I feel like Al Pacino in Godfather III.

I thought I was done with Mike Gundy. I have nothing against the man. But I watched that game at Troy and I saw this coach seemingly so overmatched by the moment, so I wrote about it. That was supposed to be it.

But here comes Mike Gundy again, like I’m Michael Corleone, pulling me back in.

The Oklahoman’s Jenni Carlson wrote this column Saturday morning questioning the heart, toughness and attitude of quarterback Bobby Reid. I wouldn’t call it an attack. It wasn’t a hatchet job. Nor did she pull a Dick Cheney, setting up some sort of indefensible straw man only to beat the displaced quarterback over the head with it. She questioned Reid’s intangibles.

She had some evidence and wrote her story. Maybe she could have done a few things differently and Gundy’s opening to come after her might have been a little narrower. Not that it matters.

Because where Gundy’s concerned, the story isn’t how he valiantly came to the defense of one of his athletes. Instead, it’s the simple fact that his team being dominated by the likes of Troy appeared to stir nothing in him, while a harsh but hardly out of bounds newspaper column set him off.

Behind the story

Now we know what riles the guy up, but could he have been any more petulant. I’ve heard diatribes from more accomplished coaches than Gundy. They might have been out of place and ill advised, but at least they made sense. Even Kelvin Sampson made sense. Most of the time, anyway.

Gundy told Carlson she never would have written such a thing if she had children.

A) That’s sexist. B) It’s irrational. C) Since when did we start classifying 21-year-old athletes on full scholarship who generate millions toward their university, who — when things are going well — will be cheerfully pushed by their very own sports information department for individual and national honors … as children.

Certainly, there were men in that room who at one time or another had written an equally harsh story or column and certainly some of those men are fathers. Is Carlson’s burden to be nice greater because she’s a woman? It shouldn’t be.

If Gundy takes issue with Reid’s maturity being questioned, isn’t he calling it into greater question by going ape? Does he really have to be Reid’s bridge over troubled water? Is Reid feeling that weary, that small?

“Come after me. I’m a man. I’m 40,” Gundy screamed.

Reid’s a man. He’s underachieved. He’s 21.