Oklahoma State’s Mike Gundy releases first ever coaching app
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Almost nine years since his infamous “I’m a man, I’m 40!” rant, Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy has given people a new reason to talk about him: He recently released the first head coaching app in professional or collegiate sports.
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“Coach Gundy felt like we had an opportunity to be one of the first programs to have a head coaching app,” said Chris Deal, OSU’s director of football creative services. “There’s an ‘Ask Gundy’ option within the app, so we’ve given it a personal touch. It’s also a great way for recruits and fans to connect with coach but also the Cowboy football program. We felt like it was a win-win to promote the program.”
While the Coach Gundy app is very much centered on the 49-year-old coach—with sections for his football camp, fan Q&A and a dedicated photo gallery—the app is also designed to connect fans and recruits with Oklahoma State football and the university as a whole.
According to Deal, Gundy helped drive the internal conversation earlier this summer about how the Cowboys could up the digital ante in college sports. A mobile app seemed like an all-encompassing medium to connect fans with the program, but more importantly, keep them connected 365 days a year.
Through work with an outside vendor in July and August, Deal chose from a management system the areas he wanted to develop, which included Cowboys in the NFL, All-Americans, staff members’ social media accounts and game notes.
Deal said that this will be his “pet project” for the 2016 campaign as he continues to fine-tune the app and update the statistics and game notes in real-time; he confirmed to SportTechie.com Monday morning that the app, which is available on iPhone and Android devices, received more 5,000 downloads in its first 24 hours.
