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

STILLWATER — For the first time in the Mike Gundy era, the Cowboys have lost a half-dozen Big 12 games in a row.

Oklahoma State fell to Arizona State 42-21 on Saturday in Boone Pickens Stadium. The loss bumped the Cowboys down to 3-6 on the year and 0-6 in Big 12 play. Here are five things that stood out from Gundy’s postgame news conference. Video of his news conference is below.

1. ‘We Need to do a Better Job Coaching’

After the game in Waco, Gundy harped on a lack of effort from his defense, particularly when it came to pursuit and tackling. He said that was better against Arizona State, but he’s back on his coaching staff.

This isn’t the first time this season Gundy has critiqued OSU’s coaching in the postgame news conference.

“We need to do a better job coaching, in my opinion,” Gundy said. “I need to evaluate the video tonight, but I’m not so sure that I agreed with our schemes. I don’t think it was awful, but there was just some things that I don’t really agree with that I thought we could have done better. So, we need to do a better job of coaching.”

2. Smith Played ‘Pretty Good,’ Gundy Noncommittal on Future QB Snaps

It took the Cowboys going down 42-14, but Maealiuaki Smith made his college debut Saturday night.

A true freshman, Smith can play in every remaining game and still redshirt. He led just one drive, a drive in which OSU scored, against the Sun Devils. Smith was 1-for-2 on his drive with an 11-yard completion to Ayo Shotomide-King. Smith also had a five-yard rush.

“It looked like he played pretty good,” Gundy said. “I thought he handled himself well. The clock was running down a time or two, and he got lined up and got going and kept the ball, ran the ball a little bit and made some good reads. Most of the plays we gave him were read plays. So, it’s a heck of a way to start your career. And he did a good job.”

With the season all but lost at this point, some would argue it would make more sense for Smith to play the rest of the year instead of seventh-year senior Alan Bowman. Gundy didn’t want to say one way or the other after Saturday’s game.

“I mean, I don’t know,” Gundy said. “I’d have to get in there and look. I mean, it’s a valid question — they’re all valid questions — but I would hate to say something and go back on my word or whatever so… But we will look at it. We’ll look and see.”

3. Why the 3-3-5 Has Disappeared

The big selling point on OSU hiring Bryan Nardo was the 3-3-5 defense he ran. OSU doesn’t run that much any more.

Oklahoma State has mostly reverted to the 4-2-5 that Jim Knowles made famous in Stillwater. The Cowboys’ defense has suffered major injury after major injury this season. Premier pass rusher Collin Oliver went down in the Arkansas game and All-American linebacker Nick Martin has been out since the Cowboys’ trip to Kansas State. Gundy pointed to all the injuries as to why the Cowboys are playing more four-down than three-down on the defensive front.

“We’ve had some injuries in both spots, so we really don’t have enough ‘backers to do three-down,” Gundy said. “We’re a little more in position to do four-down from a D-line depth standpoint than we are at the ‘backer because then you gotta play four linebackers for the most part, so that’s really kinda handcuffed us. But that’s another good question because that has gone across the table, but really, we’re rotating three guys in at linebacker, right? So if somebody goes down, you gotta take all that and trash it and then go back to something else.”

4. Effort Was Better Despite Poor Result

The film of OSU’s loss to Baylor last week wasn’t a great look for the Cowboys.

Gundy usually waits to watch the film before stepping too far out on his postgame comments, but even in the immediate aftermath of the Baylor loss, he questioned the Cowboys’ effort. After what was apparently an aggressive week of practice, Gundy said the effort was better Saturday.

“At halftime I watched every play on the tablet and our effort running the ball was much better,” Gundy said. “Last week was awful. This was better. We still got to tackle better. I will say this, that guy (Skattebo), he’s a good runner. He’s going to break some tackles, but I still thought we missed three or four tackles that we should have had.”

5. On Gordon’s Touchdown Getting Waved Off

Gundy was not happy with the officials in the first half, and he had a right to his disgruntlement.

Bowman completed a big pass to De’Zhaun Stribling that got OSU inside the Arizona State 5-yard line. The Pokes rushed to the line, handed to Ollie Gordon and scored a touchdown. But then it was waved off. An Arizona State player had apparently fallen to the turf injured while the Cowboys were running up after Stribling’s catch. But the officials spotted the ball and didn’t stop OSU from snapping it. They even signaled a touchdown when Gordon crossed the goal line.

Gundy let the officials know about his displeasures, walking all the way out to the numbers to argue the call. It seemed sketchy on Arizona State’s part. Gundy also made a Central Michigan reference while discussing it postgame.

“I have a problem with that because if there’s a play run, the play’s run,” Gundy said. “You can’t go back and get do-overs. There’s no mulligans. So that’s why I had a problem with it. I’m not saying that the play should’ve been run. But once it’s run, it’s run. So in my opinion, somebody should’ve stood over the ball. Don’t let us snap the ball.

“But either way, that’s why I was upset because a long time ago, we played a team out here that ran a play that was illegal, and they scored and they counted the game as a loss. Now, I count the game as a win, still to myself. But the point is, why can’t we go back and do that one again, right? So my point is, if the ball got snapped, the ball got snapped. That’s all I know.”