Mike Gundy's trip to ESPN reveals humor and personality
by John Helsley Published: July 22, 2017 10:15 PM CDT Updated: July 22, 2017 10:15 PM CDT
BRISTOL, Conn. – Flying with perhaps college football's coolest coach at 21,000 feet, high above the Catskill Mountains in southeastern New York, our group of six briefly bounced into an “Almost Famous” moment.
Headed for Bristol and a run through ESPN's “Car Wash,” the eight-seat Cessna Citation Sovereign jet caught the back end of a storm, jostling us about the cabin, to the point that eyes widened and Mike Gundy's spiky hair brushed the ceiling.
Unlike in the movie, however, our two pilots remained calm and quickly had us soaring across smoother air in an on-time descent into small Waterbury-Oxford Airport, well before we'd consider confessing any deep dark secrets.
The rest of the trip rolled smooth, too, on Gundy's cue, as he navigated a hectic schedule of interviews extending across ESPN's variety of platforms, providing content for TV, radio, podcasts and more.
Gundy was gracious enough to invite company – myself, Mark Cooper of the Tulsa World, Jason Elmquist of the Stillwater News-Press and recent Oklahoma State communications graduate Austyn Iven – along with him and OSU media relations specialist Sean Maguire.
During a 27-hour whirlwind trip, Gundy, like he'd done Tuesday at Big 12 Media Days, dictated play with his charm and humor and ease in the spotlight, reflecting what ESPN College GameDay host Rece Davis would proclaim at one point:
“You've won the offseason.”
The Setup
Gundy has bounced on and off the Car Wash lineup in recent years – by choice – opting instead at times to follow his sons' youth baseball teams in national tournaments; seizing a last-chance opportunity for family time ahead of fall camp.
And in his previous trips, Gundy said he didn't think he and OSU got enough valuable exposure.
“The few times I was here before,” he said, “I did a lot of sit-down print stuff, which is OK, but it doesn't help me in recruiting and such.”
Last year when he skipped, the Big 12 Conference hit Gundy with a $10,000 fine, which he paid.
Back on the schedule this year, his time at ESPN headquarters in Bristol was precisely arranged, jammed with live and taped shots spanning a 7 1/2-hour window. And he slotted into significant shows, making two appearances on SportsCenter and another on First Take, taping shows for College Football Live and Highly Questionable, and hitting podcast and radio spots with Ivan Maisel and Freddie Coleman and Brad Edwards.
“This was a much more productive trip,” Gundy said.
Stop, Drop And Roll
After our jet, owned by car mogul Bob Howard, landed at 8 p.m. ET, we drove to our hotel to check-in and drop off our bags, before quickly heading to ESPN for a taped segment on Thursday night's SportsCenter.
As we arrived at ESPN's main building amid a massive campus, SportsCenter host Kenny Mayne was just walking in, clad in jeans, t-shirt and flip flops, maybe 15 minutes ahead of their scheduled segment. Mayne rivals Gundy's cool, although in a more subdued way. Still, both are funny, dry and quick.
The two chat and laugh and set up a cellphone FaceTime bit for the show with NHL analyst and noted mullet-wearer Barry Melrose, before Mayne heads off to slip into his TV clothes, although he does a portion of the broadcast barefoot.
There are two segments: one a sit-down piece that includes the Melrose phone-in; another where Gundy comments on other famous heads of hair – the NHL's Jaromir Jagr, baseball's Noah Syndergaard and Bryce Harper, the NFL's Odell Beckham Jr.
Gundy rolls right with it.
Afterward he says, ‘Kenny Mayne is a pro. That dude is good.”
Early Wake-Up
Gundy's first appearance Friday is set for 6:45 a.m. CT. After a late bite in the hotel sports bar, the alarm follows a short night.
The busy itinerary involves a workout, with repeated trips back and forth between buildings and up and down stairs. One pro tip from an ESPN guide proves helpful: wear sneakers, if you've got them.
By day's end, the handy health phone app reveals that we've walked 7,584 steps, climbed nine floors and covered 3.5 miles; for Gundy, who broke off to do interviews a few times, it's more.
The ESPN compound is impressive, involving several buildings. Studios – big and small, some simple some sensational – are everywhere. The investment in cameras and monitors and cable and lighting is unfathomable.
There's a Starbucks and a cafeteria and a gift shop.
There are many cool touches, like the lighted ESPN sign from the original set that debuted in 1979, begging for a photo op; two walls filled with famous SportsCenter catch-phrases – “Booh Yeah,” “Rumblin, Stumblin, Bumblin” and more – and a hallway dedicated to the College Football Playoff with game day photos from every FBS school, along with a board where you can punch up every school's fight song.
“You can't really appreciate it all unless you come here,” Gundy says.
And he's right.
Gundy starts the day with an appearance on the morning SportsCenter, featuring Linda Cohn, John Buccigross and Elle Duncan. The hot topics: hair, rattlesnakes, the rant. And a little bit of football.
The fun continues throughout the day, with Gundy's hair in heavy play, along with his 50th birthday on Aug. 12, as it relates to his famous rant. And he's OK with that, more than OK, welcoming of it.
“It's giving us a lot of marketing and exposure,” Gundy says.
Say what you will about the mullet, it's genius. Accidental genius, but genius. And it's got staying power.
“There's more pressure on my hair – what to do with it – than there is to win games,” Gundy tells more than one host.
From SportsCenter, Gundy moves to a photo shoot, then on to sit-down interviews with online writers Heather Dinich, Hallie Grossman and Jake Trotter.
More premium opportunities come later, including a one-on-one with Davis for a college football preview set for Aug. 20, a podcast with Maisel and Adam Rittenberg and a First Take segment, where one of the hosts, Damien Woody, tells Gundy, “You got a squad, man. You got a squad.”
There is some football talk, spread among the lighter side of Gundy. Maisel brings it. And Davis to some degree, along with the late-night radio host Coleman.
The group on Highly Questionable – Dan Le Batard, Jay Williams and Papi (Le Batard's father) – not so much.
Even the final stop of the day, a spot on College Football Live, starts silly. Gundy and West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen, who spent a season as Gundy's offensive coordinator, appear together and talk about… each other's hair.
“I'm envious,” Holgorsen said.
Gundy: “I can grow it longer, but he's got natural curl.”
Time To Fly
Gundy leaves them all smiling and laughing, eating out of his hands even. With Bob Stoops gone, the Cowboys coach may now represent the face of the Big 12. And he's a natural in the spotlight, relaxed and funny, willing to play along, yet also savvy in selling and elevating the brand of his school and program.
“That's what people want,” Gundy said. “People want to know what you're thinking, they want to see a different side of you, other than what they're going to get from most of the coaches.”
His only regret: a scheduled show with Paul Finebaum, noted critic of Big 12 defenses, is shelved, with Edwards replacing him due to the Hugh Freeze firing news. Gundy had been contemplating another opportunity at going viral.
“I was leaning towards challenging him a little bit, instigate, stand up for the league,” he said. “We'd get a ton of marketing out of it.”
With a 4 p.m. flight scheduled back to Stillwater, Gundy wraps up his memorable run through the Car Wash and we head through heavy traffic to the airport.
But not before one last stop, out at the entrance of the complex, where Gundy promises Iven, team doctor Val Gene Iven's daughter, a final photo. And Gundy goes bold, climbing atop the ESPN sign for a pose.
A security officer soon arrives, but what's he going to do?
Gundy is still owning the offseason.
by John Helsley Published: July 22, 2017 10:15 PM CDT Updated: July 22, 2017 10:15 PM CDT
BRISTOL, Conn. – Flying with perhaps college football's coolest coach at 21,000 feet, high above the Catskill Mountains in southeastern New York, our group of six briefly bounced into an “Almost Famous” moment.
Headed for Bristol and a run through ESPN's “Car Wash,” the eight-seat Cessna Citation Sovereign jet caught the back end of a storm, jostling us about the cabin, to the point that eyes widened and Mike Gundy's spiky hair brushed the ceiling.
Unlike in the movie, however, our two pilots remained calm and quickly had us soaring across smoother air in an on-time descent into small Waterbury-Oxford Airport, well before we'd consider confessing any deep dark secrets.
The rest of the trip rolled smooth, too, on Gundy's cue, as he navigated a hectic schedule of interviews extending across ESPN's variety of platforms, providing content for TV, radio, podcasts and more.
Gundy was gracious enough to invite company – myself, Mark Cooper of the Tulsa World, Jason Elmquist of the Stillwater News-Press and recent Oklahoma State communications graduate Austyn Iven – along with him and OSU media relations specialist Sean Maguire.
During a 27-hour whirlwind trip, Gundy, like he'd done Tuesday at Big 12 Media Days, dictated play with his charm and humor and ease in the spotlight, reflecting what ESPN College GameDay host Rece Davis would proclaim at one point:
“You've won the offseason.”
The Setup
Gundy has bounced on and off the Car Wash lineup in recent years – by choice – opting instead at times to follow his sons' youth baseball teams in national tournaments; seizing a last-chance opportunity for family time ahead of fall camp.
And in his previous trips, Gundy said he didn't think he and OSU got enough valuable exposure.
“The few times I was here before,” he said, “I did a lot of sit-down print stuff, which is OK, but it doesn't help me in recruiting and such.”
Last year when he skipped, the Big 12 Conference hit Gundy with a $10,000 fine, which he paid.
Back on the schedule this year, his time at ESPN headquarters in Bristol was precisely arranged, jammed with live and taped shots spanning a 7 1/2-hour window. And he slotted into significant shows, making two appearances on SportsCenter and another on First Take, taping shows for College Football Live and Highly Questionable, and hitting podcast and radio spots with Ivan Maisel and Freddie Coleman and Brad Edwards.
“This was a much more productive trip,” Gundy said.
Stop, Drop And Roll
After our jet, owned by car mogul Bob Howard, landed at 8 p.m. ET, we drove to our hotel to check-in and drop off our bags, before quickly heading to ESPN for a taped segment on Thursday night's SportsCenter.
As we arrived at ESPN's main building amid a massive campus, SportsCenter host Kenny Mayne was just walking in, clad in jeans, t-shirt and flip flops, maybe 15 minutes ahead of their scheduled segment. Mayne rivals Gundy's cool, although in a more subdued way. Still, both are funny, dry and quick.
The two chat and laugh and set up a cellphone FaceTime bit for the show with NHL analyst and noted mullet-wearer Barry Melrose, before Mayne heads off to slip into his TV clothes, although he does a portion of the broadcast barefoot.
There are two segments: one a sit-down piece that includes the Melrose phone-in; another where Gundy comments on other famous heads of hair – the NHL's Jaromir Jagr, baseball's Noah Syndergaard and Bryce Harper, the NFL's Odell Beckham Jr.
Gundy rolls right with it.
Afterward he says, ‘Kenny Mayne is a pro. That dude is good.”
Early Wake-Up
Gundy's first appearance Friday is set for 6:45 a.m. CT. After a late bite in the hotel sports bar, the alarm follows a short night.
The busy itinerary involves a workout, with repeated trips back and forth between buildings and up and down stairs. One pro tip from an ESPN guide proves helpful: wear sneakers, if you've got them.
By day's end, the handy health phone app reveals that we've walked 7,584 steps, climbed nine floors and covered 3.5 miles; for Gundy, who broke off to do interviews a few times, it's more.
The ESPN compound is impressive, involving several buildings. Studios – big and small, some simple some sensational – are everywhere. The investment in cameras and monitors and cable and lighting is unfathomable.
There's a Starbucks and a cafeteria and a gift shop.
There are many cool touches, like the lighted ESPN sign from the original set that debuted in 1979, begging for a photo op; two walls filled with famous SportsCenter catch-phrases – “Booh Yeah,” “Rumblin, Stumblin, Bumblin” and more – and a hallway dedicated to the College Football Playoff with game day photos from every FBS school, along with a board where you can punch up every school's fight song.
“You can't really appreciate it all unless you come here,” Gundy says.
And he's right.
Gundy starts the day with an appearance on the morning SportsCenter, featuring Linda Cohn, John Buccigross and Elle Duncan. The hot topics: hair, rattlesnakes, the rant. And a little bit of football.
The fun continues throughout the day, with Gundy's hair in heavy play, along with his 50th birthday on Aug. 12, as it relates to his famous rant. And he's OK with that, more than OK, welcoming of it.
“It's giving us a lot of marketing and exposure,” Gundy says.
Say what you will about the mullet, it's genius. Accidental genius, but genius. And it's got staying power.
“There's more pressure on my hair – what to do with it – than there is to win games,” Gundy tells more than one host.
From SportsCenter, Gundy moves to a photo shoot, then on to sit-down interviews with online writers Heather Dinich, Hallie Grossman and Jake Trotter.
More premium opportunities come later, including a one-on-one with Davis for a college football preview set for Aug. 20, a podcast with Maisel and Adam Rittenberg and a First Take segment, where one of the hosts, Damien Woody, tells Gundy, “You got a squad, man. You got a squad.”
There is some football talk, spread among the lighter side of Gundy. Maisel brings it. And Davis to some degree, along with the late-night radio host Coleman.
The group on Highly Questionable – Dan Le Batard, Jay Williams and Papi (Le Batard's father) – not so much.
Even the final stop of the day, a spot on College Football Live, starts silly. Gundy and West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen, who spent a season as Gundy's offensive coordinator, appear together and talk about… each other's hair.
“I'm envious,” Holgorsen said.
Gundy: “I can grow it longer, but he's got natural curl.”
Time To Fly
Gundy leaves them all smiling and laughing, eating out of his hands even. With Bob Stoops gone, the Cowboys coach may now represent the face of the Big 12. And he's a natural in the spotlight, relaxed and funny, willing to play along, yet also savvy in selling and elevating the brand of his school and program.
“That's what people want,” Gundy said. “People want to know what you're thinking, they want to see a different side of you, other than what they're going to get from most of the coaches.”
His only regret: a scheduled show with Paul Finebaum, noted critic of Big 12 defenses, is shelved, with Edwards replacing him due to the Hugh Freeze firing news. Gundy had been contemplating another opportunity at going viral.
“I was leaning towards challenging him a little bit, instigate, stand up for the league,” he said. “We'd get a ton of marketing out of it.”
With a 4 p.m. flight scheduled back to Stillwater, Gundy wraps up his memorable run through the Car Wash and we head through heavy traffic to the airport.
But not before one last stop, out at the entrance of the complex, where Gundy promises Iven, team doctor Val Gene Iven's daughter, a final photo. And Gundy goes bold, climbing atop the ESPN sign for a pose.
A security officer soon arrives, but what's he going to do?
Gundy is still owning the offseason.
