Oklahoma State University Athletics
AutoZone Liberty Bowl Hosts Press Conference for Mike Gundy
December 30, 2018 | Cowboy Football
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OKLAHOMA STATE HEAD COACH MIKE GUNDY OPENING STATEMENT:
"We've had a great week. It's been a traditional bowl week for us with the exception of one day - we had a little rain, which was good. It allowed us to give the players a break on their legs. For us, it's been a very traditional week and our players have been very enthusiastic. As I have said throughout the season, I've enjoyed the time we've had with them or I've had with them, their willingness to compete and stay focused and prepare for the bowl."
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ON THE BOWL EXPERIENCE:
"It's been really good. This is a very traditional bowl in that we had the banquet functions for the players with both teams being in the same location. It's the way it used to be years and years ago. The watch with both schools on the watch. I was just visiting with Shawn who works in our media relations office during the drive over here today. Once we kind of figured out our way around Downtown to be a able to get to Beale Street, get to the barbecue - with the Sheraton, I know this is the first year you guys have used them, they've been fantastic. It's been a great trip for us. The practice facilities - things that I mentioned at the banquet the other day, the volunteer staff and you guys. It takes a lot of work to put this together. AutoZone - obviously, we can't do this without them. Essentially, what they do is they provide is memories for your team and families and children that will last forever, not just a game. It's seven days worth of memories."
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ON NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS:
"For me, to be the best person that I can be and provide for our team and make sure the 200 people in our organization - players, coaches, administrators, families - have the best experience they can have. Hopefully we can instill in our players every year, the importance to be in our Cowboy culture, to graduate from Oklahoma State, to be productive and go out in the world and take care of yourself - be a man. If you choose to marry and have a family, take care of your wife, kids, get a job and work your [butt] off, be a productive citizen. That's more important to me than a lot of things - not to discredit. We want to go out there, play out butt off and have a good game tomorrow."
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ON THE RED SHIRT RULE:
"I think it's a good rule. It needs to be tweaked in my opinion. It needs to be for athletes that are in their first or second year. It think when you push it past that, you get into, for lack of a better term, plan B in the old NFL where you pick guys up and they can leave and play. I don't believe in that. I think there needs to be more loyalty to the organization. I think it has been good. It saves legs for players. We're at 85 scholarships. In my opinion, we need to be at 95 with the way the game is being played. There are so many more games played in a game than there were even 10 years ago. If you're not going to add scholarships, we need to increase the availability of players we have in games. I don't know why you just don't have five years of eligibility to be honest with you. I'll take the four, but it needs to be tweaked."
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ON COACH GARY PINKLE'S MISSOURI VERSUS COACH BARRY ODOM'S MISSOURI:
"There's a lot of similarities athletically. Coach [Pinkle] always had really good inside guys that were undersized and played really hard. I think some of them are still playing in the league today. Had pass rushers on the edge and were very well coached. I see that with Coach Odom and his team. They've implemented a really good offensive scheme. Their quarterback is a really good player and could very well be the first quarterback taken in the draft. You're seeing a team that's matured. It looks like their starting to adapt to his style and his philosophy. It takes a few years to get going as a head coach. There are some similarities there. Coach Pinkle was a heck of a football coach. He had great success at Toledo and came into Missouri and had really, really good football teams. It's a different look offensively a little bit, but athletically and the way they play it's very similar."
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ON FACING GREAT QUARTERBACKS THIS SEASON AND PREPARING FOR DREW LOCK:
"They're all different. Obviously, with Kyler [Murray's] ability to play the game the way he plays. Will Greer would be more like this one in that they have the ability to run a little bit, move around and make a play, not going to do it a lot. They want to do it inside the 12-yard line. You have to plan for each one differently, but he's a really good player and probably going to play this game for another 10-12 years."
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ON OKLAHOMA STATE'S RUSHING ATTACK:
"Chuba [Hubbard] has done a good job. Obviously, when we lost Justice [Hill] - he's a fantastic player. He's a guy who is good enough to play int he NFL. If he's not with you, you're certainly not going to be as good at running the football if he were here. Chuba and LD [Brown] have stepped up. They're the guys who are in our program now and we're coaching them. We have confidence in their ability to rush the football."
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ON THE IMPORTANCE OF THIS GAME FOR THE PROGRAM:
"I'll say the same thing I said then - every game is important. The most important thing we can instill in our players is the willingness to prepare and compete. That's the responsibility we have in every game that we approach. It's been that way every year I've been the head coach, going on 15 years now. Every game matters. Beyond that, I don't know. I wouldn't even begin to say one way or another with the young men that we coach now. We win this game, we start int he middle of January with winter conditioning. If you don't win this game, we start in the middle of January with winter conditioning. That's just kind of the way it is. Every game is important. We want to go out and compete, we want to play hard. We want to have a clean game and play the very best football that we can."
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ON IF HE'S CONCERNED WHAT FANS WILL THINK ABOUT THE SEASON IF OKLAHOMA STATE LOSES MONDAY:
"I have to be concerned with what's going on internally in the organization more so than people outside the program."
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ON IF YOUNG PLAYERS WILL PLAY TOMORROW:
"We won't have any changes as far as guys that are starting in games or playing like that. This bowl game, being as late as it is, allowed us to really practice and have another spring ball, as I've said several times. That's what I've really enjoyed about it. For the most part, we have the guys who are going to play in the game. That kind of goes back to the fact that we're going to put the players out there that we feel give us the best chance to perform and win the football game. In most cases, it won't be a player that hasn't played in the season."
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ON AN UNPREDICTABLE SEASON:
"When you go through a transition year with a new quarterback, you have multiple players that start the season that aren't there to end the season, you go through transitions with lineman that are moving around. Even though we had really good numbers offensively and we were able to score points, there were times we didn't perform as well as we needed to. There's different ways to look at it. I don't know if we can ever pinpoint for sure. There were times when Taylor [Cornelius] didn't play as well as we wanted him to. Some of that could've been because of the schemes and game plans that Mike [Yurcich] in the game for him. Maybe we overloaded him at times.Then, there were other times in the year that our defense really adapted and played well with Coach [Jim] Knowles' schemes and there were times that they didn't. If you just get a quick answer, you could say there were some adjustments going on that side of the ball, and on the offensive side of the ball, we were feeling our way through with a new quarterback. It did help us that we had enough depth on the offensive line to keep guys together, but it didn't help that we had to move guys around. This is one of the first years since 4-5 years ago that we had to shuffle guys around on the offensive line. I've never felt good about that, just the continuity of those games. How much better we could've played at he end of the year if Justice [Hill] would've played - I don't know, but that was also a factor."
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ON HOW YOU COACH CONSISTENCY WHEN THERE'S A LOT OF INCONSISTENCY:
"It's probably just musical chairs when there's inconsistency. When you're shuffling guys around and you have to adjust in practice and you get two days to prepare for a game, it's not as easy. We've been fortunate over the last 2 1/2 years. Last time we had to do that is when we lost Mason [Rudolph] for the Sugar Bowl. You just don't play very well if you're trying to get guys ready and then you put another guy in. I would say that shuffling the guys around is the most difficult thing for us this year."
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ON BARRY ODOM BEING RECRUITED BY OKLAHOMA STATE:
I remember him coming out then. Most of the players from that area went to Oklahoma. In fact, they all went to the camps. I think he went to Oklahoma's camp. I don't think he ever came to our camp. I remember his name and I remember him coming out of high school."
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ON THE RIGHT GUARD POSITION:
"It looks good. Shane [Richards] has worked in there. Deionte [Noel] has worked in there. You have Marcus [Keyes]. You've got three guys for two positions. They've rotated in a little bit. Shane has practiced the last 5-6 real practices off and on, coming back from his injury. He should be available if we need him. You're looking at Marcus and Deionte."
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ON JORDAN BRAILFORD PLAYING:
"Any player that's in the category of beyond a second round pick, in my opinion, can certainly help themselves in a bowl game. It means a lot to us [that he decided to play] that he's finishing the commitment he has to our organization, and we appreciate that. He's going to graduate and move on to the NFL. At times, I think with young men that's a pretty common move. It'll increase even more in the future. We appreciate him being here and helping lead our team and being out there with us in the final game."
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ON TAYLOR CORNELIUS:
"We've never seen a guy play flawless. We need him to play good. A quarterback is a big deal to our offense. Over the years, if our quarterbacks play pretty well, we end up doing pretty good. If our quarterbacks don't, then we don't really score as many points. We play in a league where teams score a lot of points. Like Missouri offensively, they could jump right into the Big12 and be right at home. We need to play well on offense and score points."
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ON HOW THE DEFENSE CAN IMPROVE:
"We just need to be more sound. When we lost Darrion Daniels, we struggled on
We lost a 325-pound guy that was a pretty good football player. We lost him right before we started to get into the meat of the schedule and that set us back a little bit. We tried to sure up the inside part of our defense in recruiting and we hope that works out well for us. I think the backend - our safeties, quarters and outside backers who stay and help cover the pass, we feel better about how they've matured as the season has gone on, but it's been an adjustment. It's a completely different system than what we were doing before. I think they're progressing. The spring will be really important. The other thing you're looking at are 25 [Jason Taylor] and 31 [Kolby Peel] are guys who were thrown into the fire in the middle of the year. They're young. They've made some adjustments an gotten a little better."
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ON HOW TYLAN WALLACE COMPARES TO FORMER WIDE RECEIVERS WHO WENT TO THE NFL:
"If he continues on and stays on course with where he's at, he's a very unselfish, he's a tremendously hard worker, he's tough, he's intelligent, he's gifted. He can go up and get the ball at the highest point, he can make all the catches. He's right there with the rest of them, he's just young. As he progresses, he'll continue to make plays. If he keep this head on straight and stays focused, he'll be like the rest of them."
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ON MISSOURI'S DEFENSE:
"They have a couple guys inside that are good players. One in particular makes a lot of plays. Their corners are long, lanky and can run a little bit. It'll be interesting to see. They're about 50/50 man and zone. They press some and challenge. I'm going to guess they're going to do what they do. They're probably not going to look at our tape as any threat for them to change their schemes. That match up - if they press and keep the safety in the middle of the field and us being able to attack them and those corners covering our wide outs, it'll be an interesting match up for us."
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ON RETAINING STAFF:
"I've said this before and I'll say this again. I'm the easiest guy in the country to work for, that's why coaches stay. They're very well-paid. We work normal hours, we don't over work. It's a family organization. Guys take care of their business, I don't micromanage them so they stay. We'll always have coaches leave to move up. Guys will move on to be coordinators. Guys will move on the be head coaches. [Mike] Yurcich is a guy whose name has been out there the last three years. Interesting how some of the fans view him but everybody else in the country wants him. Pretty interesting concept. At some point, Mike is going to move on. I told you guys last year during bowl prep that I wouldn't be shocked if Mike is a head coach or moves on. He's had interest from the NFL. There are NFL teams that have called about him as the NFL starts to migrate toward college football on offense. At some point, he's going to move on. He's 41 or 42. He's at a point in his career where that that could happen. We would love to keep him here. We're not going to be able to pay what other schools will potentially offer him. If he gets a run to be a coordinator at all the schools that are interested in him or maybe move on to the NFL, that's probably going to be his next move. You just call it like it is. Some of the other coaching jobs you get at levels that are lower pay about a third or fourth of what these guys are making as coordinators. We hope to keep him as long as we can, but at some point he will move on. If he does, we wish him the best. He's been very loyal and has been great for the program. As far as how we handle that with the coaches, I tell my coaches if they want to talk to any school, any NFL team, any high school team, whatever - they're good. They can do that. They don't even have to ask for my permission. Why would I have to get their permission? We live in a time where everybody has a cell phone, coaches are out recruiting, they can meet anywhere they want. That's just a waste of time. If they come to me and say, "I want to take this job." Then, I'll take to them, have a conversation. Otherwise, I tell them I don't need to know what's going on out there. I just need you to be loyal, work hard and continue to recruit for Oklahoma State."
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ON MIKE YURCICH:
"We hit a homer with Mike. We went and got him because I felt like if we had gone and gotten a name guy, in two years, he would've left again because that is what was happening to us. We bring a guy in, we average 50 points a game and the guy leaves. I was tired of dealing with that, so I said surely they won't want a guy from Shippensburg for a few years. Honestly, it's worked out great. It's worked out really good for Mike and it's worked out really good for us. Maybe he's here with us next year and maybe he's not, but either way, we'll go get another one and keep going."
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ON FINDING REPLACEMENTS FOR COACHES THAT LEAVE:
"Continuity is huge. I guess I can freely say this now, it's like if you look around the country at athletic directors who say we've had a couple bad years, but I'm staying with this coach and then they end up doing pretty good. They made a much better choice because on a smaller scale, when you make a change, you're changing a lot. Unless you're in a program if you have really, really, really good players, it's difficult to make a wholesale change as a coordinator or head coach and then start showing up within the first couple years. The assistant coaches, they play a big role in this. At Oklahoma State, once [Larry] Fedora left and I started calling plays for a couple years and then I said I'm out of that and we started bringing coordinators in. When we bring those guys in, for the most part, they adapt to our terminology. That consistency has helped our team in our opinion. It's the same with assistant coaches, with Dunn whose been with me 8-9 years and the other guys from the standpoint that unless there's just a really, really, really good reason to make a change, the continuity is important. Forget football and recruiting. It's hard enough to recruit anyway much less put a guy in an area or going after players that he's somewhat uncomfortable with because he hasn't been in that area like for us, in Texas. All those things tie in. It's a pretty big picture."
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ON BEING THE UNDERDOG IN THIS GAME:
"I wish we were a 20-point favorite. Our preparation is the same. Missouri is a really good team - could be the best team we've played overall as balanced football team. They're good all over the board. When you have a quarterback who might be the first player taken in the draft at the position, you're a really good team. They're solid, they're mature. I understand why it's the way it is, but like I said, our team has worked really hard and I think our coaches have really good plans. I expect our players to play very well. I'm looking forward to the game. I don't think everybody really talks about the underdog much. I don't, but maybe the players feel that because I'm sure they're on social media, they're out there and they know what's going on. It probably takes care of itself."
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ON IF THE PLAYERS ARE MORE MOTIVATED SINCE THEY ARE THE UNDERDOG:
"You would have the ask them that. With young people now, just a different perspective on life and things, I'm not sure. I would just say to go back to what I was saying earlier, we've stressed the importance of every game we play. As soon as we accepted the bid to play in the AutoZone Liberty Bowl, the first meeting we had was we get an opportunity to have 16 practices and you have the responsibility to get your butt ready to play, and that's what we're doing. You're representing Oklahoma State and the Big12. Our players have prepared that way and I expect them to play very well."
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ON THE RICH HISTORY OF THE BOWL:
"Unique in that way. What I remember is being a kid and the game was on and I remember my parents talking about Bear Bryant coaching in it. I was young. I didn't know who Bear Bryant was, but I remember them talking about that. The history of the Liberty Bowl - I think it's cool that AutoZone has their name there, but the Liberty Bowl has kept their name there. I think that's cool, in my opinion. I think the tradition that they have here is and the history is unique. I think that's special."
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ON IF OFFENSIVE LINE COACH JOSH HENSON CAN PROVIDE INSIGHT ON MISSOURI:
"There's nothing there that he can help with. They've had two coordinators since then. Josh has his handles full just getting his guys to do the right thing to be honest with you. There's not much there. Players change. Even if there were players that were on the team that he knew, 2-3 years later they're so much different."
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ON PREPARING FOR A RAINY GAME:
"We used to have to concern ourselves with that with Mason [Rudolph] because his hands are really small. Taylor [Cornelius] has thrown the ball well when we've practiced in rain. Control what we can control. Can't do anything about it. No, it doesn't change our preparation."
