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

STILLWATER — For the first time since 2008, Mike Gundy is preparing a team to travel to Boulder, but Oklahoma State and Colorado are in much different spots since that meeting.

The Cowboys will look to avoid being held winless in Big 12 play, while the Buffaloes can still make the Big 12 title game (and thus the College Football Playoff). Gundy spoke with the media Monday for his regularly scheduled news conference. Here are five things he said. You can watch his full news conference below.

1. Gundy Expects Rangel, Flores and Smith to Return in 2025

The Cowboys’ quarterback situation is all of a sudden a little more interesting heading into 2025.

Garret Rangel, Zane Flores and Maealiuaki Smith could all return to Stillwater. Rangel turned some heads in Provo by breathing life into OSU’s offense, even if it was for only two quarters before breaking his collarbone. Then Smith this past weekend became a beacon of hope for OSU’s fanbase that has been beaten down all season. Flores hasn’t taken a college snap yet, but coming into the year, he was probably the guy that the outside was the most excited about.

Gundy said Monday that he expects all three will be back despite an expected crazy transfer portal window.

“I fully expect after the portal that we’ll have all three of these guys with us,” Gundy said. “Now, I’ve been surprised before, but I feel like they’ll still be in the organization. They’ve been committed to us, and we’ve been committed to them. I think that we’ve done a good job of treating all of them fair and equal, which in my opinion, which it doesn’t matter anymore, but I think that at some point that makes a difference with young men now with the free agency, the portal effect.

“Even at the quarterback position could depend on what happens at other positions. That’s the biggest challenge. I mean, who are we going to be? We think we know who we are, but it’s not that something drastic couldn’t happen to anybody in the country. That’s the one area that once we get settled in five or six months and she mandates this, this federal document on revenue sharing, that we’ll start to get some clarity on how all this is going to work so we can move forward and take this anticipation off of our plate to try to understand how to balance the roster.”

2. On Maealiuaki Smith

So the three-quarterback news was the headline-grabber from the news conference, but zooming in a little bit, Gundy talked about Smith’s big night.

The true freshman earned Big 12 Newcomer of the Week honors for his performance against Texas Tech, leading OSU’s offense to its highest scoring output of the season. He threw for 316 yards and two touchdowns while running for another 13 yards and a score.

Gundy said he hadn’t yet been able to dive too deep into the Tech film because the Cowboys lost a day with their game against Colorado being on a Friday. But, Gundy was impressed with what he saw.

“I’ve watched the offense, but as far as the detail with him because of starting with Colorado, I haven’t really got to him in detail,” Gundy said. “But when I watched it overall, just from a distance, it looked like to me that he played pretty well. And I think you would say he probably played exceptionally well for a true freshman. …

“Well, I think all of it surprised me. Just because you don’t ever know, right? Until we put him out there and let him play. That position is just different until they get out there and they play a whole game and they feel like nobody’s looking over their shoulder and all those different things that you never know how they’re going to react. But I thought he had poise and played with confidence.”

3. The Risks of Entering the Portal

Every year players enter the transfer portal, but not all of those players come out of it.

There could be a lot of that this year as teams try to trim down to the presumed 105 roster limit expected to come from the House v. NCAA settlement. Gundy said there will be some players who know where they’re going before hopping in the portal, but for others who maybe aren’t so sure, they could be deterred by the fact that not everyone who goes in will have the ideal landing spot — if they have one at all.

“It’s going to be really interesting,” Gundy said. “There’s a lot of risk this year. On average, you’re going to be at 30 players per school at the higher levels, that are going to be cut. When you start to trickle them all the way down, as I’ve said before, we’ve done the math on it. You’re around 5,500 to 7,000 young men are going to be looking for a spot. So that will be much different than it has been the last few years. So the portal adjusting, it’s been going for a month. I mean, behind the scenes, calls are being made.

“So in my opinion, the ones that jump in right away are the ones that already know where they’re going. They’ve already worked out a financial deal. They’re just going to sign on and they’re rolling. The ones that might not be so sure have to be a little careful from the standpoint there’s so many out there, how do I know I can land on my feet, if I still want to play football and get my school paid for.”

4. ‘Schools That Want to Win in Football Are Gonna Pay a Ton of Money for Coaches’

With money now needing to be directed to players to get out of the portal, there is now a wonder if that could slow down the coaching carousel that includes massive buyouts.

The on-field results of this college football season have been chaotic, but no power conference team has let go of its head coach to this point. In fact, some schools have come out and said they are sticking with their guy. That could be used as evidence to say that schools are reallocating resources to the players as opposed to coaching contracts, but Gundy said Monday that he thinks if a school wants to win bad enough, it won’t care about the cost when it comes to making coaching changes.

“Schools that want to win in football are gonna pay a ton of money for coaches,” Gundy said. “They don’t care. And then schools that want to win are gonna pay big money for coordinators, and they don’t care. That’s never gonna change. We went through a period of time, I don’t know, maybe 10 years ago when there was a little talk behind the scenes about trying to reset college football from those situations, and it’s only doubled and tripled since then because there’s certain people at certain places that want to win, and they don’t care what it takes to win. They’re gonna do it.

“So, when that happens, coaches will be on the move, coordinators will be on the move. That won’t ever change because they have contracts — legitimate contracts. They have buyouts, and then they have contracts. So the business is cleaner than it is when we’re talking about the portal. I don’t think there will be any comparison there, that’s just my opinion.”

5. ‘We Haven’t Played Anybody That’s as Dangerous As (Shedeur Sanders)’

Gundy spoke extensively Monday on how impressive Travis Hunter’s ability to play both ways at such a high level has been, but he also spoke highly of the guy throwing him the ball.

Many mock drafts have Shedeur Sanders being the first quarterback off the board, if not the first player off the board entirely. Sanders ranks fifth nationally in passing yards this season, having thrown for 3,488 with 30 touchdowns and only seven interceptions.

With the Cowboy defense struggling mightily this season, Gundy said Sanders is the most dangerous quarterback the Cowboys have faced this season.

“We haven’t played anybody that’s as dangerous as him, in my opinion,” Gundy said. “We’ve played some quarterbacks that scare you running and stuff. Guy at Kansas State (Avery Johnson) scares you when he takes off. Guy at West Virginia (Garrett Greene) scares you when he takes off. Guy at Arkansas (Taylen Green) scares you. But this guy scares you in a lot of different areas. He can take off and run, or he can take off and throw it and make big plays because he’s not just finely tuned going to his right. He’s dangerous even going to his left.”