How Mike Gundy, High School Football Rejuvenated Clint Bowen

BY MARSHALL SCOTT | Pistols Firing Blog

STILLWATER — More than a decade ago, Mike Gundy gave Clint Bowen some advice that, all these years later, Bowen said the former Cowboy coach was right about.

Bowen was named Oklahoma State’s interim defensive coordinator on Sunday, following a week of tumultuous events within the OSU football program that resulted in the dismissal of Gundy and first-year defensive coordinator Todd Grantham from the program.

Bowen, who had coached on Kansas’ staff in some capacity for the better part of the last 20 years, said that around 2011 or 2012, Gundy was trying to get him on staff at Stillwater.

“He got kind of mad at me for a situation there, for not coming,” Bowen said. “And what’s ironic about it is everything he told me at that time was exactly right, like it played out exactly like he said.”

What did Gundy tell him?

“That basically I needed to break away from Kansas,” Bowen said. “Sometimes you gotta get away from your comfort zone and go do something to expand in this profession. He was exactly right. I didn’t listen. And then every time I saw Oklahoma State going to a bowl game, and me and my wife watching TV, she’s like, ‘Yeah, great choice.’ So I lived with that for about 10 years of watching Oklahoma State win 10 games and go to bowl games while I was sitting home at Christmas. So, coach was right on that. 

“So, yeah, to be here, and then to come back around this time, and for coach to give me the opportunity to come back at this time, I was really appreciative. And he looked out for me and helped me out. And so it worked out good. I didn’t want this to be the scenario. I was hoping I’d come here and work for Coach Gundy until we both gave this thing up. But this business kind of heads that way sometimes.”

Bowen was a defensive back in Lawrence in the early ’90s. Since then, he has taken part in 20 seasons on the Jayhawks’ staff in some capacity, only leaving in 2010 and 2011 to coordinate the defenses at Western Kentucky and North Texas, respectively.

The 2019 season was Bowen’s last with KU, but not in Lawrence. After the 2020 season saw him take a second stint as North Texas’ DC, Bowen returned to be the head coach at Lawrence High School.

It sounded as if the changing times of the college game had taken their toll on Bowen. He discussed how the 2020 North Texas team had made the Myrtle Beach Bowl, but they were having a hard time getting players to want to play in that game because it was scheduled for over Christmas. He was sacrificing his own family time to try to get guys to play in a bowl game.

The following year was his oldest son’s senior season, and Bowen elected to jump down to the high school ranks despite calling it “kind of a career killer” in terms of his college coaching aspirations.

It turns out that move helped reinvigorate Bowen’s passion for the game.

“Going back to the high school level honestly saved me,” Bowen said. “Because I was in a ‘college football is not for me.’ You go back to high school, you learn that kids play high school football because that’s their best friend, that’s his best friend, they care about each other. It brings you back to what football is truly about. You want to impact kids’ lives? In high school, you still do.”

Bowen called high school coaches “the most amazing humans,” with their ability to fundraise for things as simple as cleats and food and to be willing to drive players home from practices.

“It brought me back down to really the core of my philosophy,” Bowen said. “I’m here to help those players, and if I gained anything from being in high school to going back now, I’ve brought myself back to an attitude where this is about this players. This isn’t about me. This is about helping those young men reach their goals and fulfill their dreams. And high school really brought me back to that because it opens your eyes that a lot of kids just play this game because it’s a fun game to play. They don’t care about all the other stuff. They just want to be with their buddies, have fun, run through the damn tunnels, see the cheerleaders and their families, and it’s awesome.”

“It really rejuvenated me and brought me back to what this game always meant.”