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The Top 5 Quotes from Mike Gundy’s Pre-Arizona State News Conference

‘We didn’t play hard on defense.’

Published

2 years ago

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[Devin Wilber/PFB]

STILLWATER — After five Big 12 games, the Cowboys are still looking for their first conference win.

Oklahoma State hosts Arizona State for America’s Greatest Homecoming this weekend with the game set to kick at 6 p.m. in Boone Pickens Stadium. Gundy met with reporters Monday to preview the matchup. Here are five things he said with video of his full news conference below.

Gundy also spoke about Bryan Nardo and freshman quarterback Maealiuaki Smith, but we did standalone posts for those.

1. ‘We Didn’t Play Hard on Defense’

Pro Football Focus had the Cowboys with 12 missed tackles against Baylor on Saturday. Gundy had the Pokes for 21 whiffs, which led to 258 yards.

Even without counting how many misses the Cowboys had, it doesn’t take a football expert to note that OSU was poor in the tackling department against Baylor.

Gundy said that over the past two weeks he has talked to “six or eight” defensive coordinators/head coaches around the country and asked them how much they are tackling in practice. He is also having to play a game of keeping physicality up in practice while trying to stay healthy with all the injuries the Cowboys have suffered on that side of the ball.

“We didn’t play hard on defense,” Gundy said. “That’s one area that I’ll address as the head coach, and we’ll work extremely hard on that this week to get ready for this game. …

“They’re going to be made aware of it. Then they’ll be told why I think it happened because that’s the only thing that matters, and then there will be a plan in place that we’ll execute during the week to fix it. And then Saturday night we’ll see. We’re going to go up against a guy that you’re going to find out if you can tackle, so we’ll see. They’ll probably lay odds on it in Vegas. They lay odds on everything else. It’ll probably run on the comedy channel what our odds are of tackling this week.”

2. Enter, Cam Skattebo

Arizona State running back Cam Skattebo probably isn’t a guy you want to see when your tackling is being called into question.

Skattebo enters the game fourth in the Big 12 in rushing with 848 yards and 10 touchdowns thus far this season. That’s 280 more yards than Ollie Gordon. Skattebo also ranks seventh nationally in missed tackles forced, according to PFF, with 49. That’s second-best among Big 12 backs behind only Cincinnati’s Corey Kiner (55 missed tackles forced).

The Pokes kept Skattebo in check in Tempe last season. It was the second game of the year, and Skattebo carried 14 times for 62 yards and a touchdown. But this Sun Devils squad as a whole is better than it was last season, evident by the fact that with five games to go, Skattebo has already ran for more yards this season than he did all of last year.

“He’s their energy, right?” Gundy said. “Guy plays hard. He breaks tackles. He gets up, tells you to bring it on. He likes it. They feed off of him. He’s the guy that, in my opinion, I’m an outsider, they feed off of his energy. He very well could be the best back we’ve played. He’s a good back. They feed off him. So if you want to slow them down, in my opinion, you better tackle him.”

3. ‘Brennan Presley Should be an All-American’

As tough as the Cowboys were to watch on Saturday, there was one guy who was worth watching the full four quarters for: Brennan Presley.

Presley caught 15 of his 17 targets against Baylor, going for 183 yards and a touchdown. His touchdown reception was one of the best of his career, as he dispatched a would-be tackler behind the line of scrimmage before zipping 33 yards to the end zone.

Presley also made a circus catch on a two-point conversion on a pass that Ollie Gordon threw. Presley got his arms under the ball, and it popped up above him. He flipped over and grabbed it out of the air from his back. He also had a ridiculous catch on a 4th-and-4 in the fourth quarter where he high-pointed a ball over a defender while falling backward and secured the grab while landing on his back.

“Brennan Presley should be an All American,” Gundy said. “I mean, somebody would have to show me three or four wide receivers in the country that make as many plays he does with the ball in his hands, or catches like the fourth-down catch. He made an unbelievable play. He’s covered. The guy had his hand on the ball. He reached out at 90 degrees flat, took the ball out of the guy’s hands and landed headfirst on the ground. He literally should be an All-American.”

4. Lofton’s Situation Leads Gundy to Saying Players Should Get Five Years

Another slot receiver, Da’Wain Lofton has started to pop in recent weeks.

Lofton, a Virginia Tech transfer, has caught six passes for 140 yards in the Cowboys’ past three games. Those are the first three games he has played in because he battled through an injury at the beginning of the season. But because Lofton has played in just three games this season, he could still redshirt, but that would involve Lofton playing in just one more of the Cowboys’ remaining four games. If he doesn’t redshirt, though, that would mean that his college career would come to an end because he is a senior.

Gundy had some thoughts on the situation that isn’t too dissimilar to the one Leon Johnson III was in last season. Gundy said players should get five years of eligibility with no redshirts.

“Why do we not have five years of eligibility to eliminate this?” Gundy said. “This is ugly look for college football. We’re going through so many transitions that people say this looks bad. This is ugly. I don’t like this, like my generation and up, your generation has no problem with any of this. Let’s eliminate this by saying guys can play five years. Who cares? Let them play five years. Then that side of it is taken away. …

“I have not had a discussion with him in the last few weeks about potentially redshirting. Originally, when we brought him in here from Virginia Tech, he wasn’t going to because he didn’t know he was going to get hurt. And then he missed a couple months. And so then it became an issue, what do you do? Sometimes they base it on, what are my opportunities to play at the next level? Am I ready? Is my agent telling me I need to play another year? I mean, there’s so many moving parts, but we haven’t gotten into that discussion with him recently.”

5. Fresh Faces to Make Season Debut?

Although Gundy didn’t sound committed to getting Smith on the field this weekend, it did sound like a few guys who haven’t played to this point could see the field.

With four games left in the regular season, players who haven’t played to this point can play every game and still earn a redshirt.

“Anybody that we think is far enough along and can help us, even if it is on special teams, then now is the time to get them some work,” Gundy said. “Because they can show up there moreso than actually the technical part of offense and defense. They have not been getting reps (on offense and defense). They have been doing demonstration stuff, so it’s hard to bring them up and say, ‘Here is what we’re doing.’ You don’t see a lot of that, but we had that discussion this morning in our meeting on if there were two or three guys that could help us on special teams and give them a little work.”

Gundy didn’t mention any names of potential guys who could see playing time, but here is a list of scholarship freshmen who have yet to play this season:

Maealiuaki Smith — QB
Tre Griffiths — WR
Willie Nelson — S
Jacobi Oliphant Jr. — CB
Jaden Allen-Hendrix — RB
LaDainian Fields — CB
Jonathan Agumadu — LB
Temerrick Johnson — LB
Gunnar Wilson — LB
Chauncey Johnson — OL
Caleb Hackleman — OL
Nuku Mafi — OL
Armstrong Nnodim — DE
Luke Webb — NT

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