Oklahoma State University Athletics
Gundy Discusses Victory Over Iowa State and Saturday's Bedlam Matchup at Luncheon
November 14, 2022 | Cowboy Football
On the success of the defensive line and its quarterback pressure against Iowa State:
"We played much better from a technique standpoint. I thought our game plan was awesome on the defensive side of the ball. I thought our offensive game plan was not very good at all. Special teams wasn't very good. The game plan was good. We were fundamentally sound. We were better at gap control. We missed three or four tackles in the first half – three of them in the first quarter – from that point on we tackled better. We played good football. I know that sounds simple, but we just played good football and we had better results."
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On the offensive game plan going into the Iowa State game:
"I mean obviously we would've changed it during the week if we didn't like it. After the game, I mentioned it – they got us. They got us on defense again. I hate it. Our defensive game plan was excellent and we played good on that side of the football. Our offensive game plan wasn't very good. We didn't have a lot of options. They were actually better on defense than I even thought they were. We didn't have a good game plan. That happens sometimes. I've been a coordinator. I've put game plans together and they didn't work. That's a bad combination. On special teams, we didn't do a good job. I say we – I'm involved with punt, didn't do a good job and had a punt blocked. Bad coaching."
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On the success of the run game in the first quarter against Iowa State:
"Part of it was some of the things we tried to do that we all were in agreement prior to that would work or we would not have come up with game plan. We started to run the ball decent, but as the game went on, we weren't very effective on first down. Then, throughout the next two quarters, we ended up in a lot of third and longs. They felt that and their play caller on defense started to make some adjustments. Very seldom have they played a three technique in their three down front and they did in this game. They made a couple of adjustments based on our style of running attack as the first quarter went on. The one thing that we don't have a lot of flexibility right now is adjustments in our concepts based on the inexperience of where we have certain guys playing. We can make other adjustments and we know how to fix things, but sometimes we have limitations based on where we're at right now."
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On the success of the run game at this point in the year:
"I feel the same way I've felt the last six weeks. I'm trying to make this as clear as possible: we can't remake who we are in two days. At least, I don't feel comfortable doing that; some people may change their personnel and concepts often. I don't think that's a good pattern. We continue to work the things we feel like we're good at. I will say this – I said this after the game and I'll say it again – that's a good team on defense we played. They know what they're doing. They're experienced at very key positions. [Will McDonald IV] is a good player. [MJ Anderson] is a better player than what people think. Their coach knows what he's doing. They have a veteran group of guys that are a lot like we were last year. You can adjust but they know what they're doing. Through the first quarter, we actually blocked and ran the ball better – you just didn't notice it."
On how much flexibility there is within the offensive game plan:
"We had flexibility in the fourth quarter with Spencer (Sanders) because we can just get rid of everything we had and go back to what we've done for the past three years and just start pulling out plays. He's experienced enough that we can run them and we just call them and he knows what to do. There's been times in years back that we've had younger quarterbacks, maybe it's Spencer's second year or maybe it's Mason's (Rudolph) second year and I said there's not a lot of options right now, but with Spencer we're fortunate that we can say 'okay, let's call these plays' because we know he knows them and we can function. We did it the year Dana (Holgorson) was here and we played at Kansas State. We were pretty good, they were average, and in the first half we had three points and they had 14. We went into halftime and our game plan wasn't any good and Kansas State schemed us. Dana was just throwing everything, his hair, whatever he could throw, because we didn't have an answer to fix it. We came back out and made some plays, I think we won 24-17. It was an ugly game but we won. Sometimes we don't have enough flexibility, that's the scary part about where you can be on game day with the game plan you have."Â
On his relationship with Brent Venables:
"Well, he's been here a long time and obviously he was a Kansas State guy. I've bumped into him and seen him around quite a bit. I've never really had much communication with him though until the meetings out this summer in Arizona."
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On Jabbar Muhammad:
"He's a good football player. I gave him a hard time last night because on the first play of the game he could've intercepted it and walked into the end zone. I think it kind of surprised him and he just knocked it down. Then, he makes a really good play on a curl route where he reaches over and intercepts it, which is much more difficult. He could've had a house call on the first one, but anyways he made a really good play. He loves to play football, he's competitive and he has a high intelligence level when it comes to things moving fast. He sees things differently and is a tough guy and likes to compete."
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On Spencer Sanders saying he will start Bedlam after Saturday's game:
"Well, I didn't know he said that, but that's awesome that he feels better. I hope that that's his decision and that's the way he feels. We're going to have to treat him the same way we've been treating him over the last five weeks. That's good news though if he feels like that so we can get him in there and let him play."
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On his assessment on Gunnar Gundy after a few days:
"Gunnar is fine. He made some plays, but there's a couple of times he could've progressed a little bit further in his reads. They had pressure on him in the first quarter. I've been there and when you're young and there is pressure on you, your reads go faster and you don't see things like you should. The last play he panicked and tried to make a play on 3rd-and-18. Whether it's him or any other young quarterbacks, you can't do that at this level. It's ok to throw the ball away and punt. You can't pull off plays like that at this level like you did in high school, that's the learning curve. All of these guys want to do really well and sometimes when you just do ok, but not really well, you have to put your big boy pants on, suck it up and go out and fight to do better next time."
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"We played much better from a technique standpoint. I thought our game plan was awesome on the defensive side of the ball. I thought our offensive game plan was not very good at all. Special teams wasn't very good. The game plan was good. We were fundamentally sound. We were better at gap control. We missed three or four tackles in the first half – three of them in the first quarter – from that point on we tackled better. We played good football. I know that sounds simple, but we just played good football and we had better results."
Â
On the offensive game plan going into the Iowa State game:
"I mean obviously we would've changed it during the week if we didn't like it. After the game, I mentioned it – they got us. They got us on defense again. I hate it. Our defensive game plan was excellent and we played good on that side of the football. Our offensive game plan wasn't very good. We didn't have a lot of options. They were actually better on defense than I even thought they were. We didn't have a good game plan. That happens sometimes. I've been a coordinator. I've put game plans together and they didn't work. That's a bad combination. On special teams, we didn't do a good job. I say we – I'm involved with punt, didn't do a good job and had a punt blocked. Bad coaching."
Â
On the success of the run game in the first quarter against Iowa State:
"Part of it was some of the things we tried to do that we all were in agreement prior to that would work or we would not have come up with game plan. We started to run the ball decent, but as the game went on, we weren't very effective on first down. Then, throughout the next two quarters, we ended up in a lot of third and longs. They felt that and their play caller on defense started to make some adjustments. Very seldom have they played a three technique in their three down front and they did in this game. They made a couple of adjustments based on our style of running attack as the first quarter went on. The one thing that we don't have a lot of flexibility right now is adjustments in our concepts based on the inexperience of where we have certain guys playing. We can make other adjustments and we know how to fix things, but sometimes we have limitations based on where we're at right now."
Â
On the success of the run game at this point in the year:
"I feel the same way I've felt the last six weeks. I'm trying to make this as clear as possible: we can't remake who we are in two days. At least, I don't feel comfortable doing that; some people may change their personnel and concepts often. I don't think that's a good pattern. We continue to work the things we feel like we're good at. I will say this – I said this after the game and I'll say it again – that's a good team on defense we played. They know what they're doing. They're experienced at very key positions. [Will McDonald IV] is a good player. [MJ Anderson] is a better player than what people think. Their coach knows what he's doing. They have a veteran group of guys that are a lot like we were last year. You can adjust but they know what they're doing. Through the first quarter, we actually blocked and ran the ball better – you just didn't notice it."
On how much flexibility there is within the offensive game plan:
"We had flexibility in the fourth quarter with Spencer (Sanders) because we can just get rid of everything we had and go back to what we've done for the past three years and just start pulling out plays. He's experienced enough that we can run them and we just call them and he knows what to do. There's been times in years back that we've had younger quarterbacks, maybe it's Spencer's second year or maybe it's Mason's (Rudolph) second year and I said there's not a lot of options right now, but with Spencer we're fortunate that we can say 'okay, let's call these plays' because we know he knows them and we can function. We did it the year Dana (Holgorson) was here and we played at Kansas State. We were pretty good, they were average, and in the first half we had three points and they had 14. We went into halftime and our game plan wasn't any good and Kansas State schemed us. Dana was just throwing everything, his hair, whatever he could throw, because we didn't have an answer to fix it. We came back out and made some plays, I think we won 24-17. It was an ugly game but we won. Sometimes we don't have enough flexibility, that's the scary part about where you can be on game day with the game plan you have."Â
On his relationship with Brent Venables:
"Well, he's been here a long time and obviously he was a Kansas State guy. I've bumped into him and seen him around quite a bit. I've never really had much communication with him though until the meetings out this summer in Arizona."
Â
On Jabbar Muhammad:
"He's a good football player. I gave him a hard time last night because on the first play of the game he could've intercepted it and walked into the end zone. I think it kind of surprised him and he just knocked it down. Then, he makes a really good play on a curl route where he reaches over and intercepts it, which is much more difficult. He could've had a house call on the first one, but anyways he made a really good play. He loves to play football, he's competitive and he has a high intelligence level when it comes to things moving fast. He sees things differently and is a tough guy and likes to compete."
Â
On Spencer Sanders saying he will start Bedlam after Saturday's game:
"Well, I didn't know he said that, but that's awesome that he feels better. I hope that that's his decision and that's the way he feels. We're going to have to treat him the same way we've been treating him over the last five weeks. That's good news though if he feels like that so we can get him in there and let him play."
Â
On his assessment on Gunnar Gundy after a few days:
"Gunnar is fine. He made some plays, but there's a couple of times he could've progressed a little bit further in his reads. They had pressure on him in the first quarter. I've been there and when you're young and there is pressure on you, your reads go faster and you don't see things like you should. The last play he panicked and tried to make a play on 3rd-and-18. Whether it's him or any other young quarterbacks, you can't do that at this level. It's ok to throw the ball away and punt. You can't pull off plays like that at this level like you did in high school, that's the learning curve. All of these guys want to do really well and sometimes when you just do ok, but not really well, you have to put your big boy pants on, suck it up and go out and fight to do better next time."
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Players Mentioned
Friday, June 05
Friday, May 29
Wednesday, May 27
Monday, May 18
