Oklahoma State University Athletics
Head Coaches Meet Friday Morning Before Fiesta Bowl
December 31, 2021 | General
Head Coaches Press Conference Zoom Video
Walk Through Photos
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - The final day of the 2021 calendar year and the final day before No. 9 Oklahoma State takes on No. 5 Notre Dame in the PlayStation Fiesta Bowl has come and gone.Â
The head coaches from both schools participated in a joint virtual press conference for the first time where the media spent around 30 minutes asking Mike Gundy and Marcus Freeman questions surrounding the preparation, expectations and news surrounding the top-10 showdown set for Saturday at 11 a.m. MT.
Following the final press conference of the week, Gundy and the rest of the Cowboys traveled to State Farm Stadium in Glendale where they walked on to the field for around 20 minutes. Leaving State Farm Stadium the Pokes had their final walk through of the season at Saguaro High School before taking the rest of New Year's Eve for themselves.
Here is some of what Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy had to say during Friday's head coaches press conference. The full transcript and video can be found at the top of the page.Â
Opening Statement:
"Well, we're very excited and thrilled to be in the PlayStation Fiesta Bowl. Congratulations to Coach [Marcus] Freeman and Notre Dame. They've had a terrific season. We've had a great week, as always, being in the Scottsdale area. We have great weather, great accommodations. The (Fiesta Bowl Committee) Yellow Coats have been fantastic, the people in the community. Our players, our fans, families have had a great week. As to be expected, we're very excited about playing in the game. What a great matchup, two teams that have worked hard to get to this point. So been going at it since the first of August, and going to get a chance to play one more game tomorrow. And very excited. Looking forward to the game."
On who will call defensive plays:
Well, we'll have a couple guys calling plays for us. We'll do it on first and 10 and then third downs, passing situations. After watching it for the last three weeks, we've had a number of guys in the room that I was comfortable with. So we're going to use a couple of guys at different times in the games based on the situations. You have Dan Hammerschmidt, you have Tim Duffie, and you have Joe Bob Clements. Those guys will be able to mix up the play calling based on the situation.
On what he admires about Notre Dame's team:
Well, the answers are similar. Teams that have had this much success and get to bowls like the PlayStation Fiesta Bowl is you have to compete against teams that play really hard. And so Notre Dame plays hard. The guys look like they like to play football. They run to the football. They compete. They fight for extra yards. Their quarterbacks aren't scared to make plays with their legs at times. And again, I go back to, it's not really a complicated game. And teams that have players that are willing to compete, run to the football, fight for extra yards, care about the guy next to them. And that's what you have to do when you play in games like this. And that's what I see from Notre Dame.
On offensive line coach Charlie Dickey returning to Arizona where he grew up:
It's been a really neat situation. I gave him a hard time earlier in the week because we knew that this was his home and he played here, very tradition-rich high school. We were leaving to go to practice the other day, and my youngest son, my 17-year-old, was going to drive over and meet us over there so he could work out in the weight room. And we were walking out to get ready to get on the bus. And I said, hey, Coach Dickey, I said, do you know how to spell the high school that we're practicing at today? And he said, well, you know that's my school, right? I said, no, I didn't know that was your school. I just need to know if you know how to spell it so he can put it in his GPS so he can get over there. I was giving him a hard time about it. And he spit it out real fast on how to spell it. He said, "Coach, that's my high school." So anyway, I kind of let him get on the bus and didn't say anything about it 'til later. But it's been really neat. We've got several connections out here. It's interesting. We have quite a few people that have some ties out here in this area, and it's been fun for them to come back and be here a week.
