Jacob Unruh

The Oklahoman

STILLWATER, Okla — Oklahoma State football coach Mike Gundy issued a statement Saturday afternoon apologizing for comments on the coronavirus pandemic during a teleconference Tuesday.

"I have been made aware that comments from my press conference have offended some," Gundy said in the written statement. "It was never my intention to offend anyone and I apologize. My first priority is and will always be the student-athletes and doing what is best for the program and the university."

On Tuesday, Gundy unveiled a plan with the hope to start bringing staff members back on campus around May 1 and players soon after, with testing for COVID-19 provided to everybody.

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That led to a firestorm for the veteran coach.

He also emphasized the financial impact of football returning and said players could "fight it off with their natural body, the antibodies and build that they have."

Gundy's full quote:

"The NCAA, the presidents of the universities, the conference commissioners, the athletic directors all need to be meeting right now, and we need to start coming up with answers," Gundy said. "In my opinion, if we have to bring our players back, test them. They're in good shape, they're all 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 years old, they're healthy. A lot of them can fight it off with their natural body, the antibodies and build that they have. There's some people that are asymptomatic.

"If that's true, then yeah, we sequester them. And people say, 'That's crazy.' No, it's not crazy, because we need to continue to budget and run money through the state of Oklahoma."