That's exactly what I was thinking the first time I saw it.

A lot to pile on a college kid?

I wonder what they are piling on 18 year old kids in Iraq?

If an 18 year old kid can do what they do over there, then a 21 year old 'kid' or coach can take a newspaper writer's criticism without going ballistic.

Just my opinion... may not be popular in OK.. but it is what it is.

I guess that's what the kids are over there fighting for.. freedom of speech in a lot of ways .. but I wish Gundy would have utilized that right in a more respectful manner.

Yes, people are proud of him for 'standing' up for his player.. and that is commendable.

It's the way he did it that I question.

__________________
" You've Been Thunder Struck ! "

Completely agree, Karrie.

Kids that go to the Army want to shoot stuff, plain and simple..... serve their country blah blah blah, they've probably had one political science class in their life. I've known many kids i went to high school with that all said that when they were going into the service. Football players want to play football, plain and simple. Since when did army kids get articles written about them that were innacurate anyway???

No one — including Gundy — has demonstrated how the articles were inaccurate.

As for the rest of your post, I just don't get your point.

Exactly what I was going to say.

They talked about it on Good Morning America this morning.

I hope this goes away soon.

__________________
" You've Been Thunder Struck ! "

Was just listening to the Sports Animal and the caller brought up an excellent point. Wasn't it just a couple years ago that fans and sportswriters (all over Oklahoma) were piling on Nate Hybyl? I remember things said and written that were 1,000 times worse than his mama fixing him a box lunch with chicken. Did anyone hear a Bob Stoops press conference that made him sound like a crazy man? That's just the way college football is - those guys know what they are getting into when they sign on the dotted line.

The Bob morning show did a pretty funny take on the Gundy explosion set to blues music click below:

KQOB - 96.9 BOB FM

Of course Stoops wasn't going to blow up because he wasn't as 13-15 coach on the hot seat in need of a good PR stunt to save his job! I'm obviously the minority here, but Gundy was way outta line! The more look at the video the more rehearsed and scripted his whole blowup was. I'm sure he was thinking on the sidelines what he could do to get the heat off of him since his team's defense got 700 yards slapped on them. Hopefully this will all be forgotten when OSU get wacked by Sam Houston State this weekend. Then it will be the same ole OSU, complete with a half empty stadium and Toilet Bowl appearance

I wonder if Boone Pickens is going to ask OSU for a refund??

count me as another in the minority, Gundy made a fool of himself and the tantrum was wrong.

If OSU wants to be a winning program like OU, TX, USC, etc. then the columns and the stories will get a lot worse.

I don't think there is as big a minority as some people think, but maybe a rush to jump on the "bash Carlson" bandwagon. I happened to watch the OSU/Tech game and was amazed to notice how many empty seats were in the stadium. Where are all the outraged OSU folks about that?

I couldn't agree more about the "Jenni bashing." People love an excuse to kick another when they've already been kicked. Folks on other boards (the Oklahoman's own forum) have been very vicious in their attacks against her, digging into her personal appearance, which is way below the belt, IMO.

I really wanted to give Gundy an opportunity to come out and refute Ms. Carlson's claims, but when he refused to do so, it made me believe there may be more "truth" in what Jenni was writing about than Gundy would really like revealed. Regardless, his passion should be saved for the sidelines. It will be interesting to see what happens when Bomar comes to town.

One thing is for certain, the Oklahoman has never gotten this level of attention. In fact, I think their site has crashed on several occasions because their message boards are so clogged up.

Well of course theres going to be empty seats, its hard to get fired up about your team when the"worlds greatest offense" got shellacked by a former D-1 AA team the week before. Maybe the rant will motivate Poke fans to go see the games. After all they are ADDING more seats to a stadium they can't fill now. Typical OSU logic.

I have to admit through his entire tirade his hair looked absolutely FAAAAABULOUS!!! Somebody get that man some more hair gel!!

http://media.scout.com/Media/Image/25/255571.jpg

The empty seats you were seeing are under construction. If you paid attention, you would have seen the orange construction fence blocking the area of those seats.

I think we have beat a stable full of dead horses into the ground on this issue. They both royally screwed up. Carlson is not a victim neither is Gundy or Reid. They both need to take their licks and move on. This should have something that was addressed behind closed doors or in on the editorial page.

For those of you who are embarrassed about the situation get over yourselves. I swear Tony Robbins needs to come to town and give lessons on self esteem to everyone in this city. Stop worry about what other people think and worry about the things that truly matter.

The only reason these national writers covered this story is because it gave them the chance to make themselves and their readers superior over OSU and Oklahoma.

At least our cities are not rampant with professional athletes breaking the law and buy thier way out of trouble.

OSU would do better if they had a Big Orange Sports and Imports up there in Stillwater to help finance more talented players.

the empty seats I saw were scattered throughout the stadium - is that how they do construction at T-Boone University? It was an observation that O-State fans don't seem to support their team by getting their butts into the seats where it counts. I don't think you do construction on individual seats . . .

Updated KOCO poll ... I'm guessing they have never had so many take a poll there!

You may need to click your refresh button to load the current graphic ...

__________________
Doug
http://www.dougloudenback.com/downtownOKC.htm
http://www.dougloudenback.com/oklahomacity.htm
http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/

How exactly did Carlson "royally screw up"??

Doubling ticket prices over three years doesn't help much either.

This story is now on the Yahoo! front page.

Boxing gloves on chickens, watermelon as the state vegetable, Mike Gundy screaming "I'm a man!!!"

All embarrassments to the state of Oklahoma. I wish this story would die.

I'm not sure I see how it's embarassing to the state.

Now THAT'S an embarrassment to the state of Oklahoma.

^ I wonder if that poll doesn't pull a complete 180 if they left it up long enough??

Weighing in from Fox sports (and this came from MSN with the special caption "Makes me want to puke" from Gundy's rant)

Gundy picked strange time for rant
Randy Hill / Special to FOXSports.com
Posted: 39 minutes ago

For a coach whose football team had just been tagged with 45 points, Mike Gundy picked an interesting time to get defensive.
It actually was beyond interesting because Gundy's Oklahoma State team had just scored 49 points. This enabled the Cowboys to record an important Big 12 Conference victory over the gunslingers from Texas Tech. But few people are talking about that now.

Instead of recognizing OSU's triumph, a nation of football fans and casual observers is reacting to a puerile rant delivered by Gundy immediately after the game. Did Mike use any of his postgame press conference time to praise the effort of his starting quarterback, running back or receivers? No. Did he spend a few moments explaining how the previously struggling Cowboys were able to outscore one of the most explosive offenses in the country?

Not a chance.

Gundy was busy launching his verbal attack on Jenni Carlson, a respected sports columnist for The Oklahoman who had written a piece on Cowboy football that Mike found objectionable.

Before last Saturday's date with Texas Tech, Carlson focused on a situation involving Bobby Reid, the OSU quarterback who wasn't going to play against the Red Raiders. Her theme was Reid's apparent inability to demonstrate a level of toughness that could satisfy Gundy and his coaching staff.

You make the call:
Watch: Gundy's rant

Schrager: Gundy's OK by me

Carlson defends column

Vote: Whose side are you on?


Previous comments by Reid to her co-workers were integrated into the piece by Carlson, who attempted to kick start this case by reporting that the demoted QB's mother had fed her son chicken before he boarded the team bus. The chicken-feeding incident was chronicled in vague terms and seemed like quite a reach as a demonstration of her upcoming point.

While many coaches and fans haven't bothered to acknowledge the difference between a straight story and an opinion piece, I was less than overwhelmed by the execution of Carlson's column. It seemed to be a clumsy attempt at harpooning Gundy's handling of a talented-but-presumably-soft quarterback.

But while falling a bit short of award-winning sports commentary, Carlson's piece has — among other things — become a referendum on how much criticism can or should be levied against an amateur athlete. The fine line we walk can become a tightrope.

It should be noted that Reid will be a tender 22 years old in December. The subsequent hullabaloo generated by Carlson's column has inspired her supporters to remind us that young men can go to war when they're much younger. While that's a heavy-handed appropriation of battlefield parallels to make a point, we also should reject Gundy's reference to Reid as "a kid."

We also barge into another gray area when the value of Reid's athletic scholarship is used as evidence that he's not exactly an amateur. It's true that — despite its level of defense — Oklahoma State is participating in big-time, big-money college athletics. That doesn't make it easier for Reid to be blasted by a sports columnist, but it hardly makes him immune from scrutiny.

Ironically, without Gundy's outburst, Reid's alleged lack of first-string-level grit only would be known by those who read Carlson's column before it was upgraded from state to national notoriety. And by reaching an exaggerated level of support for his player, Gundy may have validated at least a portion of Carlson's case.

It's also ironic to note that the level of criticism served up against football players by reporters usually is no match for what they hear from their own coaches. The verbal abuse from the sideline can be withering.

Since Gundy's tirade appeared on national highlight shows, it's been reported that the coach didn't read Carlson's column until after the Tech game. This suggests that somewhere between the field and the press-conference venue, a winning coach decided it was more important to ingest something negative written about his program than prepare to salute the players who participated in a victory.

When Carlson offered the coach an opportunity to refute the facts he so vigorously challenged, Gundy passed. Perhaps he was more interested in demonstrating that he'll risk looking and sounding like a maniac to protect the interests of his players. Maybe this circus act was a clever method of recruiting. While that theory has been posited, it seems terrifying that a parent could watch Gundy's behavior and decide to send his or her son to Oklahoma State.

Does a coach have the latitude to rip a reporter in a public forum? He certainly does. The questioning of Reid's toughness was made in a public forum and Carlson probably was prepared for some level of negative feedback from Oklahoma State. She probably wasn't anticipating a cartoon-caliber diatribe, but the blog reactions have been even worse.

Gundy isn't the first coach to be provoked to anger by a column. But he may qualify for the team picture when over-the-top reactions are discussed. If he had it to do over again, the Oklahoma State coach would be wise to pull Carlson aside and issue his objections in relative privacy.

That would send a far better message to the same player he was attempting to protect.