![Mike Gundy]()
Gotta love a college coach keeping his kids accountable.
Believe it or not, the college football season is just around the corner. We are now only 48 days away from the first day of the college season, and a mere 10 days away from the release of EA Sports College Football 25 comes out. I've got a feeling a lot of grown men will be calling out sick on July 19th to relive their glory days and play a virtual sports game all day.
But anyways, the BIG 12 kicked off its preseason events with its first media day today, and somehow, college sports are already making headlines in the month of July. This time, it was due to a quote from Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy, where he seemingly played down one of his players getting arrested for a DUI.
Cowboys star running back Ollie Gordon - who was the BIG 12's Offensive Player of the Year in 2023 - was arrested for suspicion of driving under the influence on June 30th. Many thought that might lead to a suspension from Oklahoma State, but Gundy came out and set the record straight on how he would - or wouldn't - punish his starting running back:
"He's going to play. I'm going to do what we think is best for Oklahoma State football. And I think it's best for Ollie to play. If there's any punishment, it's making him carry the ball 50 times in the first game."
The "doing what's best for Oklahoma State football" line there is hilarious. The word "best" is used relatively loosely. It must be
best in terms of their winning percentage... instead of what's
best for a young person learning that actions have consequences.
If there was any doubt as to how the head coach was handling the situation, Mike Gundy clarified that he spoke to Ollie Gordon and told him he'd be "facing the music" rather than serving a suspension:
"Your punishment is going to be facing the facts. That's why we brought him here today. I said, 'You're not going into hiding. You're going to face the music, you're going to have to stand up and talk to people and answer questions. And, hopefully, more than football, you can learn from the situation you've been in. Because if not, then we have a real issue.'"
And if you thought those quotes were good, just wait until you hear (or read) what Gundy had to say about the DUI arrest itself.
I'm guessing that Mike Gundy didn't talk to anyone about how to navigate this DUI topic, because he went out at the media day and basically defended the arrest, and even insinuated that the legal BAC limit might be a little too low:
"I looked it up on my phone- what would be the legal limit? In Oklahoma, it's 0.08 BAC, and Ollie was 0.10. I looked it up and it was based on body weight, not to get into the legal side of it, but I thought really 2 or 3 beers, or 4.
I'm not justifying what Ollie did; I'm telling you what decision I made. Well, I thought, I've probably done that a thousand times in my life. And you know, it's just fine! So I got lucky. People get lucky."
https://twitter.com/Big12Pokes/status/1810779048013873309
And look, most people who drink alcohol have a decent idea of how many drinks they can have to be under the legal limit to safely drive home. And Gundy isn't wrong in that, for the average adult male, it's about 2 or 3 depending on how long you took the consume them. What he's basically saying is that a lot of people, himself included, roll the dice with that line all the time and Gordon was one of the unlucky ones... which may very well be true.
EXCEPT.... Gordon is UNDER 21. The legal limit for him is zero. AND he had two open containers in the vehicle. I mean, what an angle from a college football coach who is tasked with teaching his players things like responsibility, accountability, and discipline as fundamental components of the game of football.
He later clarified in a tweet:
https://twitter.com/CoachGundy/status/1810805796424536320
God bless college football...
