Joe Wickline Discusses His Return To Stillwater: ‘Mixed Emotions’

Joe Wickline is coming to Stillwater this weekend for just the second time since he left OSU for Texas in 2014. This time he returns as West Virgina’s offensive line coach. He talked about his time in Stillwater earlier this week and what it will be like to return.

“It’s kind of a mixed emotion thing,” said Wickline. “My family has a house there; my wife and daughter, and they grew up there. Oklahoma State is a great state. They have a bunch of great people. Again, it’s one of my top places. It’s a great place, the administration has done a nice job, and coach Gundy and Holder have done a great job. It all started back then when they kind of took reign, and since then from the overall aspect of the facilities, I’m impressed.”

Bill Haisten wrote about the complicated relationship between Wickline, Gundy and Dana Holgorsen earlier this week for the Tulsa World. There a number of ways to look at it, but Wickline’s departure leading to the (sort of) downfall of the offense is one of them.

In 33 games since Wickline left Stillwater, the Cowboy offensive line has given up 95 sacks. In 91 games before he moved, the Cowboy offensive line gave up 86 sacks.

“[Boone Pickens Stadium is] a classic place to play,” said Wickline. “Boone Pickens Stadium and Stillwater, it’s one of the all-time classics. The fans are great, the people there are livid about their program, much like West Virginia.

“It’s very similar, to our guys and their guys, and the ride with the brand. But it’s another game, we’re all professionals, its business and we take care of the student-athletes. We take care of what’s at hand, where we’re at and we kind of dismiss that and move on to the next thing.”

He went on to talk about how it was sort of difficult at first to adapt to Dana being his boss in Morgantown (in the video below). Wickline seems like, uh, a tough guy to work with but someone who is worth working with because of the results he gets.

Tyron Carrier