Oklahoma State’s Mike Gundy Quotes Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh In Shot At Ohio State's Ryan Day

The Buckeyes recently hired Cowboys' defensive coordinator Jim Knowles to the same position.

Author:
Andrew Lind
Dec 17, 2021 6:31 PM EST

Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy appears to be bitter about losing his defensive coordinator, Jim Knowles, to Ohio State earlier this month.

Gundy, who is in the midst of his 17th season with the Cowboys, was asked during his Early Signing Period press conference how he was able to keep their 2022 recruiting class together despite Knowles’ departure.

He credited the rest of his staff and the overall continuity in Stillwater, but then decided to take a shot at Ohio State head coach Ryan Day by quoting Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh along the way.

“Here’s the deal, there’s continuity and structure over here because I’ve been here (for) years,” Gundy said. “When you have that, you have continuity and you have structure. You have what you call consistency, so parents understand that, the recruits understand that.

“Coach Knowles was a fabulous coach, and we’d have liked to keep him here for 100 years. He’s not going to be here anymore. Nothing’s going to change. We won’t miss a beat. We’ll hire another coordinator. I’ve done this for years and years and years. It’s my job to find a smart, loyal, hard-working person that will come in here and work with them, whether I hire from inside or I hire from outside. Got to hire somebody.

“That’s not going to be a problem because they’ll come in this culture. If they don’t want to come into this culture, it doesn’t make a difference to me who it is or how good he is, they’re not coming. We’re not changing what we do. Consistency is the most important thing in building a big-time college football program, in my opinion.

“Now, I’ve never been at some of these schools where as people say you wake up on third base and you think you hit a triple. I’ve never been there, so I don’t know what it’s like to coach at a school like that. Coach Knowles will know.”

Harbaugh, of course, finally beat Ohio State for the first time in his coaching career last month and used his postgame press conference to make a thinly veiled shot at Day for inheriting the Buckeyes’ football program from former head coach Urban Meyer, who went 7-0 against Michigan from 2012-18.

“Sometimes people that are standing on third base think they hit a triple, but they didn't,” Harbaugh said after the Wolverines’ 42-27 victory on Nov. 27.

Part of the reason Day recently made Knowles the highest-paid assistant coach in Ohio State history was because of what happened that afternoon, when Michigan rushed for 297 yards and six touchdowns.

Oklahoma State, meanwhile, was among the nation’s best this season in several statistical categories, including sacks, tackles for loss, third-down defense, total defense, rushing defensive and points per game allowed.

If the Buckeyes get the same kind of output as the Cowboys did under Knowles’ direction, opposing coaches might not be in a position to make such comments moving forward.

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