Oklahoma State University Athletics
Gundy Meets With Media Prior to Conference Opener
September 20, 2021 | Cowboy Football
Opening Statement:
"We're back. Long trip and a short day for us yesterday, so we gave the players the day off until late in the evening so the coaches could try to get caught up from travel. Worked them out a little bit last night; the guys are doing good. We run blocked much better, which I said after the game. I was accurate in that we were able to match guys up pretty good. Obviously, the running back ran well. Defense played very well in the second half. I thought the coaching at halftime and in the second quarter was excellent. Punter was really good. He downed them inside the 16, 11 and five or whatever he did; it made a big difference. In the end, JT [Jason Taylor II] made a nice play by getting a hand on the field goal. Good game for us. Tough place to play; they do a nice job out there. Glad to be three-and-oh. We got to get a lot better. We play a better team this week, so I'm looking forward this week's competition."
On the celebration of Cale Cabbiness:
"I wanted him to be able to enjoy that. We have 85 guys on scholarship and we carry 135 on our roster, so you have a number of guys who don't get their school payed for. They're doing it on their own; they love it. Those guys will always have a special place for me. For him to have that moment, I wanted him to enjoy it."
On the play call for Cabbiness' third-down play to seal the game vs Boise State:
"It's based on play calling and coverage. There's two or three things that go into each play call, particularly a pass. He [Spencer Sanders] went with the ball where he was supposed to go with the ball. It worked out well for us."
On the team's support and excitement for Cabbiness:
"These guys, they enjoy seeing their buddies, non-scholarship guys or backups, make plays. They watch in practice all the time; they're in meetings with them all the time. When they get in a game, they enjoy that. You see that all the time. That's just the team concept: that they like their buddies to do good. It's the unselfish part of what we do in football; that's why I think college football is so great."
On the hard-fought win:Â
"They've had to adapt and overcome a lot of situations this year that are somewhat unusual. As you look across the country, you might have four or five teams that are playing really well, but most everybody else is essentially beating themselves. If you can avoid beating yourself, it will give you a chance in most games. I think our players up to this point have understood that. The things that can really hurt you as a football team, if you can avoid those, you will have a chance in the fourth quarter. That's really where we're at right now with this team."
On the quarterback run game:
"Spencer is a good runner, and he's explosive and dangerous when he runs, so he needs to run the ball. We don't ever want to get him hit. We try to minimize the blow. There is just times he has to do that based on the scheme we see. He has to be able to rush the ball."
On Jason Taylor stepping into a starting role:
"He's been around awhile, and he's experienced. He's played in big situations. He's one of those guys that seems to play a lot better in games than some people or coaches might expect. He likes to play in games. He's committed to the team and he's tough, which gives him an advantage on today's generation, just those three things. That's why he's played pretty good when he's in the game."
"They played good. They blocked effectively. They got head on head and allowed our backs to make some cuts. We had several times in that game where our backs are on the line of scrimmage and hitting air, the way it used to be around here. So, each week it's going to be more difficult. Boise is a good team, but their depth is not what it's going to be in this conference. This conference can run backups out there and still be effective. Each week it's going to be more difficult to be effective when we rush the football. That's why it's so important that we must find a way to do it with where we're at running the football.
Looking ahead to Kansas State:
"We'll be in a fourth quarter game. We're going to be in fourth quarter games from here on out. We lost a pretty good firepower on offense for the year. So, we're trying to do the best we can to manage and work together as a team, rush the football, work the clock, keep the defense off the field and play good special teams. We're trying to find a way to win the game other than just saying that we have guys injured and we don't know what we're going to do. It's just like what happened on Saturday. We rushed the football effectively enough, we had the football for 21 and a half minutes in the second half, they only had it for nine. We had really good target punting and special teams, and that's what won the game for us."
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