Mike Gundy Ahead of Curve In Limiting Practice

“No, I don’t think anyone does,” Evan Epstein once told me about whether athletes think about concussions while they’re playing college football.

“We’re the modern version of gladiators. We’re getting a chance to do something a lot of people would love to be able to do. Bottom line is we love it. I didn’t think one thing about whether there’s going to be long-term effects of me smashing my head on another guy’s head 100 times a week.”

That’s a powerful thing, and I think it’s a prevalent way of thinking which means, in some instances, athletes need to be saved from themselves.

Last year, the Big 12 started trying to do that.

The Big 12 will limit in-season live contact opportunities for the league’s football players to no more than two times per week, the conference announced [in summer 2015]. Previously, the conference allowed live contact three days per week.

And it apparently has worked as the Big 12 announced last week that concussions have gone way down.

Big 12 was presented data today that concussions around the league are down 32 percent from 2013-15. Credit limiting practice contact.

— David Ubben (@davidubben) June 1, 2016

Once again, you know who was out ahead of all of this? Yep, after I called him a genius on Monday for his recruiting strategy, Mike Gundy gets more well-deserved praise on this topic.

Remember, Gundy has long been a proponent of limited practice. Read this quote from 2011.

“Our guys were losing too much weight during two-a-days,” Gundy told ESPN. “In August, it’s 100 degrees down here, and we practice a lot. We said, OK, why is that happening? Obviously, we’re on the field too much. So what’s the answer? We’ve got to back off. How much can you back off?

“We started [compiling] all that about three years ago, and we started putting it in effect really this year,” he told ESPN in 2011. “Last spring, spring ball, we did not scrimmage one time and tackle to the ground. This August, we did not scrimmage one time and tackle to the ground. Nothing.

“My coach [at Oklahoma State] was Pat Jones. He’s still around here, does some radio talk shows, and he’s a good friend of mine. He told me I was crazy. I said, ‘You may be right.’ But I guess what I’m saying is, I’m not afraid to take a chance.”

The Big 12 followed suit and is trying to mitigate the concussion epidemic that has infiltrated the sport, not to mention the litany of other injuries that come with so much practice. It’s pretty cool to see Gundy, even if it was unintentional and self serving, leading the charge.