Oklahoma State football coach Mike Gundy on Tuesday said he won’t kick running back Ollie Gordon II off the team after the 20-year-old was arrested June 30 for drunken driving.
“Not to get into the legal side of it, but I thought, really, [Gordon had] two or three beers, or four. I’m not justifying what Ollie did. I’m telling you what decision I made. Well, I thought, I’ve probably done that a thousand times in my life,” Gundy said at Big 12 Football Media Days in Las Vegas. “It was just fine. So I got lucky. People get lucky.”
The 56-year-old quipped that his star running back’s only punishment would be “50 carries” in Oklahoma State’s opening game Aug. 31 against South Dakota State.
“Is suspending him for one game really going to matter?” Gundy said. “I don’t think so.”
Several users on social media called the coach’s comments poorly timed. Three former college football players, including Minnesota Vikings rookie Khyree Jackson, died in a car crash Saturday in Maryland. Investigators have said a drunken driver likely caused the crash.
“This is so irresponsible,” David Samson, former president of the Miami Marlins, said on “The Dan Le Batard Show.” “You cannot and should not be able to come back from this.”
Gundy later took to social media to defend his comments.
“My intended point today at Big 12 media days was that we are all guilty of making bad decisions,” the reigning Big 12 Coach of the Year wrote on X. “It was not a reference to something specific.”
• Liam Griffin can be reached at lgriffin@washingtontimes.com.
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