The Top 5 Quotes from Mike Gundy’s OSU Media Day News Conference

STILLWATER — Cowboy football is back in full swing.

Mike Gundy on Saturday met with reporters for the first time during Oklahoma State’s fall camp schedule as part of OSU’s in-house media day. The Cowboys’ leader spoke for about 30 minutes, giving updates on his program and the players in it. Here are five quotes that stood out. We’ll have a handful of stories throughout the next week from the day, so be sure to keep checking back. Video of Gundy’s full news conference can be found at the bottom of this post.

1. Be Careful Playing Man on OSU’s Receivers

Priority No. 1 for coaches going against Oklahoma State this season will undoubtedly be finding a way to slow down Ollie Gordon. But that could open some things for the Cowboys’ premier pass catchers.

OSU returns Brennan Presley, Rashod Owens and De’Zhaun Stribling from a season ago. Presley and Owens were key cogs in the Cowboys closing the year as strongly as they did, finishing with a combined 164 catches for 1,886 yards and 11 touchdowns.

With that being said, Stribling could be the best pro prospect among that trio, as he enters his redshirt-junior season listed at 6-foot-2, 200 pounds. A transfer from Washington State, Stribling played in just four games last season before an injury kept him out the rest of the year, but in the four games he played, he had 14 catches for 198 yards and a touchdown while the Cowboys were navigating their three-man quarterback rotation.

If opposing defenses load the box to try to stop Gordon, the Cowboy receivers could be in for a big year.

“You have to be careful about playing man on (Stribling),” Gundy said. “Quite honestly, you have to be careful about playing man on our slot (Presley). We’re going to force people to play an extra guy in the box. You’re going to have to stop Ollie from running the ball. I don’t know if we’ll be any good, but that’s what we’re going to do.

“If they can stop it with the correct number of guys in the box, then so be it. But if you’re going to put enough guys in the box to stop the run, you’re going to play some man coverage on the perimeter. That’s the choice you have to make.”

2. The Rob Glass Hall of Fame

Tulsa World columnist Bill Haisten proposed an interesting question to Gundy regarding safety (or linebacker?) Kendal Daniels.

Haisten asked whether Daniels, once a long, lanky kid from Beggs, USA, belonged in the Rob Glass hall of fame as he enters his redshirt-junior season listed at 6-foot-4, 235 pounds. Gundy said that hall of fame would be crowded, saying Daniels belonged in it while also mentioning an exciting offensive line prospect who has stood out.

“[Daniels has] really been developed, but you guys know how I feel about Coach Glass,” Gundy said. “It’s amazing what he’s done with everybody in this program.

“[Austin] Kawecki came in as an undersized, really not highly recruited lineman because he wasn’t big enough nor strong enough. On his lifts the other day, he hit 1,285 pounds, which is in the top 3%. He was a guy that came out of high school that people weren’t really fired up about because they said he wasn’t strong enough. Coach Glass’ hall of fame is a big one. There’s a lot of them, but Kendal certainly falls in that category.”

For the uninitiated, Kawecki is a 6-4, 300-pound redshirt sophomore out of Lebanon Trail High School in Frisco. He was a three-star prospect in the 2022 class and ended up picking OSU over offers from USC, Penn State, Auburn, Baylor, Colorado and others.

3. Oliver a ‘Pure Cowboy’

Another in-state stud who might be spending time between two defensive positions this season, Collin Oliver enters his senior year having already recorded 22.5 sacks — good for fifth in program history.

He is 11.5 sacks off Leslie O’Neal’s program record. Coincidentally, Oliver recorded 11.5 sacks as a true freshman in the 2021 season. So it’s certainly within reach.

He’s also already in the top 10 in program history in tackles for loss with 38.5. Getting to No. 2 on that list is well within reach, as he’d need just 8.5 tackles for loss to tie O’Neal for second. Oliver had 15.5 tackles for loss in 2023. (Jason Gildon leads the stat with 63 tackles for loss.)

As dominant as Oliver has been on the field, Gundy praised Oliver for what he does off it.

“Collin is a pure Cowboy,” Gundy said. “He loves Oklahoma State. He’s been tremendous for us. By the time he’s finished, he’ll have more than one degree. He does well in school. He’s got tremendous social skills. He’s a great ambassador for the university. We have our Extreme Camp going on right now. We’ve got about 120 people that love Oklahoma State football, that love Oklahoma State University that spend three days with us during this time, and a number of them have said over the last couple years and particularly this year, ‘If that guy’s ever done playing football, I’ll hire him.’ That’s what he’s all about.

“He’s put himself in a tremendous position for his future. He’s been a really, really good football player for us. You can count on him, you can trust him, things get going tough, he won’t flinch. He can lead the locker room when coaches can’t. Those guys are valuable.”

4. Sean Snyder’s Impact

Gundy made a late addition to his staff this summer in bringing in Sean Snyder to coach the Cowboys’ kickers and punters.

The move was made possible as college staffs are now allowed to have as many coaches on them as they’d like. The son of legendary Kansas State coach Bill Snyder, Sean was an All-American punter under his father before spending time on various coaching staffs coaching special teams. As part of his quote talking about his new coach, Gundy also took a quick shot at the SEC.

“They passed the rule with unlimited coaching staffs in the other four conferences,” Gundy said. “It’s always been unlimited in one. If you’re a young man who punts and kicks and you’re being recruited and somebody thinks you’re a good player, why would you want to come to Oklahoma State if we don’t have a guy that can coach you? I wouldn’t want to come here because I would say, ‘You have the ability to hire a real kicking and punting coach, and you don’t have anybody to coach me.’ … This guy can help the punters and kickers with the technical, integral part of the kicking and punting game. …

“Now, I will say the meetings that I’ve been in with him have been very impressive. Obviously I never coached with his father, but when I listen to him talk and coach, sounds just like his dad.”

5. Year 2 of Bryan Nardo

Bryan Nardo’s first year as a Division-I defensive coordinator had its ups and downs.

The unit played well in games like Kansas State and Oklahoma but struggled in some other spots (like in an Orlando monsoon). The Pokes’ D finished 10th in the Big 12 in points allowed per game and last in the league in yards allowed per game. But it was a big change going from the Jim Knowles/Derek Mason schemes to Nardo’s 3-3-5, and it certainly didn’t help that the Cowboys were young on the back end. With Nardo having an offseason to adjust and those defensive backs being a year wiser, the group should take a step forward in Year 2.

“There were times that they won games for us, and then there were times that we gave up too many yards, we dropped coverage and the first three games we didn’t tackle very well,” Gundy said. “So some of the more important games early in the season last year, the games that we won that people didn’t think we could win, our defense really kept us in those games and then finished them off for us. And then there were times we wish we would have played better because of some mistakes.

“The good news is we have identified what the issues were and now the coaches have to work to fix those issues and find a plan to get the players to understand why that happened and how we can get better, and it’s honestly not real complicated. You tackle better. You don’t drop coverage and you keep everything in front of you and it forces the offense to run nine, 10, 11-play drives, and then in most cases an offense will mess it up.”