Rant remains hot topic

By John Shinn
The Norman Transcript

July 23, 2008 01:17 am

— KANSAS CITY, Mo. — No matter how hard he tries, Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy can’t get people to forget about his infamous rant following last year’s game against Texas Tech.
He barely got a chance to talk about his team Tuesday morning at Big 12 Media Days before the topic came up. It was the first question he faced.
Did he have any idea his diatribe directed toward columnist at The Oklahoman would bring the kind of attention that’s followed over the last 10 months?
“It was something that happened in a reaction and I felt it needed to be talked about from a head coach that should do the right thing for a player on his team,” Gundy said Tuesday.
Gundy’s ire was fueled by a column written by Jenny Carlson that brought former Cowboy quarterback Bobby Reid’s toughness into question. Reid graduated in the spring and transferred to Texas Southern.
He has one season of eligibility remaining. Prior to the column, Reid had been benched in favor of Zac Robinson.
Earlier this summer, he told ESPN.com that Gundy’s rant “basically ended my life.”
Gundy said that was unfortunate Tuesday, but still sticks by the decision he made to defend Reid and the previous benching of the former starting quarterback.
“There’s my question from my standpoint in that situation and being a coach and a parent, you have to make decisions. At the end of the day, you have to lay your head down and go to sleep,” Gundy said. “If you feel good about the decisions you make, you don’t have any problem doing that.
“I don’t have any problems sleeping at night, because I know the ins and outs of what happened.”
John Shinn
366-3536
jshinn@normantranscript.com