Oklahoma State University Athletics
Gundy and Coordinators Discuss Final Week of Spring Practice
April 17, 2023 | Cowboy Football
STILLWATER - The Oklahoma State football team began its final week of spring practice on Monday inside the Sherman E. Smith Training Center. The Cowboys were in full pads and ran through positional drills, as well as a team session. Head coach Mike Gundy and coordinators, Kasey Dunn and Bryan Nardo, met with members of the media to discuss the the teams progression during spring ball. Here is some of what they had to say:
Head Coach Mike Gundy
On his thoughts overall heading into the last week of spring practice:
"Good. We've got a lot of work in. We've stayed healthy. We're getting a lot of reps and rotating guys through. I feel good about what we've been able to get accomplished. We still have got a lot of work to do in the offseason. Coaches need to do a good job of setting these guys up where they can work on their own and continue with what we've started with some of the new schemes offensively and obviously the defense is new. They've done everything we've asked them to do at this point."
On Jaden Bray's fit as an Oklahoma State receiver:
"Well, [Jaden] Bray is a guy that's got a lot of tools. If he can stay healthy throughout the year, now that he's more mature, it should really give us an added dimension that we haven't had in a couple years. He's got size. He's got range. He's got length. He's a basketball player. He can go up and get the ball. He's got good body control. We've lived with guys like that for a long time."
On the highlights and low points of the spring season:
"I'm always concerned that we don't have enough time to practice as we need. I'm glad that the incoming guys have been able to rally with the current roster. They're practicing well and have a chemistry. We'll know a lot more about our teams chemistry in September but the meshing, the coach-player relationship I feel good about. It's a really good start for the transition we're in at this time."
On the health of the offensive line:
"Well, that number was six to eight, but I like how you're thinking with eight to 10. We've had two spots that have made it really difficult for us the last two years, offensive line and wide receiver, we have not been able to stay healthy and I don't know why. Up to this point, so far, we've been healthy. If we can stay healthy, then we have plenty to be successful. The issue we run into is we lose two to three guys at one time and then we're forced into playing young players who aren't physically, and maybe not even mentally, ready to compete at this level. That sets us back in what we do from a play calling standpoint."
On the running backs during spring ball:
"Those guys are running hard. They're running and they're competing. The issue you have in spring ball is you don't tackle them. We don't really know what a running back can do until they get tackled and hit a bunch. The good news is the guys who will be playing in the games for us next year have been through that. We've gone through a number of years where we didn't have that luxury... We have four guys that will be playing in the games next year who have all taken hits and they're not freshmen."
On if the staff will do prep work on the new teams to the conference during the summer:
"The availability of video on all of the teams in college football is at our fingertips. We will have to do research on the schools we are playing. Houston, UCF and BYU will have good info, but Cincinnati won't have much. They'll do the same thing with us. We will have to build up a tendency book to try and get a good feel. The good news is we don't play those schools until the middle and the latter part of the season so we will have quite a few games to watch them. But, our prep work over the latter part of the spring and summer needs to be quality work with those opponents."
Defensive Coordinator Bryan Nardo
On his biggest adjustment coming to OSU:
"Having a lot of people. More people to work with every day, more people that are looking for things to do. I'm used to coming from smaller schools where we would have three or four people to help and we would have to do a lot of stuff ourselves. Whether it was setting up the field, getting ready for scouts, the amount of help we have is impressive. That's the biggest thing for me to adjust to."
On dealing with the give and take:
"The way I've always looked at that is, I want to win, period. I'm the first one celebrating if a receiver makes a catch, I'm the first one telling the running back he made a good run, I'm the first one celebrating if we get an interception, because at the end of the day it's about Oklahoma State winning football games. I've been at some places where we have very competitive springs, and you end up having the best football team you ever had. If one side of the ball dominates, it's usually pretty bad.
On working with Mike Gundy:
"Awesome. Everything you see about him and everything you read about him, every single thing I've been told about him is true. He's a good man, he's a hard worker, he's very intelligent, he holds people accountable, he has expectations and he holds you to those expectations, and he's a family man. My family has been in the office, I haven't missed church with my family on Sundays, that's been fun. Most of the time you get coaches who aren't like that, they want you working a lot. If there anything that has to do with family, he's there and it's been unbelievable.
On the athleticism at OSU:
"The funny thing about that is that there's great athletes on our side of the ball, but there's great athletes on the other side of the ball. So, it's all relevant which is one thing I've really noticed. I've told this to a few people, I think the biggest thing I've noticed here is that there's nobody on this football team that shouldn't be here because they're too good. This is the highest level of college football, this is one of the best programs in the country. Every single player is good enough to be here and shows that when they play every day. Whereas sometimes when you're at a small school, you have one or two guys who really stand out because they shouldn't be here for whatever reason. One thing about here is everyone is good, everyone belongs here and that speed is all relevant.
Offensive coordinator Kasey Dunn:
On the progress made in spring:
"I love what we're doing. I think our kids are flying around and working hard. Everybody's having a great spring. There's no wins and losses to substantiate what you're seeing and doing, but for the most part, I think our kids are having a great time with what we're doing. I think we're more well-rounded. The tight ends have added a different aspect to what we want to do offensively. I think you'll see a different team, a little more well-rounded team come September."
On the depth of the offense as a whole:
"This year, we're running all the way through threes. That makes a difference for everybody. Everybody's getting a lot more snaps. Last year, we were spoon feeding the offense because we could only really run one group, maybe one and a half… We're not doing that now; we've got more bodies out there. We're deeper at receiver, deeper at backs, obviously deeper at tight ends. We're actually deeper at quarterback. We're looking at two guys who have experience now. We have two more quarterbacks coming back for this season who have had experience… We're going to have veteran guys stepping up that have been in there and called games, and been in games, been hit before and gotten up and gone another play. We're going to have those, and it's nice to have. It's nice thinking about having that coming up for the fall."
On having a healthy wide receiver squad:
"We're excited to have guys out there that can catch the ball, that are big and strong. We can rotate guys through. Unfortunately, (last year) we were running a true freshman out there and he has to take every snap. We played 107 snaps against Texas, and we got a true freshman out there taking almost all of them. That's a tall order. To continue to do that was difficult. We're much stronger and much deeper."
On the quarterback competition:
"All those guys are taking their snaps and reps. Cadences are slightly different between each guy. The offensive line feels it just a bit. Sometimes, we might have a twitch here and there where one of the quarterbacks might snap and the other one might want to linger just a little bit longer. That's what I'm keeping my eye on, the rhythm of the offense. All-in-all, all those guys have taken a bunch of snaps. Those guys took a ton for us last year. Gunnar (Gundy) took his, Garret (Rangel) got his and (Alan) Bowman certainly has gotten his over the years. I'm pretty excited about where we're at, and time will tell where it shakes itself out."
On bringing physicality to the run game:
"We talk about it tremendously. It's constant, constant physicality. Running it downhill and running it in situations where we normally wouldn't like a third-and-four or a third-and-five. Situational work, we have that pop up in practice and see If we can run the football there. I make a big deal out of it in our unit meeting… Our guys get behind that and they rally. One thing that we're talking about is running a football and physicality go hand-in-hand, it's a marriage. You're not going to do one without the other. It's definitely been an emphasis for us this spring."
Head Coach Mike Gundy
On his thoughts overall heading into the last week of spring practice:
"Good. We've got a lot of work in. We've stayed healthy. We're getting a lot of reps and rotating guys through. I feel good about what we've been able to get accomplished. We still have got a lot of work to do in the offseason. Coaches need to do a good job of setting these guys up where they can work on their own and continue with what we've started with some of the new schemes offensively and obviously the defense is new. They've done everything we've asked them to do at this point."
On Jaden Bray's fit as an Oklahoma State receiver:
"Well, [Jaden] Bray is a guy that's got a lot of tools. If he can stay healthy throughout the year, now that he's more mature, it should really give us an added dimension that we haven't had in a couple years. He's got size. He's got range. He's got length. He's a basketball player. He can go up and get the ball. He's got good body control. We've lived with guys like that for a long time."
On the highlights and low points of the spring season:
"I'm always concerned that we don't have enough time to practice as we need. I'm glad that the incoming guys have been able to rally with the current roster. They're practicing well and have a chemistry. We'll know a lot more about our teams chemistry in September but the meshing, the coach-player relationship I feel good about. It's a really good start for the transition we're in at this time."
On the health of the offensive line:
"Well, that number was six to eight, but I like how you're thinking with eight to 10. We've had two spots that have made it really difficult for us the last two years, offensive line and wide receiver, we have not been able to stay healthy and I don't know why. Up to this point, so far, we've been healthy. If we can stay healthy, then we have plenty to be successful. The issue we run into is we lose two to three guys at one time and then we're forced into playing young players who aren't physically, and maybe not even mentally, ready to compete at this level. That sets us back in what we do from a play calling standpoint."
On the running backs during spring ball:
"Those guys are running hard. They're running and they're competing. The issue you have in spring ball is you don't tackle them. We don't really know what a running back can do until they get tackled and hit a bunch. The good news is the guys who will be playing in the games for us next year have been through that. We've gone through a number of years where we didn't have that luxury... We have four guys that will be playing in the games next year who have all taken hits and they're not freshmen."
On if the staff will do prep work on the new teams to the conference during the summer:
"The availability of video on all of the teams in college football is at our fingertips. We will have to do research on the schools we are playing. Houston, UCF and BYU will have good info, but Cincinnati won't have much. They'll do the same thing with us. We will have to build up a tendency book to try and get a good feel. The good news is we don't play those schools until the middle and the latter part of the season so we will have quite a few games to watch them. But, our prep work over the latter part of the spring and summer needs to be quality work with those opponents."
Defensive Coordinator Bryan Nardo
On his biggest adjustment coming to OSU:
"Having a lot of people. More people to work with every day, more people that are looking for things to do. I'm used to coming from smaller schools where we would have three or four people to help and we would have to do a lot of stuff ourselves. Whether it was setting up the field, getting ready for scouts, the amount of help we have is impressive. That's the biggest thing for me to adjust to."
On dealing with the give and take:
"The way I've always looked at that is, I want to win, period. I'm the first one celebrating if a receiver makes a catch, I'm the first one telling the running back he made a good run, I'm the first one celebrating if we get an interception, because at the end of the day it's about Oklahoma State winning football games. I've been at some places where we have very competitive springs, and you end up having the best football team you ever had. If one side of the ball dominates, it's usually pretty bad.
On working with Mike Gundy:
"Awesome. Everything you see about him and everything you read about him, every single thing I've been told about him is true. He's a good man, he's a hard worker, he's very intelligent, he holds people accountable, he has expectations and he holds you to those expectations, and he's a family man. My family has been in the office, I haven't missed church with my family on Sundays, that's been fun. Most of the time you get coaches who aren't like that, they want you working a lot. If there anything that has to do with family, he's there and it's been unbelievable.
On the athleticism at OSU:
"The funny thing about that is that there's great athletes on our side of the ball, but there's great athletes on the other side of the ball. So, it's all relevant which is one thing I've really noticed. I've told this to a few people, I think the biggest thing I've noticed here is that there's nobody on this football team that shouldn't be here because they're too good. This is the highest level of college football, this is one of the best programs in the country. Every single player is good enough to be here and shows that when they play every day. Whereas sometimes when you're at a small school, you have one or two guys who really stand out because they shouldn't be here for whatever reason. One thing about here is everyone is good, everyone belongs here and that speed is all relevant.
Offensive coordinator Kasey Dunn:
On the progress made in spring:
"I love what we're doing. I think our kids are flying around and working hard. Everybody's having a great spring. There's no wins and losses to substantiate what you're seeing and doing, but for the most part, I think our kids are having a great time with what we're doing. I think we're more well-rounded. The tight ends have added a different aspect to what we want to do offensively. I think you'll see a different team, a little more well-rounded team come September."
On the depth of the offense as a whole:
"This year, we're running all the way through threes. That makes a difference for everybody. Everybody's getting a lot more snaps. Last year, we were spoon feeding the offense because we could only really run one group, maybe one and a half… We're not doing that now; we've got more bodies out there. We're deeper at receiver, deeper at backs, obviously deeper at tight ends. We're actually deeper at quarterback. We're looking at two guys who have experience now. We have two more quarterbacks coming back for this season who have had experience… We're going to have veteran guys stepping up that have been in there and called games, and been in games, been hit before and gotten up and gone another play. We're going to have those, and it's nice to have. It's nice thinking about having that coming up for the fall."
On having a healthy wide receiver squad:
"We're excited to have guys out there that can catch the ball, that are big and strong. We can rotate guys through. Unfortunately, (last year) we were running a true freshman out there and he has to take every snap. We played 107 snaps against Texas, and we got a true freshman out there taking almost all of them. That's a tall order. To continue to do that was difficult. We're much stronger and much deeper."
On the quarterback competition:
"All those guys are taking their snaps and reps. Cadences are slightly different between each guy. The offensive line feels it just a bit. Sometimes, we might have a twitch here and there where one of the quarterbacks might snap and the other one might want to linger just a little bit longer. That's what I'm keeping my eye on, the rhythm of the offense. All-in-all, all those guys have taken a bunch of snaps. Those guys took a ton for us last year. Gunnar (Gundy) took his, Garret (Rangel) got his and (Alan) Bowman certainly has gotten his over the years. I'm pretty excited about where we're at, and time will tell where it shakes itself out."
On bringing physicality to the run game:
"We talk about it tremendously. It's constant, constant physicality. Running it downhill and running it in situations where we normally wouldn't like a third-and-four or a third-and-five. Situational work, we have that pop up in practice and see If we can run the football there. I make a big deal out of it in our unit meeting… Our guys get behind that and they rally. One thing that we're talking about is running a football and physicality go hand-in-hand, it's a marriage. You're not going to do one without the other. It's definitely been an emphasis for us this spring."
Players Mentioned
WR
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