Oklahoma State University Athletics
Gundy Previews TCU
November 19, 2018 | Cowboy Football
STILLWATER – Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy met with members of the media Monday afternoon to discuss the Cowboys' final game of the regular season – a Saturday night clash with TCU in Fort Worth, Texas. Here's some of what the OSU head coach had to say:
Opening Statement:
"We had a good game last week. It was what we thought it was after looking at it. I'm just proud of the overall group effort. We played smart football and didn't have a lot of penalties. That gave us a chance to fight back and win. We'll need a good week this week. Obviously we're traveling down, playing Saturday night at TCU. Very, very good defense. They're fighting through a lot of injuries, especially on the offensive side of the ball. (TCU coach) Gary (Patterson) will get them ready to play and it will be a challenge, just like every other game we've played. I really like the attitude of our team and where we're at at this time."
On building off of Saturday's victory:
"Last week I told you guys that I just wanted us to play two games, back-to-back. Now we're going for the three-peat, and that's honestly what we said – 'Can you guys do it three weeks in a row?' And it's not just them, it's the coaches, too. They have to come up with good plans, be good instructors, good teachers. I have to be smart in my approach and then on game day it's 90 percent the players. It's everybody involved and so in the meeting last night, I said, 'I would like to have everybody in this room, players and coaches, three-peat. We need to get some good, solid plans, some good work this week and remove the selfish penalties and play a good, clean game.'"
On the play of Chuba Hubbard against West Virginia:
"(Chuba Hubbard) did very well. I thought he was physical; I thought he had composure. As the game went on, I thought he had more vision. For running backs, in my history, their vision gets better with reps, just like quarterbacks get better with reps. Once they see it enough, they get better at it. For those guys, when they go through the line, they start to feel a guy coming and learn how to make a cut and veer away. I thought he was really good and competed for us in the number of plays, basically when we were in a position to just play keep away."
On the turnover battle against West Virginia:
"(We were) Minus three. If you had told me that a week ago I would have said, 'We're probably not in good shape.' I said after the game that we were minus three in turnovers and still scored 45 points. What that does is give them more points. They get more possessions than us. We don't need to go through the math. We allowed them to have field position a lot. We addressed it. Taylor (Cornelius) threw a couple balls that he'd like to have back and (Tylan Wallace) needs to do a better job of holding on to the ball."
On how the coaches handle turnovers during the game:
"I'm not a big believer in being rough or scolding because we're in the game. We want to be supportive and remind them of what we think happened. One of the things that you do when you're a young coach that's not good is tell them, 'You have to hold on to the ball.' He pretty much knows that. You have to tell them why they fumbled, explain to them the mistake made and how to prevent it. Hopefully they can absorb that the next time they touch it. The famous line is, 'Son, you got to make that catch.' He knows that, so you've got to tell them why he dropped it. We handle it that way."
On the kickoff play against TCU and West Virginia:
"(Jake McClure) is going to go after it again, when you start out the way he did, you have to make a change. I'm not a fan of that, but at that point, we had to put somebody else in there and let them kick. (Matt) Hockett came in and did great. Hockett was awesome for us in a number of ways on Saturday. (McClure) will go back at it. We'll but him back in there and let him kick. I think he'll be fine. He's young and doesn't understand how strong his leg is."
On walk-ons at the center position:
"It's scary. That's the scariest position to have guys that have to play where they're backups, or even the down-the-line guys. They have a difficult job. They've got to make calls, snap the ball and function. We've just been fortunate. Ry Schneider was awesome for us in this game. He struggled some in the first half, but he got better as the game went on, made some plays and started to realize it's not that bad. We've just been fortunate that we've had quality young men that walked on and been able to give us some good snaps. We are really proud of what he gave us in that game - kept us alive and afloat so we could have a chance to win."
On halftime adjustments:
"From an offensive standpoint, it was probably the best that I've been around in a while. Just throwing the game plan away and going to the other sets. Defensively, it was more technique. Schemes and stuff were OK. We were just getting out of gaps. They adjusted there and settled down a little better in the second half."
On his postgame dance:
"I don't do it unless they ask for it. It's kind of old news and it's hard on my knees. Being 51 years old makes it tough."
On TCU's injuries:
"It's hard for all of us. They are still playing really good so I don't know what it would have been like with the other guys. It's the world we live in. You see more guys injured now than ever before. The players now are like finely-tuned sports cars. They can have something go wrong a little bit maybe more so than what it was years ago. The game is more physical than it ever has been. It's not the easiest thing to deal with. You have to try to put the guys out there to give you the best chance to make do with what you have and go on down the road, but it's pretty popular across the country now. Some years worse than others. Sometimes it's not the easiest thing to do."
Opening Statement:
"We had a good game last week. It was what we thought it was after looking at it. I'm just proud of the overall group effort. We played smart football and didn't have a lot of penalties. That gave us a chance to fight back and win. We'll need a good week this week. Obviously we're traveling down, playing Saturday night at TCU. Very, very good defense. They're fighting through a lot of injuries, especially on the offensive side of the ball. (TCU coach) Gary (Patterson) will get them ready to play and it will be a challenge, just like every other game we've played. I really like the attitude of our team and where we're at at this time."
On building off of Saturday's victory:
"Last week I told you guys that I just wanted us to play two games, back-to-back. Now we're going for the three-peat, and that's honestly what we said – 'Can you guys do it three weeks in a row?' And it's not just them, it's the coaches, too. They have to come up with good plans, be good instructors, good teachers. I have to be smart in my approach and then on game day it's 90 percent the players. It's everybody involved and so in the meeting last night, I said, 'I would like to have everybody in this room, players and coaches, three-peat. We need to get some good, solid plans, some good work this week and remove the selfish penalties and play a good, clean game.'"
On the play of Chuba Hubbard against West Virginia:
"(Chuba Hubbard) did very well. I thought he was physical; I thought he had composure. As the game went on, I thought he had more vision. For running backs, in my history, their vision gets better with reps, just like quarterbacks get better with reps. Once they see it enough, they get better at it. For those guys, when they go through the line, they start to feel a guy coming and learn how to make a cut and veer away. I thought he was really good and competed for us in the number of plays, basically when we were in a position to just play keep away."
On the turnover battle against West Virginia:
"(We were) Minus three. If you had told me that a week ago I would have said, 'We're probably not in good shape.' I said after the game that we were minus three in turnovers and still scored 45 points. What that does is give them more points. They get more possessions than us. We don't need to go through the math. We allowed them to have field position a lot. We addressed it. Taylor (Cornelius) threw a couple balls that he'd like to have back and (Tylan Wallace) needs to do a better job of holding on to the ball."
On how the coaches handle turnovers during the game:
"I'm not a big believer in being rough or scolding because we're in the game. We want to be supportive and remind them of what we think happened. One of the things that you do when you're a young coach that's not good is tell them, 'You have to hold on to the ball.' He pretty much knows that. You have to tell them why they fumbled, explain to them the mistake made and how to prevent it. Hopefully they can absorb that the next time they touch it. The famous line is, 'Son, you got to make that catch.' He knows that, so you've got to tell them why he dropped it. We handle it that way."
On the kickoff play against TCU and West Virginia:
"(Jake McClure) is going to go after it again, when you start out the way he did, you have to make a change. I'm not a fan of that, but at that point, we had to put somebody else in there and let them kick. (Matt) Hockett came in and did great. Hockett was awesome for us in a number of ways on Saturday. (McClure) will go back at it. We'll but him back in there and let him kick. I think he'll be fine. He's young and doesn't understand how strong his leg is."
On walk-ons at the center position:
"It's scary. That's the scariest position to have guys that have to play where they're backups, or even the down-the-line guys. They have a difficult job. They've got to make calls, snap the ball and function. We've just been fortunate. Ry Schneider was awesome for us in this game. He struggled some in the first half, but he got better as the game went on, made some plays and started to realize it's not that bad. We've just been fortunate that we've had quality young men that walked on and been able to give us some good snaps. We are really proud of what he gave us in that game - kept us alive and afloat so we could have a chance to win."
On halftime adjustments:
"From an offensive standpoint, it was probably the best that I've been around in a while. Just throwing the game plan away and going to the other sets. Defensively, it was more technique. Schemes and stuff were OK. We were just getting out of gaps. They adjusted there and settled down a little better in the second half."
On his postgame dance:
"I don't do it unless they ask for it. It's kind of old news and it's hard on my knees. Being 51 years old makes it tough."
On TCU's injuries:
"It's hard for all of us. They are still playing really good so I don't know what it would have been like with the other guys. It's the world we live in. You see more guys injured now than ever before. The players now are like finely-tuned sports cars. They can have something go wrong a little bit maybe more so than what it was years ago. The game is more physical than it ever has been. It's not the easiest thing to deal with. You have to try to put the guys out there to give you the best chance to make do with what you have and go on down the road, but it's pretty popular across the country now. Some years worse than others. Sometimes it's not the easiest thing to do."
Players Mentioned
RB
/ Cowboy Football
K
/ Cowboy Football
OL
/ Cowboy Football
WR
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