Mike Gundy Had to Give up ‘Video Games’ to Become a Great Coach

When Mike Gundy ceded control of his offense in the late 2000s, it wasn’t easy. I mean, really, it wasn’t easy. But it was necessary. “The first three or four years, I let that stuff eat me up,” Gundy told ESPN of his micromanaging ways. “I tried to control everything.”

Yes he did.

At some point, however, he realized that to be the CEO of a world-class college football organization, you have to give up more than you take on. This week, for some reason, he was asked about that time period and how difficult it was to give up playcalling in favor of, you know, running a multimillion-dollar organization.

“It was extremely difficult,” he said. “It’s like a teenager not being able to play video games. That’s really the way it was, but it was something I felt was best for our football team — for me to be more of an organizer of the big picture in recruiting and marketing and the media and different things.”

So that’s pretty much perfect. But it’s also true. Shortly after that photo above was taken, Gundy hired Dana Holgorsen which led to Todd Monken and away we went.