Oklahoma assistant football coach Cale Gundy RESIGNS after using ‘shameful’ language in film session

University of Oklahoma assistant head football coach and former Sooners quarterback Cale Gundy resigned Sunday after admitting to using ‘shameful’ language during a film session last week.

Gundy, the brother of Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy, announced his resignation in a social media post, insisting that the offending word ‘was not malicious; it wasn´t even intentional.’

‘Still, I am mature enough to know that the word I said was shameful and hurtful, no matter what my intentions,’ Cale Gundy said in his statement.

Gundy was the Sooners’ quarterback from 1990 until 1993, finishing with more than 6,000 passing yards and 35 touchdowns. He’s also worked as an assistant coach at the University of Alabama-Birmingham. He stepped down as an assistant coach in a statement on Sunday (right)

The incident took place during a recent film session when the assistant coach found one player distracted and looking at his iPad, Cale Gundy said in his statement. He then picked up the device and read a word off the screen that he now acknowledges he ‘should never – under any circumstance – have uttered.’

Gundy said he was ‘horrified’ upon realizing what he had said.

‘The unfortunate reality is that someone in my position can cause harm without ever meaning to do so. In that circumstance, a man of character accepts accountability,’ Gundy said. ‘I take responsibility for my mistake. I apologize.’

The word itself and the context around its use have not been revealed.

Gundy was the Sooners’ quarterback from 1990 until 1993, finishing with more than 6,000 passing yards and 35 touchdowns. He’s also worked as an assistant coach at the University of Alabama-Birmingham.

Now-former Sooners coach Bob Stoops hired Gundy to coach the team’s running backs in 1998.

Oklahoma coach Brent Venables also released a statement saying anyone connected with the program is ‘accountable’ for his or her actions.

‘It´s with sadness that I accept coach Gundy´s resignation,’ Venables said. ‘He´s dedicated more than half his life to Oklahoma football and has served our program and university well. We’re thankful for that commitment.’

Offensive coordinator Cale Gundy of the Oklahoma Sooners greets his brother, head coach Mike Gundy of the Oklahoma State Cowboys, before their game at Boone Pickens Stadium on November 27, 2021 in Stillwater, Oklahoma

The Gundy family is accustomed to controversy.

Mike, who was the quarterback at rival Oklahoma State before becoming the Cowboys coach in 2005, was accused of using the n-word at an African-American Colorado player in 1989.

Alfred Williams, a former star linebacker at Colorado and NFL player, retold the story to The Oklahoman in 2020, adding that he would like an apology and hopes to see ‘some growth’ from Gundy, whom he does not want to be fired.

‘I remember that it was the first time that the University of Colorado beat Oklahoma State while I was there,’ Williams told The Oklahoman on Wednesday night. ‘It was a big win. It really was a big win.

‘And I remember Mike Gundy called me the N-word. That’s what I remember.’

An Oklahoma State athletic department spokesman told the Daily Mail that Gundy would not comment on the accusation, which was first revealed after that game.

Williams’s allegations were corroborated by several teammates and himself following Colorado’s 41-17 win over the Cowboys in Stillwater, Oklahoma on November 12, 1989.

‘He said it to me and a couple of other guys on the field,’ linebacker Kanavis McGhee told The Oklahoman at the time. ‘It got me real upset.

‘Here’s a guy in the spotlight all the time, to say something like that is not cool at all. All it did was fire us up.’

Williams, Bruce Young and Okland Salavea also reported the allegation to the media at the time.

Gundy denied it to reporters after the game.

‘I didn’t say it,’ Gundy said. ‘It’s just not true. I’ve been here four years, and well over half of my friends are black.

‘I just did not say that; I wouldn’t say something like that.’

According to a St. Louis Dispatch article from the game, Gundy denied the accusations and told reporters that the Buffaloes players initiated the trash talking. He went on to tell the media to read a Sports Illustrated article about Colorado’s disciplinary problems within the football program.

Speaking with the Oklahoman on Wednesday, Williams said he had not seen Gundy’s denial until this week.

‘If he denies that he said (that), I have at least 20 people who will vouch for what happened that day.

‘I’m a little upset, because after 31 years I finally saw the story published in your papers out in Oklahoma,’ he continued, referring to The Oklahoman’s game story from 1989. ‘That was the first time I saw some of the responses to what I said.

‘In the St. Louis Dispatch he said, ‘Look at the University of Colorado and its players. They got rapists.’

Williams, who played nine NFL seasons, is not mentioned in the SI article and was not accused of any crime at Colorado.

Gundy became Oklahoma State’s offensive coordinator in 2001 and was promoted to the head coaching job at his alma mater in 2005. He has one Big 12 title and was named conference Coach of the Year in 2010.

As the accusations against Gundy resurfaced, so too did his denial from after the 41-17 loss 

According to a St. Louis Dispatch article from the game (left), Gundy denied the accusations and told reporters that the Buffaloes players initiated the trash talking. He went on to tell the media to read a Sports Illustrated article about Colorado’s disciplinary problems within the football program. Buffaloes teammates Alfred Williams, Kanavis McGhee Bruce Young and Okland Salavea reported the allegation to the media at the time, as seen in this 1989 article from The Oklahoman (right)