October 8, 2024 • 18 mins
Cale Gundy, former Oklahoma Sooners' quarterback and coach, joined the program on Tuesday to discuss his memories from the Cotton Bowl, OU's season, and the play of freshman QB Michael Hawkins Jr.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You know, it was thirty one years ago that Oklahoma
defeated Texas there in Fair Park.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
They won at thirty eight seventeen.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
It was John Nacovic's second year as head coach, the
first year Texas won the contest, but Oklahoma won and
they were directed by quarterback Joseph cale Gundhy, star of
the Oklahoma Senters, later on the coaching staff and now
a star of radio. I'm a sports animal. They're in
Oklahoma City and he joins us on the hot line
(00:33):
right now. Does anybody even still call you Joseph any more?
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Yeah, Oh yeah all the time.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
So mainly people that family members and friends of mine
that I grew up with. My mother would always call
me Joseph, who she's no longer with us anymore. But
if Mom said Joseph, that meant I was in trouble,
I did something wrong. But you know, mainly people that
(01:02):
I grew up with and family refer to me as
Joseph still to this day.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Okay, when did it kind of morphin? Everybody just calling
you Kale? Was that in elementary school? Middle school? High school?
When did when did people just get used to calling
you Kale? The middle name.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Well, so so, Craig, this is been an ongoing deal.
I'm fifty two years old and I'm telling you what now.
So you know when you when your first name is Joseph,
but you go by your middle name Kale, I mean,
it's an issue when you go to fill out paper,
you know, you go to the doctor's office, or you
fill out the you know, to get a new credit card,
(01:37):
and okay, what's your first name? Well, my first name
is Joseph, but I go by Kale. I mean, it's
an issue. I'm telling you what now. It's it is.
It has drove me crazy for fifty two years and
still to this day. Whenever I fill out formed for something,
it's like, okay, do I put Joseph or do I
put Kale. But I will tell you this, and let
(01:57):
me ask you this, Craig, where do you think the
name Kale came from? Now? My parents? In my it
was really from my dad. And this was nineteen seventy
two when I was born. Where do you think he
got the name Kale. I'm gonna give you two guests, Okay,
two guests, and they are sports related?
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Oh boy, wow? And two guests is sports related? Nineteen
seventy two. Uh boy, I'm I'm just lost. I know
it's not for the for the vile weed that serves
as a vegetable in these days and age, because that
spelled with a K, that's right.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
And that has nothing to do with sports. It's a
sports figure and you'll know it when I tell you.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
You're gonna have to tell me. I'm at a complete
loss here.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Klee kle Yarborough, Oh, oh number two.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
Famous race car driver. So my dad was a great athlete.
He was all sick, quarterback, basketball player, baseball, went to
OSU play on scholarship for Henry I've been late fifties.
But he was also in the cars. So that's where
kale Yarborough came from. Or my name Cale came from
(03:13):
was from kale Yarborough. And I'll tell you this since then,
there's a lot of Kales that are running around here
in Oklahoma. And you know, when you have kids, it's
like a lot of people want to try to find
different names and they want to spell them different. And
Cale was, you know, just not a very popular name,
not a lot of them out there, and that's where
(03:35):
mine came from.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Well, and I would say this, knowing you the fighting
spirit you had, it might really epitomize the nineteen seventy
nine Daytona five hundred and kale Yarborough and Bobby Allison
got into a rep on the final lap and got
out of their cars and went to throwing haymakers at
one another while my hero Richard Petty the King slid
(03:57):
past him to win his seventh day total five hundred.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
On that, that's right, I would I would definitely agree
with you on that exactly.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Okay, all right, there you go.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
So So, Gail Gundy is we talked during SEC media
days in July. Let me ask you this, would it
be safe to say that this season so far for
the Sooners has and I'm not saying good bad, I'm
just saying has gone differently than you might have imagined
(04:27):
when we were talking about it.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Back in July.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
Well, I defensively, I felt like they were going to
be pretty good, and I think I think they're pretty
good now. You know, now, statistically they still have some issues,
but they have twenty two players on the defensive side
of the ball that are the ones and twos that
(04:56):
play really hard. They can run and they will hit.
I mean I mean they can roll in twenty two
guys that that it didn't matter if they're the first
one or the second one that are that are pretty
pretty good. And with brit Vinible's defense, his defense is
built to stop the run. That's what they want to
stop the run, stop to run, soft to run. The
(05:16):
weakness is in the back end. The weakness is uh,
you know, really emphasizing stopping the run and sometimes run blisses,
putting some guys on islands and leaving some areas in
the back end where big pass plays can can really
hurt them. And it has I mean they're I think
(05:37):
there there there run defense uh oh, us run defenses
twenty seven in their past defense is seventy fifth right now.
So offensively, we did not know that this was going
to happen. I think I told you, Craig this summer
that the strength of this Oklahoma offense was going to
be their receiving corps. We didn't know that they were
going to lose one of their top five receivers in
(05:59):
fall camp. We didn't know that they were gonna lose
their second top receiver, uh in the first game. We
didn't know that the another one of the top receivers
has just had, you know, just some kind of tissue
issues he's been dealing with and hasn't played in Nick Anderson,
who had the winning touchdowns scoring touchdown catch last year
(06:22):
in the Cockon Bowl Game. He hasn't hardly played in
walmout play, I don't think the rest of the season.
And then their best receiver who was here, who's a
transfer beyond Burks, who's been hurt uh for the last
two or three weeks. I don't know if he will
be back in the game. So, you know, I didn't
expect all this to happen, and I thought that Jackson
(06:43):
Arnold would be a little bit further along, even though
he's still a young quarterback, even though he's still a
red shirt freshman. He has it's been tough on him.
They've had a lot of offensive lineman injuries, a lot
of wide receiver injuries, and it's just been man, it's
just all came down piling on him, and I think
he's kind of took He's the guy that that has
(07:06):
taken the rap for this, and I don't think it's
all his fault. So, you know, defensively, I thought they
were going to be like this offensively. I did not
expect this, but just everything is kind of unfolded, and
they're slowly trying to get some guys back. I just
don't know if they can get as many back that
they need.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Busy McHale Gundhy here on sports Radio AM thirteen. Hey,
by the way, I'm I'm disappointed I missed out on
Gundy Monday yesterday. There, that's the every Monday you do
at a sports bar. What it one's seventy eighth in
Western every week every well.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
Else, Yes, So Louis Restaurants, there's a there's a man
here who lives here in town House Smith Him's it's
called House Smith's Restaurant Groups and has a whole bunch
of different restaurants in the state of Oklahoma. So they
have bought my day. So every I go to different
Louis throughout the state and do my show from liven
(08:01):
to two, and then today I had one with the
Johnny's Kitchen a bar, which is a restaurant in Oklahoma City.
And then on Wednesdays I go to Mathi's Home, which
is one of the largest furniture stores in the United States.
So I've been very fortunate it's been fun. Three days.
Not as much as I can do, Craig, I'm telling you,
it's a lot of work, you know. I somebody came
(08:22):
on the radio day said, you know, okay, you do
a great job. I mean you we need you to
do this five days a week. I'm like, well, I
do not want to do this five days. So, I mean,
it's just too much work. It's you know, it's just
it's you know, it's tough to get on there and
continually to have to talk about stuff for three hours,
you know, and uh, to have to do it every day. Now,
if you spread it out a couple of days a
(08:43):
week or three days, it's not that bad. But it is.
I'm I'm learning that it is a it's it's it's
a lot of work. I enjoy it. I love sports.
I love all sports. I mean I love Nascar, I
love Formula one, I love softball, I love basketball, I mean,
you name it. I'm a fan of it. But it's
(09:03):
not it's not easy what this profession is.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
You made me smile when back in July when you
came on the program and you said, I have I
have discovered uh newfound respect for you guys.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Who grind this out every day.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Once I got into the business, you sit, yeah, you
got to work, and I was like, yeah, yeah, like
like anything else, I guess it requires, uh requires all right.
So what is the farthest away from Oklahoma City you've
had to do a show, like like for your your
regular stuff, not not like you know, coming to Dallas.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
Yeah, Tulsa. Just Tulsa, which is okay, not an hour
forty five minutes from from here. I live in in More,
which is just south of Oklahoma City, between Norman and
Okahma City. So about our our forty five I got you.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
Okay, big deal among the word and again I'm not
going to use the word surprise. Let me ask you
is what's been your impressions your impression of what you've
seen from Michael Hawkins so far?
Speaker 3 (10:02):
Well, Craig, I recruited his father, Okay, so we're gonna
start with that. I recruited Mike Hawkins out of RL
Turner High School, which was at the time coached by
a guy by name a Tim Beck, who I believe
since some time at Texas and I think he's the
head coach at Coastal Clarina, North Carolina. Was in Nebraska
and North Carolina state a lot of places, and his
(10:24):
father was a fabulous athlete. He played corner forest. He
was about six ' to one, about one hundred and
ninety five two hundred pounds, and I mean he was
a four to four guy. He could absolutely go well.
He stayed a year for US here at OU. It
was challenging for him to I believe, be coached by
(10:44):
coach Mike Stoops. They kind of hit it head to head.
So he left the program, went his own ways, had
some success in college, made his way to the NFL,
and played some time in the NFL. Anyways, I know
Mike is a person. I stayed friends with him ever since.
I know his upbringing and I know how he's raised
(11:07):
his son. He has he has put his son through,
uh a tough life of coaching, preparing a lot of
tough love, but put him in difficult situations, try to
prepare him for moments like this, that if he could
ever be this person in this spot, that he would
(11:28):
be as prepared as much as he possibly can be.
And I firmly believe that one percent. If you watch
this young man play, you know when he came in
versus Tennessee and his game versus Auburn, he remains very
very calm, very poised, and obviously he's a fabulous athlete.
He's very fast and he's just not a run around guy.
(11:51):
I mean, this guy can throw it. The first time
I saw him throw in the spring the first day,
just in in warmup, I was like, whoa. I mean,
this dude is just not a fast guy playing quarterback.
I mean he can he can rip it. I mean
he's got a quick release, he's accurate. So this this
young man has it. He has everything it takes. And
(12:14):
uh has been prepared for these moments. And Craig, he's
he was trained in high school by Kevin Murray, which
is Kyler Murray's father. And if you kind of know
Kyler and you know Kevin and know the Murray family, uh,
you know how they did things. I mean they do
it the hard way. They work hard, and they train hard,
and they love hard. So young man is as a
(12:34):
as a as a freshman, even though going in that
environment and I played in it as a true freshman.
You know it's people ask me today, well, how's he
going to handle playing in this environment? And and here's
my response, response to this, Craig, and people may think
I'm crazy for this. If if you come from uh,
(12:55):
were raised in and in sports all your life, always
played in championships and some of the biggest moments. For example, myself,
I played in the Little League World Series in Pennsylvania. Okay,
so when I'm eleven and twelve years old and you
have a chance to play in the Little League World
Series at eleven and twelve, that's the biggest moment of
your life. Okay. If you go to high school and
(13:17):
you have a chance to play in the state championship
baseball game, which I played in three, the state championship
football game, which I played in one, if you're sixteen, seventeen,
or eighteen, that's the biggest moment of your life. I
go to college playing tons of games, play baseball. Also
had a chance to pitch at Rosenblatt in the World
(13:39):
Series standing on that mound. That's the biggest moment of
your life. So even though this will be his biggest
moment of his life, if you come from a background
where you played in sporting events at the highest level
at that age, whatever that age is, whether it's eleven
and twelve or thirteen and fourteen or sixteen seventeen. I
(14:00):
think you're prepared for these moments. Yeah, you may get
caught up a little bit of it before driving in
on the bus, driving into the State Fair, but as
soon as that ball gets snapped, you forget all about that.
You literally forget all about that. If you've been in
those moments now, if you haven't been in those moments,
if you haven't played any state championships or World Series
(14:22):
or Little League World Series or whatever growing up, then
it is a big deal. But I think he's prepared
for the moment, I really do.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
I want to ask you one other thing, and it's
similar to what you just talked about. Speaking of r
L Turner, certainly, one of their most famous graduates was
Bill Montgomery. You played quarterback at Arkansas there in the
shootout in sixty nine. And then another famous graduate is
our broadcast parter Keith Morland, who works with us on
baseball and worked with me on football as well, and
(14:50):
he played quarterback at RL Turner as well. But Keith
always told the story about you know, coach Royle recruited
him as a defensive back and he played two seasons
in the as a defensive back for Texas in addition
to being an All America Baseball player. But he played,
and he mentioned the fact that Keith of course went
(15:12):
on and played in the major leagues for twelve years.
He stood at home plate in the nineteen eighty World
Series with the Philadelphia Phillies. He came up as a
pinch hitter and there he was standing at home plate.
But Keith to this day will tell you that when
he stood at plate, when your feet or feel like
they're off the ground, he said, I felt this before,
(15:32):
and it was the tunnel of the Cotton Bowl before Texas.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Owe you, did you have that kind of feeling?
Speaker 3 (15:39):
Oh yeah, there's no doubt that, Craig. When we played
back in the early nineties, before before the you know,
when teams warmed up, they come back in the locker room,
and when the teams came back down for the kickoff,
you used to walk up and down. You used to
walk down the ramps side by side. So ou in
Texas you could literally you could hold you could have
(16:01):
held hands, and you can't do that nowadays. I mean,
there'd be brawls in any any college environment or NFL
environment before a game. But back then there was such
great respect for the game. Now there was a lot
of stuff that was said walking down there, but it
was just a different environment and it is I mean,
(16:23):
I can you know, we've all been there, just you
know where there were a great place by ou or
or Texas, and you can feel the vibration of the stadium.
I mean you literally literally can. And then when you
watch it on Sunday or Monday back back in college,
the video, the camera when the great plays happened, everything
(16:43):
is just shaken. It's like an earthquake has taken place.
So I mean, just unbelievable experience. It is one of
the greatest environments of all time. You know, driving into
the stadium and the buses used to be my most favorite.
And back then when before they used to have securities
out there or roped it off. I mean people would
just be banging on the bus and you know, people
(17:06):
would be giving you the number one finger or they'd
be giving you the middle finger. I mean, it was
one of the two. There's nothing else. There was just
one of those two. But it is one of the
great moments of all time. There's no doubt playing in
that cotton bow.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
He's Kale Gundhy, former Oklahoma Sooners quarterback and now in
our senior undersided world of radio, and it's always great
to visit with him.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
Cale.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
I appreciate you taking the time. I look forward to
seeing you on Saturday down there in Dallas.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
Well, you're not going to see me. That is one
place I do not want to go back into as
a fan. It was difficult enough just trying to trying
to get through the fair, and then difficult enough trying
to come out of the press box after the game
and just trying to get into the locker room. So
I've got work and duty calls up here, so I'll
just make sure and stay in the AC and watch
(17:54):
you guys. I wish you the best and look forward
to talking to you tomorrow on our show up here.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
You bet we'll do. Kale, thanks for the time. I
appreciate it, Yes, sir, all right, that's Kale Gundy. Always
a pleasure to visit with and he always tells him
like it is as well. Let's right, I'm not going
down there, all right. Coming up, we have today's edition
of Inconceivable here on Sports Radio AM thirteen under the
Zone in the iHeartRadio app
You know, it was thirty one years ago that Oklahoma
defeated Texas there in Fair Park.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
They won at thirty eight seventeen.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
It was John Nacovic's second year as head coach, the
first year Texas won the contest, but Oklahoma won and
they were directed by quarterback Joseph cale Gundhy, star of
the Oklahoma Senters, later on the coaching staff and now
a star of radio. I'm a sports animal. They're in
Oklahoma City and he joins us on the hot line
(00:33):
right now. Does anybody even still call you Joseph any more?
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Yeah, Oh yeah all the time.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
So mainly people that family members and friends of mine
that I grew up with. My mother would always call
me Joseph, who she's no longer with us anymore. But
if Mom said Joseph, that meant I was in trouble,
I did something wrong. But you know, mainly people that
(01:02):
I grew up with and family refer to me as
Joseph still to this day.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Okay, when did it kind of morphin? Everybody just calling
you Kale? Was that in elementary school? Middle school? High school?
When did when did people just get used to calling
you Kale? The middle name.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Well, so so, Craig, this is been an ongoing deal.
I'm fifty two years old and I'm telling you what now.
So you know when you when your first name is Joseph,
but you go by your middle name Kale, I mean,
it's an issue when you go to fill out paper,
you know, you go to the doctor's office, or you
fill out the you know, to get a new credit card,
(01:37):
and okay, what's your first name? Well, my first name
is Joseph, but I go by Kale. I mean, it's
an issue. I'm telling you what now. It's it is.
It has drove me crazy for fifty two years and
still to this day. Whenever I fill out formed for something,
it's like, okay, do I put Joseph or do I
put Kale. But I will tell you this, and let
(01:57):
me ask you this, Craig, where do you think the
name Kale came from? Now? My parents? In my it
was really from my dad. And this was nineteen seventy
two when I was born. Where do you think he
got the name Kale. I'm gonna give you two guests, Okay,
two guests, and they are sports related?
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Oh boy, wow? And two guests is sports related? Nineteen
seventy two. Uh boy, I'm I'm just lost. I know
it's not for the for the vile weed that serves
as a vegetable in these days and age, because that
spelled with a K, that's right.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
And that has nothing to do with sports. It's a
sports figure and you'll know it when I tell you.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
You're gonna have to tell me. I'm at a complete
loss here.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Klee kle Yarborough, Oh, oh number two.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
Famous race car driver. So my dad was a great athlete.
He was all sick, quarterback, basketball player, baseball, went to
OSU play on scholarship for Henry I've been late fifties.
But he was also in the cars. So that's where
kale Yarborough came from. Or my name Cale came from
(03:13):
was from kale Yarborough. And I'll tell you this since then,
there's a lot of Kales that are running around here
in Oklahoma. And you know, when you have kids, it's
like a lot of people want to try to find
different names and they want to spell them different. And
Cale was, you know, just not a very popular name,
not a lot of them out there, and that's where
(03:35):
mine came from.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Well, and I would say this, knowing you the fighting
spirit you had, it might really epitomize the nineteen seventy
nine Daytona five hundred and kale Yarborough and Bobby Allison
got into a rep on the final lap and got
out of their cars and went to throwing haymakers at
one another while my hero Richard Petty the King slid
(03:57):
past him to win his seventh day total five hundred.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
On that, that's right, I would I would definitely agree
with you on that exactly.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Okay, all right, there you go.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
So So, Gail Gundy is we talked during SEC media
days in July. Let me ask you this, would it
be safe to say that this season so far for
the Sooners has and I'm not saying good bad, I'm
just saying has gone differently than you might have imagined
(04:27):
when we were talking about it.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Back in July.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
Well, I defensively, I felt like they were going to
be pretty good, and I think I think they're pretty
good now. You know, now, statistically they still have some issues,
but they have twenty two players on the defensive side
of the ball that are the ones and twos that
(04:56):
play really hard. They can run and they will hit.
I mean I mean they can roll in twenty two
guys that that it didn't matter if they're the first
one or the second one that are that are pretty
pretty good. And with brit Vinible's defense, his defense is
built to stop the run. That's what they want to
stop the run, stop to run, soft to run. The
(05:16):
weakness is in the back end. The weakness is uh,
you know, really emphasizing stopping the run and sometimes run blisses,
putting some guys on islands and leaving some areas in
the back end where big pass plays can can really
hurt them. And it has I mean they're I think
(05:37):
there there there run defense uh oh, us run defenses
twenty seven in their past defense is seventy fifth right now.
So offensively, we did not know that this was going
to happen. I think I told you, Craig this summer
that the strength of this Oklahoma offense was going to
be their receiving corps. We didn't know that they were
going to lose one of their top five receivers in
(05:59):
fall camp. We didn't know that they were gonna lose
their second top receiver, uh in the first game. We
didn't know that the another one of the top receivers
has just had, you know, just some kind of tissue
issues he's been dealing with and hasn't played in Nick Anderson,
who had the winning touchdowns scoring touchdown catch last year
(06:22):
in the Cockon Bowl Game. He hasn't hardly played in
walmout play, I don't think the rest of the season.
And then their best receiver who was here, who's a
transfer beyond Burks, who's been hurt uh for the last
two or three weeks. I don't know if he will
be back in the game. So, you know, I didn't
expect all this to happen, and I thought that Jackson
(06:43):
Arnold would be a little bit further along, even though
he's still a young quarterback, even though he's still a
red shirt freshman. He has it's been tough on him.
They've had a lot of offensive lineman injuries, a lot
of wide receiver injuries, and it's just been man, it's
just all came down piling on him, and I think
he's kind of took He's the guy that that has
(07:06):
taken the rap for this, and I don't think it's
all his fault. So, you know, defensively, I thought they
were going to be like this offensively. I did not
expect this, but just everything is kind of unfolded, and
they're slowly trying to get some guys back. I just
don't know if they can get as many back that
they need.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Busy McHale Gundhy here on sports Radio AM thirteen. Hey,
by the way, I'm I'm disappointed I missed out on
Gundy Monday yesterday. There, that's the every Monday you do
at a sports bar. What it one's seventy eighth in
Western every week every well.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
Else, Yes, So Louis Restaurants, there's a there's a man
here who lives here in town House Smith Him's it's
called House Smith's Restaurant Groups and has a whole bunch
of different restaurants in the state of Oklahoma. So they
have bought my day. So every I go to different
Louis throughout the state and do my show from liven
(08:01):
to two, and then today I had one with the
Johnny's Kitchen a bar, which is a restaurant in Oklahoma City.
And then on Wednesdays I go to Mathi's Home, which
is one of the largest furniture stores in the United States.
So I've been very fortunate it's been fun. Three days.
Not as much as I can do, Craig, I'm telling you,
it's a lot of work, you know. I somebody came
(08:22):
on the radio day said, you know, okay, you do
a great job. I mean you we need you to
do this five days a week. I'm like, well, I
do not want to do this five days. So, I mean,
it's just too much work. It's you know, it's just
it's you know, it's tough to get on there and
continually to have to talk about stuff for three hours,
you know, and uh, to have to do it every day. Now,
if you spread it out a couple of days a
(08:43):
week or three days, it's not that bad. But it is.
I'm I'm learning that it is a it's it's it's
a lot of work. I enjoy it. I love sports.
I love all sports. I mean I love Nascar, I
love Formula one, I love softball, I love basketball, I mean,
you name it. I'm a fan of it. But it's
(09:03):
not it's not easy what this profession is.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
You made me smile when back in July when you
came on the program and you said, I have I
have discovered uh newfound respect for you guys.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Who grind this out every day.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Once I got into the business, you sit, yeah, you
got to work, and I was like, yeah, yeah, like
like anything else, I guess it requires, uh requires all right.
So what is the farthest away from Oklahoma City you've
had to do a show, like like for your your
regular stuff, not not like you know, coming to Dallas.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
Yeah, Tulsa. Just Tulsa, which is okay, not an hour
forty five minutes from from here. I live in in More,
which is just south of Oklahoma City, between Norman and
Okahma City. So about our our forty five I got you.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
Okay, big deal among the word and again I'm not
going to use the word surprise. Let me ask you
is what's been your impressions your impression of what you've
seen from Michael Hawkins so far?
Speaker 3 (10:02):
Well, Craig, I recruited his father, Okay, so we're gonna
start with that. I recruited Mike Hawkins out of RL
Turner High School, which was at the time coached by
a guy by name a Tim Beck, who I believe
since some time at Texas and I think he's the
head coach at Coastal Clarina, North Carolina. Was in Nebraska
and North Carolina state a lot of places, and his
(10:24):
father was a fabulous athlete. He played corner forest. He
was about six ' to one, about one hundred and
ninety five two hundred pounds, and I mean he was
a four to four guy. He could absolutely go well.
He stayed a year for US here at OU. It
was challenging for him to I believe, be coached by
(10:44):
coach Mike Stoops. They kind of hit it head to head.
So he left the program, went his own ways, had
some success in college, made his way to the NFL,
and played some time in the NFL. Anyways, I know
Mike is a person. I stayed friends with him ever since.
I know his upbringing and I know how he's raised
(11:07):
his son. He has he has put his son through,
uh a tough life of coaching, preparing a lot of
tough love, but put him in difficult situations, try to
prepare him for moments like this, that if he could
ever be this person in this spot, that he would
(11:28):
be as prepared as much as he possibly can be.
And I firmly believe that one percent. If you watch
this young man play, you know when he came in
versus Tennessee and his game versus Auburn, he remains very
very calm, very poised, and obviously he's a fabulous athlete.
He's very fast and he's just not a run around guy.
(11:51):
I mean, this guy can throw it. The first time
I saw him throw in the spring the first day,
just in in warmup, I was like, whoa. I mean,
this dude is just not a fast guy playing quarterback.
I mean he can he can rip it. I mean
he's got a quick release, he's accurate. So this this
young man has it. He has everything it takes. And
(12:14):
uh has been prepared for these moments. And Craig, he's
he was trained in high school by Kevin Murray, which
is Kyler Murray's father. And if you kind of know
Kyler and you know Kevin and know the Murray family, uh,
you know how they did things. I mean they do
it the hard way. They work hard, and they train hard,
and they love hard. So young man is as a
(12:34):
as a as a freshman, even though going in that
environment and I played in it as a true freshman.
You know it's people ask me today, well, how's he
going to handle playing in this environment? And and here's
my response, response to this, Craig, and people may think
I'm crazy for this. If if you come from uh,
(12:55):
were raised in and in sports all your life, always
played in championships and some of the biggest moments. For example, myself,
I played in the Little League World Series in Pennsylvania. Okay,
so when I'm eleven and twelve years old and you
have a chance to play in the Little League World
Series at eleven and twelve, that's the biggest moment of
your life. Okay. If you go to high school and
(13:17):
you have a chance to play in the state championship
baseball game, which I played in three, the state championship
football game, which I played in one, if you're sixteen, seventeen,
or eighteen, that's the biggest moment of your life. I
go to college playing tons of games, play baseball. Also
had a chance to pitch at Rosenblatt in the World
(13:39):
Series standing on that mound. That's the biggest moment of
your life. So even though this will be his biggest
moment of his life, if you come from a background
where you played in sporting events at the highest level
at that age, whatever that age is, whether it's eleven
and twelve or thirteen and fourteen or sixteen seventeen. I
(14:00):
think you're prepared for these moments. Yeah, you may get
caught up a little bit of it before driving in
on the bus, driving into the State Fair, but as
soon as that ball gets snapped, you forget all about that.
You literally forget all about that. If you've been in
those moments now, if you haven't been in those moments,
if you haven't played any state championships or World Series
(14:22):
or Little League World Series or whatever growing up, then
it is a big deal. But I think he's prepared
for the moment, I really do.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
I want to ask you one other thing, and it's
similar to what you just talked about. Speaking of r
L Turner, certainly, one of their most famous graduates was
Bill Montgomery. You played quarterback at Arkansas there in the
shootout in sixty nine. And then another famous graduate is
our broadcast parter Keith Morland, who works with us on
baseball and worked with me on football as well, and
(14:50):
he played quarterback at RL Turner as well. But Keith
always told the story about you know, coach Royle recruited
him as a defensive back and he played two seasons
in the as a defensive back for Texas in addition
to being an All America Baseball player. But he played,
and he mentioned the fact that Keith of course went
(15:12):
on and played in the major leagues for twelve years.
He stood at home plate in the nineteen eighty World
Series with the Philadelphia Phillies. He came up as a
pinch hitter and there he was standing at home plate.
But Keith to this day will tell you that when
he stood at plate, when your feet or feel like
they're off the ground, he said, I felt this before,
(15:32):
and it was the tunnel of the Cotton Bowl before Texas.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Owe you, did you have that kind of feeling?
Speaker 3 (15:39):
Oh yeah, there's no doubt that, Craig. When we played
back in the early nineties, before before the you know,
when teams warmed up, they come back in the locker room,
and when the teams came back down for the kickoff,
you used to walk up and down. You used to
walk down the ramps side by side. So ou in
Texas you could literally you could hold you could have
(16:01):
held hands, and you can't do that nowadays. I mean,
there'd be brawls in any any college environment or NFL
environment before a game. But back then there was such
great respect for the game. Now there was a lot
of stuff that was said walking down there, but it
was just a different environment and it is I mean,
(16:23):
I can you know, we've all been there, just you
know where there were a great place by ou or
or Texas, and you can feel the vibration of the stadium.
I mean you literally literally can. And then when you
watch it on Sunday or Monday back back in college,
the video, the camera when the great plays happened, everything
(16:43):
is just shaken. It's like an earthquake has taken place.
So I mean, just unbelievable experience. It is one of
the greatest environments of all time. You know, driving into
the stadium and the buses used to be my most favorite.
And back then when before they used to have securities
out there or roped it off. I mean people would
just be banging on the bus and you know, people
(17:06):
would be giving you the number one finger or they'd
be giving you the middle finger. I mean, it was
one of the two. There's nothing else. There was just
one of those two. But it is one of the
great moments of all time. There's no doubt playing in
that cotton bow.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
He's Kale Gundhy, former Oklahoma Sooners quarterback and now in
our senior undersided world of radio, and it's always great
to visit with him.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
Cale.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
I appreciate you taking the time. I look forward to
seeing you on Saturday down there in Dallas.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
Well, you're not going to see me. That is one
place I do not want to go back into as
a fan. It was difficult enough just trying to trying
to get through the fair, and then difficult enough trying
to come out of the press box after the game
and just trying to get into the locker room. So
I've got work and duty calls up here, so I'll
just make sure and stay in the AC and watch
(17:54):
you guys. I wish you the best and look forward
to talking to you tomorrow on our show up here.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
You bet we'll do. Kale, thanks for the time. I
appreciate it, Yes, sir, all right, that's Kale Gundy. Always
a pleasure to visit with and he always tells him
like it is as well. Let's right, I'm not going
down there, all right. Coming up, we have today's edition
of Inconceivable here on Sports Radio AM thirteen under the
Zone in the iHeartRadio app
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