Pickens, Gundy And Failure To Communicate

Boone Pickens has never been shy about giving his opinion, so who can blame the 88-year-old mega-donor for spouting off when asked about his Oklahoma State Cowboys, who are 2-2 heading into a home matchup with No. 22 Texas? 

Here are Pickens' remarks to the Austin American-Statesman's Kirk Bohls and Cedric Golden on their podcast, On Second Thought. 

On Oklahoma State's two losses: 

"We could've won that game at Baylor. And the other one, that's just a sad deal. We should've been up by three touchdowns and it wouldn't have made any difference at all. That game was over with and the last play shouldn't have happened at all, but the play that Oklahoma State ran, I would've ran the ball back into the endzone. I'm for going to the endzone and taking a safety." 

On his involvement with the football program: 

"I don't call the plays. I don't have anything to do with the football program very much." 

On his relationship with Mike Gundy: 

"I don't have any conversations with Gundy. We had a period where we didn't communicate and then a couple years ago we got together and he asked me to come up to Stillwater and talk to his team and I told him I'd be glad to. We had lunch when he came down here to Dallas and then he called me every week after that until we got to, it was the TCU game and you know that was a really good game. We beat them when I was up at Stillwater; that was last year. Then the next week Baylor beat us pretty bad and I never heard from him and OU beat us the next week and I didn't hear from him and Ole Miss beat us at the Sugar Bowl and I never heard from him. I never heard from him after the TCU game and haven't heard from him since." 

When asked whether there is a rift between himself and Gundy: 

"Well I don't know. Mike doesn't handle people relationships very well and he gets mad about things. I've heard that he's written some notes about me that weren't very complimentary." 

On Les Miles, who was let go by LSU this week: 

"He had a better record than any coach we've ever had at Oklahoma State against OU. He played them four times and he beat them twice. And now our record lately against OU is as bad as it's ever been. We've played them 11 times that Gundy's been there and beat them twice." 

On one hand, it's easy to paint Pickens as a disgruntled donor who likes to be too hands-on with the coaching decisions and won't settle for 10-3 seasons unless the Pokes win Bedlam. On the other hand, can we question how difficult it is for a head coach to give the time of day to the man responsible for signing so many of his paychecks? 

What we've got here is failure to communicate. Apparently the wound that was healed has been reopened and it comes at a time when the football program is especially vulnerable. Beat Texas, and the pressure is off for the next month. A loss to the Longhorns would cause more knee-jerk reactions and, possibly, personnel changes within the coaching staff.