Mike Gundy Gave Us All Some Rattlesnake Hunting Tips at Practice

By: Kyle Cox and Hayden Barber

Last Friday, while most of us were glued to a TV watching Oklahoma State slug it out with Michigan in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, Mike Gundy was busy chasing deadly pit vipers in Okeene.

So it’s no surprise that herpetology was the big topic of conversation once the 12th-year head coach spoke with the media. Not, wide receiver depth or his own relationship with Mike Holder. Rattlesnakes.

Gundy didn’t get bit, “not yet,” anyway, he said, but he walked over a small one that was hidden in the grass. Even if he was bitten, Wild Bill and the people of Okeene had his back, he said.

“I checked and they had enough doses of anti-venom in the hospital there,” Gundy said. Gundy even explained the three escalating defense mechanisms of the rattlesnake.

“The two guys I was with do this all the time, said that in the area we were at, should be 25-30 fairly common to see within the first couple hours,” Gundy said. “Pretty excited about that.”

But don’t worry. Even with all those venomous snakes out there and Gundy perusing through them, he said he will be with trained professionals who nearly made him one, too, in less than a day.

“Those guys are experienced, and they gave us a crash course in about a 15-minute period on the three defense mechanisms of a rattlesnake.

“One is camoflauge and hide. That’s what they would prefer.

“Two is to run away.

“And then three, if they feel like they’re in danger, then they rattle and they eventually strike you. Now, they can sense your body weight and your size with their eyes. They have heat sensors, and the older they get, they can determine how big you are, and if you’re a small rodent, then they’ll strike you because they know you can benefit them, and they’ll eat you.

“But if you’re big and you’re a human, they would prefer to not strike you because you can’t do anything for ’em.”

Gundy said the guides told him to look in a 3-to-4-foot circumference around your body before each step. Once they got started searching though, Gundy said Wild Bill was walking without looking where he stepped.

That’s wild. That’s somebody you won’t find in Dallas, Oklahoma City or even Stillwater.

The lessons he learned in Okeene might be something he can find use for back home, Gundy said, with his John Smith, coworker, neighbor and old high school friend.

“He’s got some pretty good rocks over there, and I figure I’d teach him, and that’ll give John something to do,” Gundy said. “And when we retire, we can just walk around in our boots and rattlesnake hunt and make videos for YouTube or Animal Planet. There’d probably be some value in it.”

All kidding aside, we appreciate this side of Gundy. For one, it’s entertaining and it shows that the guy doesn’t take himself too seriously. He’s been sporting a mullet long enough that we know it has nothing to do with a homework assignment.

He also puts his family first, something he encourages all of his staff to do.

The trip was Gundy’s sons’ idea, he said. The boys were “all fired up about it,” and Gundy was just there to be with them, he said. That changed when he started hunting, he said.

“I ended up being more fired up about it than they did,” he said. “I thought it was cool. They had a great time, but I was the first one to ask, ‘When can we go back?'”

Gundy’s ambition to become a full-time rattlesnake hunter after he moves on from coaching seems to be a short-lived idea, but he who knows.

“I may be on the Animal Planet some day,” Gundy said. “That’s my next gig.”

Here’s another good pic from the hunt.

Here's a second image of #OKState coach Mike Gundy's rattlesnake hunt. Wrapped around the neck! pic.twitter.com/09GWOIjawt

— Mark Cooper (@mark_cooperjr) March 21, 2017

The winner, of course, is Mike Holder, who got a short reprieve from the Oklahoma State media spotlight.