Mike Gundy reflects on trip to ESPN

We have already written extensively about Mike Gundy’s trip to Bristol on Saturday to be a guest analyst during ESPN and ABC’s college football coverage, but it was neat hearing about the visit from the coach himself during Monday’s press conference. He seemed to legitimately enjoy it and understood the good publicity it brought the program and university during the bye week.

Here’s a breakdown of Gundy’s visit, in his own words.

On the decision to spend the off day at ESPN:
“It was certainly worth the time and effort. I was thankful they even invited me to do it. It’s hard for me to be away from my family on a free day, but the exposure that not only our football team, but the university received from that, is priceless. It was great, and I’ll do it again.”

On the fast-paced environment of live television:
“It’s a very structured and organized setting that has a lot of chaos, and it was a great experience to sit there with those guys and watch football for seven hours and be on the air and off. I was impressed with their knowledge and their ability to handle the producers saying, ‘You’re on in 15 seconds,’ and then they count down and you’re on for however long. And then you’re off and we’re going through discussions, and then you’re on in one minute and 40 seconds and you have to gather all that information and get ready. I was very impressed with the knowledge and the way they could handle what, to me, was a pressured situation.”

On visiting with Lou Holtz during the trip:
“He was talking to me throughout the day, and I felt like he was coaching me. Which I enjoyed, because he is a very brilliant person. We talked about the relationship between coaches and players, and even how it’s changed in the latter part of his career, and the importance of being able to relate to your players and let them enjoy the experience they have in playing college football and (to) not always grind on them. It kind of reconfirmed some of the things we do as a staff.”