Prior to the Thursday release of a Sports Illustrated story detailing drug use within Oklahoma State’s football program, two players who recently completed their playing careers were asked about coach Mike Gundy’s stance on drug users.
Former defensive lineman Cooper Bassett indicated coaches try to rehabilitate players with drug issues.
“Coach Gundy and our staff, they don’t want to get rid of these kids that they tried so hard to bring in... and they spent so much time and money and effort bringing in,” Bassett, now a recruiting graduate assistant on the Missouri staff, said.
“They cared about the players that they had, but they were also fair (in dealing with drug issues.
If someone got in trouble, then they would kind of set them straight and get them counseling and get them on the right path, but if you continue to mess up and you continue to squander the second chances and opportunities, Gundy definitely wanted to get those guys out because they did nothing but hurt the program.”
Bassett said it’s “kind of funny” because when you go out in the real world and fail a drug test, you are out of a job.
“In a college football program, you fail a drug test and you get a second chance,” he said. (But) to say that coach Gundy was unfair is not the truth at all. He gave those guys a second chance and gave them counseling and if they continued to mess up and take for granted the second opportunities that he gave them, then they were removed from the program.”
Former defensive lineman Richetti Jones was asked if Gundy is “hard” on drug users and, before answering, sounded off on the big picture.
“Just to set the record straight, Oklahoma State doesn’t have any more drug use than guys have around the country in football programs anywhere,” Jones, who completed his eligibility in 2011, said.
“That’s just college. period. That’s just the world, period. And what gets me is you have people in the media that do drugs right now that are talking about athletes doing drugs. You have those same people that do drugs, but there is nobody to hold them accountable and there is not a microscope on them.”
Jones then said that he feels Gundy was “very fair” when it came to a drug policy.
“But the thing about it is, let’s be real about it,” Jones said.
“It’s against the law. It’s against the rules. It’s an illegal substance. So if you get caught doing it or using it, you are supposed to get in trouble. There is really not anything to talk about or debate about. Dude, you got caught smoking dope or doing pills or whatever it may be.
Whatever substance you abuse, you knew you weren’t supposed to do it and there are consequences to your actions, so what it is, is you are being held accountable, you know? Guys that fail drug tests over and over again, they got kicked off the team.”
Drug users were, of course, among the accusers in SI’s story about drug issues.
Said Jones, “Just like a job, eventually you will be terminated if continue to break rules or and you will lose your job. Now, when somebody asks you about that job, will you have anything good to say about it?
“That’s the same thing with these guys bad-mouthing Oklahoma State and trying to tear the program down. The question everybody needs to ask themselves when they read this article.... is you need to read the article and you need to ask yourself ‘who said this? What’s your source? Who’s it coming from?’ It’s coming from people who have nothing good to say about Oklahoma State because their lives are messed up or their lives are not where they want them to be because they got kicked off Oklahoma State’s football team. But they have no one to blame but themselves.”
OSU football investigation
On Monday, Oklahoma State announced the hiring of Charles E. Smrt to lead an independent review of alleged misconduct in the OSU football program.
