Oklahoma State's Mike Gundy sounds off about Bedlam rivalry, social media

This Saturday, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State will play for the last time as members of the Big 12. With the Sooners set to move to the SEC, the series is ending for now, and Cowboys’ head coach Mike Gundy has a lot of thoughts about the changes coming to Bedlam.

Gundy, who played for Oklahoma State before becoming the team’s long-time coach, sounded off on Bedlam, saying that the rivalry means less now and placing a lot of the blame for that on social media.

“It didn’t bother me because we didn’t have social media, but it was a rivalry then,” Mike Gundy said. “Like, [Brian] Bosworth spit in my face. I spit in his. It was actually a rivalry.”

As the quarterback at Oklahoma State, Mike Gundy never beat Oklahoma in four tries, even with Barry Sanders to share the backfield with. Still, as he explained, the rivalry was more intense on and off the field back then than it is now.

“The summer before my sophomore year, I would go to parties in Oklahoma City and they would say, ‘Well, Bosworth and [Paul] Migliazzo and some of those guys were here,’ and I had to make a decision were we gonna have confrontation there and who was with me? Because, those guys, I can kick them in the shin and run like hell, but I’m not dumb. So, we had to make those decisions because what kind of frame of mind was Brian gonna be in at that point? I don’t know. Had he taken a Vitamin C and had a few drinks? Well, he might not be a guy that you want to talk to at that point. He’d get real read across his face,” Gundy said.

“So, it was a rivalry then. Now, it’s not as much anymore, unfortunately, because of the way it is, but it’s a very important game.”

Both Oklahoma and Oklahoma State are in the race to take one of the two top spots in the Big 12 this season, with one conference loss each to this point. Those top two teams in the conference standings will play in the conference championship game. Naturally, the winner of Bedlam is going to have a huge leg up trying to get to that point.

During his career as the Oklahoma State head coach, Mike Gundy is 3-15 against the Sooners. His most recent win came in the 2021 season.

Now, the future of the Bedlam series is up in the air. However, for his part, Mike Gundy doesn’t expect the series to start in the regular season as a non-conference game any time soon. Instead, the next matchup will come in a bowl game.

Mike Gundy shares the message he sent to Ollie Gordon after fumble

This season, Oklahoma State is going into Bedlam with a phenomenal running back, Ollie Gordon. However, even a phenomenal running back can make a mistake like fumbling, as Gordon did against Cincinnati. When that happened, Mike Gundy had a message for his young running back.

“Ollie wants to perform well for everybody all the time like we all do. We all want to do good and have people tell us that we’re doing good. Human nature is we like that. Now everywhere he goes they chant his name. …There’s a lot of pressure involved in that and he’s a very prideful young man and that’s good. But what I shared with him is, I’ve been around the greatest running backs to play this game. None of them did that,” Gundy said.

“They all learned to keep their composure. There’s times where they don’t play as well. There’s times they make a mistake. If he wants to play this game for a long time, then he’ll learn to keep composure. Because all that’s a waste of time. It’s a waste of energy, a waste of effort and it becomes negative for the football team. That’s what I told him.”