term, to come up here and check out.”
Gundy didn’t devote on his see. He returned home, thought of it for a couple of days and understood in his heart that Oklahoma State made one of the most sense for him. He likewise understood there were some painfully hard discussions looming.
” Mother wept and wept,” Gundy remembered. “Where I was from, it was all OU. We were an OU household. And at that time, to have a child that Barry Switzer in Oklahoma desired, that resembled royalty.”
Gundy’s dad, Ray, wasn’t as psychological however made it really clear to his child that he was going to get the phone and call Switzer and then-Oklahoma offending planner Jim Donnan to inform them he wasn’t coming. Donnan had actually been the point individual in hiring Gundy.
” Coach Switzer wasn’t delighted, not delighted at all,” Gundy stated. “He didn’t lose, duration, in recruiting or anything else, and definitely not a gamer he desired in the state of Oklahoma.
” However showing up here was the ideal thing for me, and I have actually never ever recalled.”
This will be the 33rd Chaos that Gundy has actually either played or coached in. He has actually seen the competition through practically every lens, be it as a kid participating in Oklahoma video games with his daddy, playing quarterback at Oklahoma State, acting as an assistant coach and offending planner at Oklahoma State and as the Cowboys’ head coach for the majority of the previous 20 years.
Although he has actually been on the brief end of ball game most of the time in a competition that has actually included a few of the sport’s most renowned names– consisting of Barry Sanders, Thurman Thomas, Tony Casillas, Brian Bosworth, Leslie O’Neal, Kyler Murray, Bud Wilkinson, Jimmy Johnson and Switzer– Gundy dislikes to see Chaos end up being a victim to Oklahoma’s relocation from the Huge 12 to the SEC next season. He stated the genuine losers are the fans, specifically the ones who hang on a lot to custom.
” We have actually lost 100 years of history,” Gundy stated. “That’s what I’m most dissatisfied about.”
MIKE GUNDY PARTICIPATED IN his very first Chaos in 1985, his senior year of high school, with his more youthful bro Cale. It was the well-known “Ice Bowl” in Stillwater.
” I existed with him and thank goodness we were enjoying it from the old structure in the end zone,” Cale Gundy stated. “It was so cold with all the sleet and whatever that individuals were freezing to their seats.”
Similar To Mike, much of Cale’s life has actually been linked with Chaos– however from the Oklahoma side of the competition. Cale was a record-setting quarterback for the Sooners from 1990 to 1993 and an assistant coach at OU from 1999, Bob Stoops’ very first season as Sooners coach, up until his resignation in 2022.
Cale remembers his bro’s discussion with their mom a lot more strongly than Mike, and as a die-hard Sooners fan, was most likely the most upset individual in the Gundy home.
” Hell, I wept for 2 weeks,” joked Cale, who was 13 at the time. “I believed the world was going to pertain to an end.”
The Gundy household had 2 phones in their home at the time, and Cale remembers his bro speaking with Donnan initially, then Switzer informing Donnan to provide him the phone.
” Switzer ripped his ass respectable, and Mike waited out to the side and you might hear Barry informing him, ‘We’re going to kick your ass every year,'” Cale remembered.
As it ends up, Switzer was prophetic.
Gundy never ever beat Oklahoma as a gamer in 4 shots. And as the Cowboys’ head coach, he’s simply 3-15 versus the Sooners. His general record in the series as a gamer, assistant and head coach is 6-25-1.
However even long before Gundy was included, Chaos had to do with as one-sided as a competition can get. Oklahoma has actually won 64 of the previous 75 conferences in a series that has actually been played every year considering that 1910.
” Yeah, it’s been a supremacy. We have actually had an excellent work on them, and we have actually constantly had the very best gamers,” stated Switzer, who is 86 and still resides in Norman. “I constantly informed our group before we headed out on the field to play Oklahoma State, ‘Hey, these guys are more all set to play than you all are. They’re pissed off since you had an opportunity to go to both locations and you chose here. The majority of those guys because locker space over there didn’t have an opportunity to come here. They weren’t provided a scholarship here, and they do not like you.'”
Gundy recommended at his press conference Monday that the competition was spicier, a minimum of amongst the gamers, in his playing days which the development of social networks and electronic camera phones had actually watered it down. As a freshman in 1986, Gundy stated Bosworth, the famous Oklahoma linebacker, spit in his face which Gundy spit back in Bosworth’s face.
” It was really a competition,” Gundy stated. He went on to speak about going to a celebration in Oklahoma City the summer season before his sophomore year when someone informed him Bosworth and a few of his OU colleagues existed.
” So I needed to decide on whether we were going to have a conflict there and who was with me. I can kick those guys in the shin and run like hell. However, I suggest, I’m not dumb,” Gundy stated. “So we needed to make those choices. What type of mindset was Brian going to remain in at that point? I do not understand, had he taken a Vitamin C and had a couple of beverages? He may not be a guy you wish to speak to at that point. He ‘d get genuine red throughout his face.”
It didn’t take “The Boz” long to fire back on social networks Monday afternoon.
” Think what Coach G … Chaos is still a competition and BIG sibling still wishes to whip little bro’s ass,” Bosworth published on X, previously called Twitter. “How about we fulfill this Saturday at your location … Let’s state the 50-yard line so we can exchange pleasantries the old style method … FACE TO FACE … I’ll see you there.”
Switzer won 3 championship games at Oklahoma and is among just 3 coaches to win a college nationwide title and Super Bowl. However to this day, he states among his preferred video games was when OU rallied from a 20-3 deficit in the 4th quarter in 1983 to beat Oklahoma State and Jimmy Johnson 21-20 in Stillwater. It wasn’t simply the video game Switzer keeps in mind, either.
” We kept scoring in the 4th quarter, and our band does not stop playing ‘Boomer Sooner’ the whole time, never ever takes a break and keeps playing it,” Switzer stated. “They asked our band leader, Gene Thrailkill, to stop playing. He would not and they accompanied him off the field.”
Switzer stated as Thrailkill was being led off the field by security, he screamed back at atrioventricular bundle to play OU’s battle tune even longer and louder.
” So they kept playing, and sure enough, they were still playing the damn thing when we kicked the basket to win the video game,” stated Switzer, his voice increasing with appreciation all these years later on. “That has to do with as great as it gets.”
The next day, Switzer provided Thrailkill and the marching band the video game ball.
PREVIOUS OKLAHOMA COACH Bob Stoops, who was 13-4 versus Oklahoma State, has no strategies to be at Saturday’s video game, nor is he excessively worried about the groups going their different methods later. With Oklahoma relocating to the SEC in 2024 and handle put on both sides with future nonconference challengers, OU athletic director Joe Castiglione stated it would enjoy the next years at the earliest before the groups would play once again.
” That’s the method the world is right now. You do what you have actually got to do to secure your brand name,” Stoops stated. “At the end of the day, this is what’s absolute best for our brand name, the University of Oklahoma and all the sports we support. You make big-boy choices, which’s what takes place.
” So I’m not classic about it. Nebraska left us a long period of time earlier, and Nebraska was a much larger competitor than Oklahoma State was in the past. You proceed.”
That does not suggest Stoops hasn’t hung on to a couple of memories from the series. Among his favorites stays the 33-24 upset of No. 6 Oklahoma State in 2013 with the Sooners playing 3 quarterbacks and rallying in the 4th quarter behind Blake Bell.
” Trevor Knight gets hurt, Kendal Thompson gets hurt, and Blake Bell can be found in and leads us to the win and knocks them out of the [Big 12] champion,” Stoops stated. “Blake had actually been operating at tight end in practice. It resembled, ‘Wow, are you joke me?'”
Castiglione’s long lasting memory from that video game, a freezing day in Stillwater, was strolling off the field and evading frozen turkey legs.
” The arc at which the turkey legs required to receive from up in the stands down to the field was rather a clinical abnormality,” Castiglione stated. “I think since they were frozen they had various aerodynamics.”
That 2013 video game is a microcosm of the series. Oklahoma has actually discovered methods to win, and Oklahoma State has actually discovered methods to lose. The Cowboys have not won back-to-back video games in Stillwater considering that 1930 and 1932.
” It’s still a huge offer, like Christmas Day each time they pertain to town,” stated long time Oklahoma State fan and donor Anne Greenwood, who’s been to the majority of the Chaos video games considering that starting school at OSU in 1972. “Am I going to miss out on Chaos? Yes. I’m constantly the enthusiastic one. I have actually gotten my heart broken a lot, however often it’s the very best day ever.”
Among those days remained in 2014, when Tyreek Hill returned a punt 92 lawns for a goal with 45 seconds to play in policy. The Cowboys won 38-35 in overtime in Norman. Hill’s return followed Oklahoma State had actually been punished 15 lawns for roughing the kicker, and Stoops chose to punt it once again.
” I’m still delighted they chose to punt it to him a 2nd time, however a great deal of individuals forget that we still needed to win in overtime,” Gundy stated.
Stoops countered: “All that did was make a bad year for us even worse, so if that makes them feel much better, they can have it. All I’m stating is the stakes weren’t as high since there wasn’t a champion on the line.”
Do not inform that to the Oklahoma State gamers who remained in Norman that day. Quarterback Mason Rudolph, now with the Pittsburgh Steelers, was simply a freshman. He tossed for 2 goals, and it didn’t strike him what it genuinely implied for OSU to beat Oklahoma up until the group got here back on school that night.
” I believe the entire town of Stillwater existed,” Rudolph stated. “It was insane, individuals on top of individuals.”
Rudolph took a look at the sea of fans and saw Gundy’s other half, Kristen, being in the truck by herself waiting on Gundy to learn the mass of orange and black.
” She motioned to me to come over and was hugging me with pleasure,” Rudolph kept in mind.
Gundy strolled over and stated, “Hey, hello, enough of that. Let’s imitate we have actually been here before.”
Previous NFL quarterback Brandon Weeden matured in Edmond, Oklahoma, and played minors baseball before signing up with the Oklahoma State football group. He was 22 when he got here on school and was more into baseball than football maturing, however he was rapidly indoctrinated into the Chaos competition. Oklahoma State beat OU 44-10 throughout his senior season in 2011, snapping an eight-game losing streak versus the Sooners. The Cowboys had actually lost the year before regardless of being uncommon favorites.
” I simply keep in mind being out for blood my senior year,” Weeden stated. “Even when we ‘d beat Texas, this was the video game our fans kept in mind. It was simply various. I seethed we didn’t attempt to score 60 on them, simply to make a declaration.”
GUNDY AND THE Pokes get one swan song, a minimum of in the meantime, to relieve a few of the heartbreak that has actually tortured OSU gamers, coaches and fans for years. Saturday’s video game discovers both groups part of a five-way tie atop the Huge 12 standings.
” No concern they have actually gotten the very best people over a time period and have actually gotten the very best of a lot of everyone, which does not agree with a great deal of individuals on our side, many of all me,” Gundy stated. “However it is one video game, and I comprehend individuals in our state do not approach it that method, the fans, since we do not have professional football. This is what individuals get fired up about, and it’s challenging since a lot of individuals put a lot stock into it.”
So he does typically become aware of his resist Oklahoma regardless of making his university nationally pertinent on an annual basis.
” The method I stabilize it is I take a look at the huge image,” Gundy stated.
That image is outstanding by any basic, even if the “Little Sibling” preconception within the state festers. Getting in the 2023 season, Oklahoma State was connected for ninth amongst Power 5 groups in general wins (89) in the previous ten years. Gundy, who owns a. 677 winning portion, has actually won 9 of his previous 12 matches with AP nationally ranked challengers and can sign up with Stoops (121) and Costs Snyder (104) in ending up being the 3rd coach to win 100 Huge 12 video games with a triumph Saturday.
A year earlier, Oklahoma State quote farewell to Texas, likewise headed to the SEC, with a 41-34 win in Stillwater. The Cowboys have actually won 6 of their previous 8 video games versus the Longhorns, and in Austin, Oklahoma State has actually won 6 of the previous 7.
” To be sincere, and I understand our fans like beating Texas, however I wager they would turn that, our record versus Texas and our record versus OU,” Gundy stated. “They ‘d rather beat OU. However for Oklahoma State to beat Texas the variety of times we have actually beaten them in the last 10-12 years is a hell of an achievement.”
Gundy has actually been outspoken about the Chaos series ending and is more determined than ever that the blame lands straight at OU’s feet.
” Simply do not connect Oklahoma State to any of this,” stated Gundy, who began going to OU video games with his daddy when he remained in intermediate school. “We didn’t leave the conference. They picked to take the SEC path so they can stabilize their checkbook.
” We’re not going to reschedule our long-lasting schedule and alter what we do based upon them going to the SEC. We require to take a look at the truths.”
There’s no larger OU fan than Jim Ross, a WWE Hall of Popularity broadcaster and among professional fumbling’s most prominent figures. From the time “Excellent Ol’ J.R.” understood Chaos was passing the wayside, he was deeply troubled. Now that it will occur, he’s still peeved.
” It’s difficult to think. I’m 71 and it’s become part of my culture since I can keep in mind,” Ross stated. “There’s constantly been Chaos. It is among those competitions that does not disappear when the video game’s over. I do not understand all I require to understand on how we have actually gotten to this point. However by golly, is this what we’re confronted with now, that television and cash have entirely taken control of when you lose a video game like Chaos?”
Despite the fact that it may be ten years (or longer) before this video game is played once again, both athletic directors state they continue to have conversations.
The Cowboys’ nonconference schedule is set through 2038 with Power 5 video games versus the similarity Alabama, Arkansas, Nebraska and Oregon. Oklahoma State athletic director Chad Weiberg stated there may be a window in 2030-31. However with the ever-changing landscape in college sports, scheduling will just end up being more difficult.
” If you have actually observed, I have actually never ever in one location stated that we will never ever play them once again since ‘never ever’ is a long time and things modification,” Weiberg stated. “However presently as it sets out now, it’s going to put us into the 2030s before it ends up being a genuine possibility.”
In his 26th year as Oklahoma’s athletic director, Castiglione stated the schools would continue to play in other sports which this is not a case where the sides are digging in and declining to play each other in football merely since of conference adjustment. (See Texas vs. Texas A&M after the Aggies left for the SEC.)
” It takes 2 celebrations and will take some work, however I strongly think it will occur eventually,” Castiglione stated.
Cale Gundy will not be at Saturday’s Chaos video game, although he has actually gone to a couple of Oklahoma State video games the previous 2 seasons. He even has actually used OSU clothing this year.
” Simply no orange. The orange is excessive. I have not arrived,” he stated. Cale coached and hired a few of the best gamers in OU history, consisting of Adrian Peterson, Joe Mixon, DeMarco Murray and CeeDee Lamb. (He resigned from Oklahoma in August 2022 after checking out aloud off a gamer’s iPad “not when however numerous times, a racially charged word that is objectionable to everybody” according to Sooners coach Brent Venables.)
No household is more associated with Chaos than the Gundys. Long-lasting Oklahomans, they have actually handled their split loyalties incredibly well, although older sis Kari stated Chaos wasn’t always a week the household anticipated when Mike and Cale coached versus each other.
Mike has actually been too called in on video game preparation to get excessively reflective today, however he does get a bit psychological when he considers his weekly talks with his daddy and the subject turning to who in the household requires tickets to the video game.
” I want I required one for your mama,” Ray Gundy informed his child recently. Judy passed away in 2020 after suffering a stroke and after that establishing pneumonia.
Mike had an all set response: “Well, she does not require a ticket any longer. She gets in free of charge.”
Something states she’ll be rooting for the Pokes on Saturday.