He is not in denial, nor is he ashamed.
Colleagues might be contemplating an intervention
If there were a test to determine the amount of Red Bull in a person's bloodstream, would Gundy be under the legal limit?
"No,” a smiling Gundy said, playfully twitching his head to the right several times in rapid succession. "See? It doesn't really affect me.”
Where most people consume one Red Bull per day for a pick-me-up, Gundy is having his own three-a-day sessions.
For Gundy, there is no crash and burn when the drink's effects dissipate.
"None at all,” Gundy explained. "You see, that's when you have another one.”
Nothing like a little taurine, caffeine, glucose and B12 to get the juices flowing.
"Actually, I stick with coffee until about 11 every morning,” Gundy said.
Then Gundy starts his daily run with the Bull. He even has a Red Bull refrigerator in his office.
Before his question-and-answer session at Media Day last Saturday, Gundy entered the interview room with a Pepsi cup in his hand.
"Are we a Pepsi school or a Coke school?” Gundy asked. (OSU is a Coke school.)
Someone said, "You're a Red Bull school,” to which Gundy responded, "You got that right.”
Gundy isn't the only bullish man on campus.
New Cowboys men's basketball coach Travis Ford also is stocked with a Red Bull refrigerator, and Gundy pawned Ford off as even a bigger addict.
Now that he is under the watchful eye of his wife, Heather, who recently completed the family's move from Massachusetts, Ford might be battling withdrawals.
Although temperatures have been in triple-digits at nearly every OSU football practice so far, you can still hear Gundy's voice piercing through the blast-furnace conditions.
Gundy might be on the juice, but a quick survey revealed he's not the most hyper coach on staff. That title belongs to new co-offensive coordinator/receivers coach Trooper Taylor.
"Oh, it's not even close,” Gundy said, conceding the crown to Trooper, a longtime friend. "Troop is the same at 5:30 in the morning and 11:30 at night. I don't know how his wife (Evi) lives with him. He's always been that way.”
Associate coach Joe DeForest said, "Troop's full speed. He's like the Energizer Bunny. He never stops. He's full speed ahead all the time.”
Trooper proudly accepted the title of most hyped.
"I don't do the Red Bull,” Trooper said, taking a playful jab at Gundy. "I guess it's legal. They haven't banned it yet. I'm on the red Kool-Aid. I grew up drinking that, so that isn't going to change. But I'm also juiced up on life.”
One thing 100-degree temperatures will do is weed out the pretenders. Staying hyped under treacherous conditions is too draining to the disingenuous.
"When you have a passion for the game, it just comes naturally,” Trooper said. "If coaching is something you have to get motivated to do, you're probably faking it, and kids will read right through that.”
The most hyped player?
"I'd have to go with (junior wideout) Jeremy Broadway,” said Trooper, who is Broadway's position coach. "He's usually talking the whole time. He'll hustle from one drill to the next, and he knows better to talk the talk and not walk the walk.”
Gundy turns 41 on Aug. 12 and is in remarkable shape. He looks like he could still play quarterback, assuming he could beat Zac Robinson, which he probably could for maybe one more season.
"I just had a full cardio exam, a full MRI. I did the whole nine yards and I was clean," Gundy said. "So you can say, ‘Hey, I'm good. I'm clean. So I can drink whatever I want.' "
Perhaps an endorsement deal with Red Bull awaits Gundy. "Hey, I'll take it,” he said.
Based on Gundy's amassed product intake, that could be a quite lucrative contract, given that Red Bull doesn't come cheap.
In terms of overall compensation, a Red Bull deal would boost Gundy from a tie for 10th among Big 12 coaches in annual salary ($1.05 million) and closer to the Bob Stoops neighborhood ($3.53ish million).
Would Gundy have trouble giving up Red Bull cold turkey?
"Nah,” he said quickly, before adding, "just don't ask me to give it up.”
Gundy playfully twitched his head to the right some more.
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I'm not complaining; I'm just wondering how this is 1. anyway relevant to OSU athletics, other than the fact the subject mentioned in the head coach, and 2. is considered newsworthy.
AimForCenterMass, Oklahoma City - Aug 5, 2008 at 2:47 pm
Why to they ask him about Red Bull and then cold turkey? I had no idea that he even liked turkey much less turkey that is cold. Gross!!! Maybe if he would heat up his turkey like everyone else on the planet he would enjoy it more. I tried cold turkey once and it was terrible. What's next? Cold coffee? It makes no sense!!
Better than having the only memory of him being a tirade of "I'm a man, I'm 40"... Need to write more of these upbeat articles. We need to get to know the personal side of these coaches more.
Do you just feel the need to bitch about something or what? OMG, it's just a funny little thing about Gundy. Lighten up--you folks are WAY too serious. Good gosh...something light in the paper doesn't hurt a thing; what would your blood pressure reading be? Life's too short, try and enjoy something outside the norm.
Oh relax. It is a cute story about a coach that has gotten some tough press this year. Makes him seem human, shows his lighter side. We have all seen his passionate about his players and football. Give the guy a break. It is also nice to hear about a drinking problem in Stillwater that wont cost the team a coach.
The story isn't that bad. It's not informative in the least, but it's an amusing read. However, this seems like a good article to publish over the summer when there wasn't anything to write about. Why are they doing a story like this after fall camp has already started? There's got to be plenty to cover now. Oh well, it's a lot better than that Mr. Monday yesterday.
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