Paul Finebaum rips Mike Gundy for NIL, agent comments, believes it’ll be detrimental to recruiting

Earlier this week, Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy went on a head-scratching monologue regarding NIL and his roster, essentially telling recruits and prospective players to stop asking for money right now as the 2024 campaign approaches.

Evidently, Gundy’s point was that players needed to focus on the coming  football season at Oklahoma State, and there will be ample time for negotiating NIL deals after the season.

During an appearance Wednesday morning on ESPN’s Get Up, Paul Finebaum explained how Gundy’s comments could affect Oklahoma State’s recruiting efforts, and why the timing was poor, after the Cowboys revealed they’ll be adding a QR code to their helmets that allow fans to directly donate to players on their roster, via their Pokes With A Purpose NIL collective.

“You know, five or 10 years ago I would have said, ‘Right on, brother,’ but this is 2024, and that video, even though they’re doing a lot of the right things,” Finebaum stated. “I mean, they’re putting QR signs on helmets right now to help the players make money. But that video right there will go to every recruit from Oklahoma, Texas, everyone in that area of the country, and they’ll use it against Mike Gundy. And that was the mistake.

“For all of the smartness of that statement, Mike Gundy, it came out really stupid in the recruiting world of this year.”

As Finebaum made some salient points, Louis Riddick chimed in as well, elaborating on why he’s of the belief that it’s borderline impossible to simply coach football at the collegiate level at the moment, as you have to manage players and their personal teams, all while trying to win football games.

“That’s the unfortunate part. That’s the irony of it all, right? I mean, on the one hand, where people are saying NIL and the ability of these players, or rather, I should just say, the willingness of the people around the players in particular, to influence the players to the degree where that now, every week, week after week, coaches are having to recruit their own rosters,” Riddick added. “It’s just, it’s amazing. It’s like, which way do you want it? Do you want the coaches to kind of push back and really just try and focus on coaching their football teams? Or do you want them to play this NFL recruiting game, this public perception game, which is, ‘Hey, don’t say the wrong thing, because you may turn off the wrong player.’

“You may not be able to get the right player, and he may go down the road because there’s a higher bidder. It has made it very difficult. Let me just put it that way. It’s very difficult to coach big time college football right now, because every week you’re managing your roster, not just your own players. You’re managing their whole support system. You’re managing their mothers. You’re managing their fathers, their agents, their girlfriends. Because people are constantly going, ‘We need some more money.’ … I don’t envy these head coaches at all.”

Moreover, Heather Dinich praised Oklahoma State’s helmet-QR code idea, but she has no sympathy for Gundy and the challenges NIL has brought upon him. It’s crocodile tears from Dinich, as the Oklahoma State coach is making “a gazillion dollars” to deal with it, as she put it.

“Coaches like Mike Gundy are getting paid plenty of money to figure all this stuff out,” Dinich delineated. “So, I kind of winced a little bit when, you know, ‘Oh, they have so much work to do,’ they’re making a gazillion dollars.

“The other thing is, I had to laugh a little bit, because right after Mike Gundy said that, the QR codes came out, so it went straight from, ‘Hey, we’re not talking about money,’ to, ‘Here’s how — just look at our helmets everybody. Bring it in. Bring it in. This is where you go.’ So, you know, I don’t know, it never ends. We’re always talking about paying players from now on.” 

Alas, NIL has certainly brought a new landscape to Mike Gundy, Oklahoma State and college football as a whole. The future remains uncertain, but Ryan Clark had some advice for the Cowboys leader, believing he can utilize the QR codes to his advantage in dealing with players and their families, agents and everything in between.

“I think the QR code is genius, if you don’t want to deal with people,” Clark said. “And now you can just tell them, ‘Hey, don’t come to me. Just make sure your kid makes plays on Saturday, and people are scanning the QR code to make sure they can put some money in his pocket.’ So, ain’t no need to call me or come to my office.”