40-year-old Man Mike Gundy's Lastest Critic: The QB He Defended

Oklahoma State football coach Mike Gundy's rant about an article criticizing his former starting quarterback was controversial. Football fans were divided on the issue. Some thought that Gundy over-reacted. Most thought that Gundy did the right thing by sticking up for quarterback Bobby Reid. (The only real consensus was that the video was funny.)

While many journalism organizations were busying Jenni Carlson, the journalist who was the target of Gundy's attack, nobody asked Bobby Reid what he thought of his coach and the emotional reaction. That is, until ESPN's Tom Friend decided to tackle the issue.

I recommend reading the entire article, but here is an excerpt dealing directly with Reid's reaction:

Reid was caught off guard. Here was a coach who'd been burying him and now he was going to war for him? It didn't add up. "At first, everything [Gundy] was saying sounded real and true," Rajika says. "But I'm a believer where there is smoke, there's fire."

In other words, Bobby and Rajika Reid felt info in Carlson's column came indirectly from Gundy or his staff. ("I'd have a hard time agreeing with that," Gundy says.)

In other words, they felt Gundy's rant was fake.

"Honestly, the way I took it, I felt like it was all a front," Reid says. "That it was all a big show. It didn't feel genuine."

Rajika: "It wasn't the truth. If it was the truth and this kid does everything right, why wasn't he back on the field?"

Most would agree that Gundy could have handled the situation better with a more thoughtful response. Still, it did seem that his rant was for the right reasons; a college player shouldn't be called out in such a way by media personnel.

The accusation that Gundy gave Carlson the information that she then used in her article is serious considering his reaction to those very facts. If true (and, at this point, I need to believe Reid more based on Gundy's responses in the ESPN article), all support for Gundy should be withdrawn. It is one thing to take a business-like approach as a coach, but it is something else to lie with so much adamance.