Mike Gundy promises change after player revolt at Oklahoma State

Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy’s choice of a shirt created a players revolt in Stillwater.

The location “Stillwater” was about as big a misnomer as there could have been Monday after Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy’s decision to wear an “AON” T-shirt led to a revolt led by star running back Chuba Hubbard of the Cowboys’ football team.

Hubbard tweeted his total displeasure with the coach’s shirt choice. OAN is a media network. Its letters stand for  One America News Network, a far-right, pro-Trump cable news network founded in 2013 and known to push conspiracy theories. Gundy has publicly praised OAN, a network that has had one host on the network call the Black Lives Matter movement “a farce.”

Hubbard said he would no longer participate in Cowboys activities due to a photo of head coach Mike Gundy wearing a T-shirt of OAN.

Gundy, who played college ball at Oklahoma State and has been head coach since 2005 with a record of 129-64, was photographed recently on a fishing trip with his two sons while wearing a One America News shirt.

Prior to a meeting between the coach and running back, school athletic director Mike Holder said: “This afternoon has been very disturbing. The tweets from the current and former players are of grave concern.”

“In light of today’s tweet with the T-shirt I was wearing, I met with some players and realized it’s a very sensitive issue with what’s going on in today’s society,” Gundy said standing next to Hubbard. “We had a great meeting and made aware of some things players feel like that can make our organization and our culture even better than it is here at Oklahoma State.

“I’m looking forward to making some changes, and it starts at the top with me. And we’ve got good days ahead.”

Brian Bahr/Getty Images

Hubbard, who is from Sherwood Park, Alberta, Canada, apologized for his tweet, saying he should have gone to Gundy in person.

“I’ll start off by first saying I went about it the wrong way by tweeting,” said Hubbard, who rushed for 2,019 yards last season. “I’m not someone that has to tweet something to make change. I should’ve went to him as a man. I’m all about action. That was bad on my part.

“From now on, we’re going to focus on bringing change, and that’s the most important thing.”

Gundy made national waves in April with comments supporting OANN during an hour-long teleconference.

“I tell you what’s funny is, I was flipping through stations. I found one — I don’t even know if anybody knows about this — it’s called OAN,” Gundy said. “It’s One America News. And it was so refreshing. They just report the news. There’s no commentary. There’s no opinions on this. There’s no left. There’s no right. They just reported the news. And I’ve been watching them the last week, because they’re given us the news and given us more information — in my opinion — some of the positives are coming out. So, that was refreshing.”