The Top 5 Quotes from Mike Gundy’s Saturday Media Availability

STILLWATER — There are now only two more empty Saturdays before the Cowboys take to Boone Pickens Stadium to start their 2024 season.

Oklahoma State’s fall camp is rolling on. Mike Gundy met with reporters after the Pokes’ Saturday practice. Here are five things he said that stood out. A video of his full news conference is below.

1. Pokes Have Options at Safety

There are few questions marks as far as personnel goes for the Cowboys’ 2024 season.

Most of the production has returned from last season, but from outside the walls of Boone Pickens Stadium, there are some aspects of what Year 2 of a Bryan Nardo-coordinated defense looks like. The Cowboys will need some defensive ends to step into bigger roles. They’ll also reveal their plans for Kendal Daniels and Collin Oliver (i.e. how much is Daniels playing safety vs. linebacker and how much is Oliver playing linebacker vs. defensive end). But there are also some questions in the defensive backfield.

Aside from corner Korie Black — and Daniels to some extent — the Cowboys were inexperienced on the back end last season. It certainly didn’t help when new starter Lyrik Rawls went down early in the year with injury. Well, Rawls is back, as is Trey Rucker who had 100 tackles last season. Then young guys like Cameron Epps and Dylan Smith got some run last year before OSU also brought in safety transfer Kobe Hylton from UTEP. How exactly all those pieces fit together remains to be seen, and it’s predicated to some extent on where Daniels spends a majority of the time. But, as Gundy said Saturday, the good thing is the Cowboys have options.

“Well the good news is we’ll play a considerable number of guys,” Gundy said. “That’s what we want to be able to get accomplished – keep guys fresh. We’re expecting that the depth we have allows us to grow and let guys stay healthy. Some of the issues that you know that we deal with is that if a young player plays too much in his career early, then he gets tired and that works against him. Right now we have some depth there and some guys can rotate through, and that should help us.”

2. Involving Youth for the Future

Somewhat building off that, this time next year, it looks as if the Cowboys will be a rather inexperienced team — specifically on offense with myriad seniors on the line, at quarterback and at receiver. Oh, and Ollie Gordon will be draft-eligible after the season.

Because of that, Gundy was asked whether it would be important to get some of that inexperience some game time this season so that the 2025 season isn’t totally blind. Gundy said the young guys are getting a lot of reps in practice before noting that those aren’t the same as in-game reps. He also pointed to getting young guys in blowouts before noting that because of the transfer portal, parity in college football has seen that there aren’t as many blowouts as there were before.

“As soon as we get in a position, we’re gonna get other guys in and let them play,” Gundy said. “We don’t leave guys in for statistics or to run the score up. We’ve never done that. We want other guys in so they can play, one, because they earned it in practice, that’s what they’ve earned to do is play in games. Their moms and dads deserve to see them play. The experience they get being out there in a game is very important. That’s not something we can replace.”

3. ‘Nick Loves Football’

Over the span of last season, Nick Martin went from making his first college start to leading the Big 12 in tackles.

He brought down the ball carrier 140 times as a redshirt sophomore last season in the middle of OSU’s defense. Martin’s teammates voted him a season captain, and he earned All-Big 12 First Team honors from the media and the league’s coaches. Gundy was asked Saturday where Martin goes from here.

“Nick loves football,” Gundy said. “He’s an old-school tough guy. He would play football for free. He’s changed his body. I think he’s at 222 [pounds] or something now, and he can run really fast. He’s violent, and he’s willing to be relentless with his body. He doesn’t care what happens to his body when he plays. In my opinion to be a good college football player, you have to disregard the health of your body to play the game. And he’s willing to do that — not only in games, but in practice.”

4. Rashod Owens ‘Competes’

Rashod Owens is perhaps the Nick Martin of OSU’s offense.

Owens made starts in 2022 and even five in 2021, but he perhaps wasn’t seen as a landmark name in the oft deep OSU receiving room until taking advantage of his true breakout opportunity last season. With De’Zhaun Stribling, Jaden Bray and Talyn Shettron all suffering injuries that put each out for a good chunk of time, Owens really got going last year in OSU’s game against Kansas State — a game that seemingly turned the Cowboys’ season around.

Before that game, Owens made just four catches for 37 yards combined in the Cowboys’ 2-2 start. After those four games, Owens made 59 catches for 858 yards. He eclipsed the 100-yard mark three times last season, including an MVP performance in OSU’s Texas Bowl win against Texas A&M in which Owens had 10 catches for 164 yards and two touchdowns. That has set him up for what could be a stellar 2024.

“One thing about him, he competes,” said Gundy of Owens. “When he goes out on the field, he competes. When he goes on a practice field, he competes. He doesn’t shy away from anything. That’s the most important thing he can do for our team.”

5. ‘What Do We Do with the NCAA?’

Often a soothsayer in regards to the future of college football, Gundy for a while now has predicted that college football will soon turn into an NFL-esque model.

The inception of NIL as we now know it has led many to question the NCAA’s place in the future of college athletics, especially in football. The NCAA already doesn’t award the FBS championship, and now with most NIL-related issues now being legally-based as opposed to being within the NCAA’s domain, Gundy said as he ponders about what the future of the sport looks like, the NCAA’s place in all of this will be interesting.

“The issue, as we move forward and get into players actually being employees, the issue will be what do we do with the NCAA?” Gundy said. “Where do they stand. Because right now, they’re a nonfactor. What role will they play as we migrate toward, ultimately, an NFL model? Will they actually be a factor or not? That’s what’s really interesting. That was a long answer for now it kind of fascinates me to see what’s next. Nothing really surprises me anymore. We’re trying to stay ahead of the game a little bit, which is difficult to do because we don’t know what the parameters are yet.”