Oklahoma State University Athletics
Gundy, Cowboys Meet With Media
October 05, 2009 | Cowboy Football
Oct. 5, 2009
STILLWATER, Okla. – Oklahoma State football coach Mike Gundy and selected Cowboy players visited with members of the media at Boone Pickens Stadium Monday to talk about Saturday's game at Texas A&M. Here are some of the highlights of what they said: Head Coach Mike Gundy On getting back to play after the bye week “We are back to work. We had a nice break for the coaches and the players. We're looking forward to conference play and a very challenging game. Texas A&M is blitzing a lot on defense and playing with a very fast pace on offense. Their quarterback and tailback are making plays for them. We need a good week of practice. We need to prepare to play four quarters and be sound in all three phases.” On injured players “We have placed everybody on a day-to-day basis and hopefully we'll get some of those guys back. They've been running. Some guys have practiced and it's just a day-to-day basis if we'll get some of those guys back.” On using young players to fill slots on special teams “Injuries affect your special teams greatly, even more so than a depth chart on offense and defense. I'd mentioned that a few weeks ago. This is a little bit of an unusual situation for us from the fact that when you prepare for special teams, you have to have two-deep in every phase of the game. You use players that don't have as much experience in that area or players that don't have much experience competing at all. Anytime there's a player affected by an injury, you can't do anything about it. All you've got to do is put the next guy in there.” On the fast-paced offensive style of Texas A&M “They're as fast-ball, speed-ball as you can get. In watching them on tape, they're trying to play very fast. It's considerably different than what they were last year. It has some similarities to what you're seeing throughout the country in college football. They want to play very fast. I think they want to keep the defense on the run and limit substitutions. They certainly want to play with a lot of pressure and just continue at full speed.” On defensive specialist Von Miller “The guy is very good. They use him in a lot of different areas. They'll put him on the outside; they'll bring him to the inside. They move him around and try to create mismatches in a pass rush situation. I've seen 7, 8 or 9 sacks on tape already. I don't know how many he has. He has a lot of hurries and he's made a lot of hits on the quarterback. He's a very good player.” On Texas A&M's game against Arkansas “The game was somewhat deceiving in the score. Arkansas hit three or four big plays that changed the game. If you take four plays out, the game is completely different. They hit them on a big pass play, they hit them on a big run late, they caught them in a mismatch and the score got lopsided. If you just watch the rest of the game, the score is not that lopsided.” On facing Texas A&M defensive coordinator Joe Kines “The guy has been around a long time and coached a lot of ball. He's very knowledgeable. He's kind of one of the founding fathers of the three-down blitzing package. He's doing a lot of that now and he did a lot of that last year. I remember years ago people talking about the three-down and him being involved in the start of it. They're doing the same types of blitzes and defensive structure now that goes back to that three-down. We've gone against him several times.” LB Andre Sexton WR Isaiah Anderson On playing in his home state of Texas On the Grambling game getting the Cowboys back on track On the bye week On the conference's losses last week
On if he feels better about playing Texas A&M after its loss to Arkansas
“It didn't really matter. It was good for them to get a challenge and just see how they respond to that. I'm sure we'll break down the film with our coaches today and see what we can do to attack them.”
On what Oklahoma State worked on in the bye week
“Getting back to the fundamentals on defense. Just tackling and working on blitzes and timing up things. We're getting a lot of young guys in there to get some reps and we're letting some of the older people that are banged up get some rest time and a chance to recover and be fresh going into the start of conference.”
On how he feels about Oklahoma State's chances in conference play
“We feel very confident. We started out the season with a great win against Georgia. We had a slip up against U of H, but after that we've corrected the things that we had problems with against U of H and we've continued to get better each week and I think that's just how we're just going to continue to do it in conference and work on our mistakes. That gave us another opportunity to focus on the little things that we weren't doing well on defense and on offense and on special teams and just polish up some things so that we'll be ready come time to play A&M.”
S Lucien Antoine
On the difference in the game since it's the conference opener
“The reason that it's way different from the beginning is that it's more exciting. You know that you're playing for the Big 12 Championship, you can't lose a game. If you lose a game you're going to go toward the bottom. This week is just more of a challenge, like every game. Every game is a challenge, but I think from now on, every game we play it feels like we have to win.”
On the atmosphere at Kyle Field
“I heard a couple things about it. In my own opinion, I'm not really focused on all the outside stuff. I'm focusing on the game and just what we've got to do to bring the win back to Oklahoma State.”
On how good Texas A&M is after losing to Arkansas
“I expect that they're a better team. A team is going to lose some games. They're not going to be perfect the whole year. We're not going to look at that game and say, 'Man they're not as good as we think they are.' I think they're a good team and we're going to prepare well to get ready for them.”
On the atmosphere at Texas A&M
“Our coaches already emphasized it's going to be loud down there so we have to just pay attention to what's going on; pay attention on the sideline. We'll probably practice with noise this week so we can be prepared to go down there.”
“Every time we go to Texas I have friends down there that talk a little noise to me and try to make me nervous going down there. I tell them that's where I'm from and they've got me here for a reason, so I'm here to make plays.”
“I feel like that just put us on the track that we needed to be on, just getting the fast start. That's what our offense is known for. So as long as we just keep doing that throughout the season we'll be OK.”
“I think we needed last week just for everybody to get their legs back. We've been going non-stop since two-a-days. We really needed this break as a team just to get back together and get healthy.”
FB Bryant Ward
On if he would have ever imagined Oklahoma State would have the number of injuries it's had
“No, we've had a lot. It's unfortunate, but it does happen and it's just bad luck I guess.”
“I heard about it, but I didn't watch much football because it was bye week, and it's bye week from football. But watching them go down, you always have those games which kind of get away from you, so you can't really just put it on one game. It's football. The thing about it nowadays, some teams have a lot of players. Back in the day, it was certain teams dominated every year, but now, it's like everyone's getting some players. So if you're not on your game then someone can easily sneak up and get you.”
On if this week is a chance to make a statement
“Yeah I think so. We got healthy and we had a week off. Not everyone's healed up, but it did help out. We need to go out there and get it done, especially since we're not going to have another break until after the bowl game.”
On his special teams contributions
“It's exciting. Sometimes I just happen to be there. It's not like I've done anything extremely special, but to me it's something extremely important, so I try to get in position every time.”
