The Top 5 Quotes from Mike Gundy’s Post-West Virginia News Conference

STILLWATER — It was rough from the get-go Saturday at Boone Pickens Stadium.

Oklahoma State lost to West Virginia 38-14 to drop to 0-3 in Big 12 play as the Cowboys head into the bye week. OSU coach Mike Gundy had his usual postgame news conference after the disappointing outcome. Here are five things he said that stood out. A full video of Gundy’s news conference is below.

1. On a Change at QB

Quarterback is always the talk of the town, especially when he throws two interceptions in three games in a row.

Seventh-year quarterback Alan Bowman was benched for Garret Rangel after throwing his second interception of the game in the third quarter. It was the second time in three games Rangel has replaced Bowman after doing so two weeks ago to start the second half of the Cowboys’ last home game against Utah. Bowman eventually re-entered that game and led OSU to the end zone twice, but on Saturday, Rangel never came out while playing three drives.

Rangel was 4-of-5 for 75 yards with a 43-yard touchdown to De’Zhaun Stribling. Bowman, meanwhile, was 10-of-19 for 116 yards with a TD compared to a pair of interceptions.

So after Rangel has had to replace Bowman twice now, could we see Rangel just start there?

“I don’t want to get out in front of that again,” Gundy said. “He didn’t have very many plays. He only threw the ball five times. We need to look and evaluate. I don’t want to say something now and then it may not be true. We’ll need to look where we’re at.”

Many were also screaming for Bowman’s benching last week against Kansas State, too, but he played the entire game despite struggling again. Gundy vouched for his QB1, though, saying there were only four or five plays that made it seem like Bowman had a bad game and he believed Bowman actually performed better than against Utah. That was a week after Rangel also struggled, though, and Gundy said redshirt freshman Zane Flores doesn’t get enough reps in practice yet to be put in a game.

Rangel improved in his second outing, though. Gundy agreed and also said when there is a change at QB it comes down to his gut.

“Well, I thought that he played pretty good today,” Gundy said. “He missed a throw on our boundary I thought he should have hit. But other than that, I thought he played pretty good. And in most cases, in that situation with a quarterback, it’s just a gut feel. I mean, that’s me doing that. That is not anybody else. That’s just me, and it is a gut feeling.”

2. ‘We Did Not Tackle Well in This Game at All’

OSU’s defense gave up 558 total yards, and 389 came on the ground. WVU had three players rush for over 75 yards while it averaged six yards a carry as a team. In the midst of that was 14 carries of at least 10 yards.

“We’re not fitting the run,” Gundy said. “We have to do a better job of fitting the run. Without seeing it, it looked like to me we had our worst tackling day of the year. In my mind, I was counting up to eight tackles where we hit the guy and were going to hold him for a two-yard gain or less, and we bounced off and they ended up being big runs. I think that was a little bit of an issue. We did not tackle well in this game at all.”

3. On the Booing BPS Crowd

The only noises that ever really came from the crowd at Boone Pickens Stadium were boos and grumblings.

It started early. After starting the game with six straight runs up the middle and a holding call setting the Cowboys back, Bowman finally threw his first pass but for an incompletion. That immediately prompted boos from home crowd. And it never really let up, especially when it related to Bowman and play calling.

“My job is to pay attention to the game and not pay attention to the crowd,” Gundy said when asked about all the boos. 

Well, then what would your message be to all those disappointed fans?

“Well my job is to not talk to the fans,” Gundy said. “My job is to coach the team. That’s what my job is. Everybody that pays and comes to a game has a right to display whatever action they feel comfortable. I don’t have an issue with that.”

4. On Lack of Offensive Production

The Cowboys’ offense was bad in every facet and has been for three games now. Saturday in particular, OSU totaled only 227 yards on offense. On the ground, OSU rushed for an abysmal 36 yards while averaging 1.7 yards a carry. Through the air, the Cowboys had 191 passing yards. To be fair, and to Gundy’s point, OSU had the ball for only 17:24 compared to WVU’s 42:36. Nonetheless, the Cowboys still scored only two of their nine drives. So why can’t OSU get more points on the board?

“They had the ball 42 minutes. So, we didn’t have the ball,” Gundy said. “Now, we didn’t play any good on offense, but we didn’t have the ball. What you’re saying is accurate, but the combination of only having the ball 17 minutes and then not playing good, then you’re not gonna run up very many yards. We need to fit better, would be my guess. We need to tackle better. We gotta get off the field on third downs. Then we didn’t rush the ball as effectively as we needed to – we’re at three point something a carry – we need to be over four yards a carry. And then we couldn’t convert. We were 3-of-10 on third down. So those will kind of end up adding up. And for us right now, it’s difficult when we get behind multiple scores. Which we know that. We’re trying to avoid that. We don’t want to be in that situation, but that’s happened to us in the last couple of games and that makes it difficult for our team right now.” 

5. On Injuries

The Cowboys were without arguably two of their best defenders on Saturday.

Linebacker Nick Martin, who led the Big 12 in tackles last season, missed his first game after getting injured against K-State. OSU has also been without linebacker Collin Oliver, who Gundy has said he expects to miss the entire season. It sounds like the Cowboys could also be without Martin long term.

“Yeah, I think he will be out for a while,” Gundy said. 

Running back Ollie Gordon was also injured during the game. A defender crashed into Gordon’s right knee in the third quarter before he slowly walked off the field with assistance. He never returned but was frequently jogging and going through other movements while on the sideline.

“I’m not sure,” Gundy said about Gordon’s status. “He got banged up a little bit, but I don’t feel like it’s something that’s long term.”