All marriages go through rough patches
For the first time ever, Oklahoma State’s football team has been picked as the preseason favorite to win the Big 12 championship.
Why not? The Cowboys return 45 lettermen, including every offensive starter but one, as well as veterans at linebacker and in the secondary.
Oh, and their head coach returns too.
As Kirk Bohls of the Austin (Texas) American-Statesman points out, Mike Gundy may have overplayed his hand when he was courted by Arkansas, Tennessee and others during the off-season.
“Gundy made it clear Monday during Big 12 media days that he isn’t looking to leave,” Bohls wrote. “He said this after he was, well, perhaps looking to leave.
“ ‘I’m very happy in Stillwater,’ Gundy said. ‘To a certain extent, I wish that my name wouldn’t have come up, or I wish that it wouldn’t have been as much smoke or fire. At times, I’m to blame for that. But I’m very happy, always been very happy in Stillwater.’
“OK, reading between the lines, I’m guessing he’s happy.
“I’m also guessing he’ll stay that way or else. Flirt too much, and OSU will open the door for him. He’s a very good coach, evaluator and recruiter in a state that usually has a dozen elite BCS school-caliber prospects and 30 or so overall.
“The idea that Gundy would want to leap from the Big 12 frying pan into the SEC fire for jobs that don’t seem as plum as the one he holds and carry a lot more pressure and media responsibility makes one wonder about the level of his happiness and control over items like scheduling. Maybe he longs for a bigger fishbowl.
“What’s bizarre is few coaches are a better fit at their school than Gundy. It’s his alma mater. He’s spent 22 years on the campus. He understands its advantages and disadvantages as few others could. He could have no better benefactor than [T. Boone] Pickens, who has been to Oklahoma State what Phil Knight has been to Oregon. He has built the Cowboys program into one that won the league two years ago, won a BCS bowl game and now stands as the conference’s preseason favorite.
“If there ever seemed to be a match made in college football heaven, it’s the marriage between Gundy and Oklahoma State.”
BD, phone home
Former NBA player Baron Davis recently claimed he was once abducted by aliens.
“Actually, Davis was relieved,” wrote Brad Dickson of the Omaha (Neb.) World-Herald. “At first when he was grabbed, he thought he’d been traded to the Bobcats.”
They said it
Seattle Times reader Bill Littlejohn, after EA Sports erased ex-Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez from its Madden NFL 25 and NCAA Football 14 video games: “But you can catch him on PlayStation 3’s Prison Break.”
Comedian Jerry Seinfeld, to WFAN radio, not pleased with Mets fans booing during All-Star Game player introductions: “The American League is not the Taliban.”
Quote of the day
“People point out, ‘Well, they picked you here, they picked you there.’ Well, I don’t pay attention to all that crap.” Arkansas offensive coordinator Jim Chaney on the Razorbacks being picked last in the SEC West by the media
Sports, Pages 20 on 07/26/2013