Gage Gundy was sitting in the overlook deck at Oklahoma State’s Sherman E. Smith Training Center a few months ago when the gears on a new opportunity started turning.
Down below him on the practice field, Stillwater High head coach Chad Cawood ran into Gundy’s dad, Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy, and asked how Gage was doing.
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Gage was the senior quarterback on the Pioneers’ 2022 state championship team when Cawood was offensive coordinator. Gage had since gone on to pursue professional and college baseball, but Mike informed him that Gage was back around Stillwater this fall, going to school and rehabbing from a back injury.
Cawood had an idea but didn’t want to pressure Gage. He needed a quarterback coach and thought Gage, with his experience and knowledge of the program, would be a great fit. So, he told Mike to pass along the possibility to his youngest son.
“My dad kind of came up and brought it up to me, and it was just so random,” Gage said. “I wasn’t expecting that at all, and I was like, ‘OK, I’ll kind of think about it.’ I was kind of thinking (for) a few days, like, if that’s something I really wanted to do, and I just tried to realize that I had nothing better to do, and I might as well kind of get into something that I want to do in the future and kind of start my time on it. It’s somewhere familiar, and I’m comfortable with everything.”
So, he reached out to Cawood and talked about the position. It was a fit for everyone, and now the 21-year-old Gundy is coaching the quarterback room for the Pioneers, who play at Carl Albert at 7 p.m. Friday.
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“When he reached out, I was all in and ready to go,” Cawood said.
Trophy lifted.jpg (copy)
FILE − Gage Gundy (center-right with headband) led the Pioneers to a state title in 2022, their first since 1967. Head coach Chad Cawood said that gives Gundy “street credibility” with the players.
Gundy played in the MLB Draft League his first summer out of high school and suffered a labrum injury. That fall of 2023, he tried to play a postgrad gap year at TNXL Baseball Academy near Orlando, Florida, with the injury. But by April, the injury lingered, and he returned home to rehab.
This past fall, Gundy joined the baseball team at Panola College, a junior college in Carthage, Texas. Around Christmas, he was nearly back to full speed and ready for his freshman season.
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“And that’s when I hurt my back, like, right when I got back,” Gundy said. “So, it’s been kind of tough. I got really close to being good again and then got set back all the way until now. But it’s just part of it.”
That led Gundy back to Stillwater for more rehab, and he enrolled in online classes at Northern Oklahoma College. That’s when Cawood stepped in with the opportunity.
Gundy said he always wanted to leave the door open for a return to football, and the slew of setbacks with baseball made him reevaluate. He was drawn back to football, which he said he “truly enjoyed first.”
“It’s been about two seasons I’ve missed of baseball. And I’ve been kind of thinking, like, I might just want to change the whole view of the sport and go back to football,” Gundy said. “Just nothing good has came out of it the last two years in baseball, and being back here and being around football, I really miss it again.”
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But he’s still open to playing football, and staying in JUCO for now gives him the ability to preserve as much NCAA eligibility as possible. Gundy said hopefully “if I get healthy, if I want to, I can maybe think about going somewhere in the winter.”
But right now, Gundy is all in on coaching the Stillwater Pioneers. Coaching is something he always wanted to get into eventually, though he admits he didn’t think the chance would come so soon nor be at his alma mater. So, he’s enjoyed getting his first shot at it with familiar faces.
That familiarity with the program was a big reason Cawood knew Gundy was the guy for the job.
“He knows how we do things here,” Cawood said. “He knows how we operate, not only in the playbook, not only on the field, but in the locker room, in our meetings and things like that. It was easier, probably, for him to step in in that aspect, but at the same time, he hadn’t done it as a coach. And I’ve been very impressed with how he’s handled the quarterbacks and his knowledge base and just his experience as a player and how he’s able to relate that to the guys. He’s done a great job.”
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Gundy’s situation is even more unique. He delivered the Pioneers’ first and only state championship since 1967 and became the leader of that team. That puts Gundy in a different light, and the team recognizes his legacy.
“For the players, that gives you automatic street credit,” Cawood said.
Gundy is using that to his advantage. In a quarterback room with sophomore Satank Taptto and senior Ethan Evans each getting big reps for the first time, Gundy’s voice is valuable.
He’s been where they are at and understands what it takes to lead a team and reach the championship heights this team aspires for.
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“I kind of try to talk to them and share with them the things that I did that I wish I would have learned younger,” Gundy said. “With Satank only being a sophomore, he can have that role right now in the next two years.”
Taptto, who has thrown for 317 yards and five touchdowns along with three more scores on the ground through two games, said Gundy has helped his development in operating an offense.
“He’s given me some tips on how to be a better leader, and he tries to make me better every day on how to do it and lead the team,” Taptto said.
Gage Gundy
Pioneers coach Chad Cawood said quarterbacks coach Gage Gundy knows how the program operates and has done great.
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Being in a quarterback room again has been refreshing for Gundy, too. Football is important to him, and being part of the team again and helping grow quarterbacks has been fun, he said.
“They have a bright future, so it’s cool being able to kind of get (them) early on in their career and be like a role model and somebody they look up to and kind of watch them grow throughout the years,” he said.
Cawood said Gundy has been a bonus on game days, as well. Gundy meets with the QBs on the sideline and helps them with his in-depth knowledge of the playbook. He also brings suggestions to the other coaches based on what he’s seeing.
“That’s just because he was raised in this offense,” Cawood said. “He started playing in it in the seventh grade. And when you’re raised in something and that’s what you know, you start to gain some mastery of it. And now, he’s kinda showing that in a different manner as a coach and not a player.”
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As a coach, Gundy’s view on the way to road games is one noticeable change, though. He used to be on the bus with teammates. Now, he has a coach’s point of view.
Sometimes, he said, he can’t help but sit there and smile as he looks around at the bus and soaks in a new chapter as a Pioneer.
“Two-and-a-half years ago, I was on the bus, and now I’m in the SUV with them and kind of talking about the coaching side of it and who we’re about to play and what we’re going to try to do. So, it’s cool.
“It means a lot. I’m proud to be from Stillwater and be a Pioneer, so it’s nice coming back and being able to teach them and help them have success like I did and watch the program keep going and getting better and better from where I left it. It means a lot.”
