The Top Five Quotes from Mike Gundy’s OSU Media Day News Conference

STILLWATER — After a longer offseason than usual, the Cowboys will play a football game this month.

Oklahoma State held its in-house media day on Saturday, where Mike Gundy and players fielded questions from reporters about the upcoming season. Here are five things that stood out from what Gundy had to say. You can watch his full news conference below.

1. No Starting Quarterback Named

After about a week of fall camp, the OSU quarterback situation appears to very much still be up in the air.

Gundy said it’s hard to even put a timeline on the quarterback battle right now. He said there is a possibility both Zane Flores and Hauss Hejny play in OSU’s Aug. 28 opener against UT-Martin, but that’s not a certainty. It’s unknown.

“I’m not even saying we would be able to play two in the first game — I’m not sure,” Gundy said. “At this point, we don’t have a guy that we would name the starter. So all options are on the table.”

2. Gundy Hoping for an O-Line Two-Deep to Be Established in about Two Weeks

It might not be as flashy as the quarterback battle, but how the Cowboys’ O-line shakes out might be the most important of the position battles taking place during fall camp.

Just about everyone who played meaningful snaps last season is gone outside of Austin Kawecki, who played 120 snaps in 2024. Among returners like Kawecki and Noah McKinney, there are also a lot of players who came to Stillwater via the portal — like Bob Schick (Virginia Tech), Markell Samuel (Appalachian State), Kasen Carpenter (Tulsa), Louie Canepa (New Mexico State) and Grant Seagren (Nebraska).

That position group has three coaches who are all OSU alums in Andrew Mitchell, Cooper Bassett and Grant Garner, and it’ll be paramount that the Cowboys’ O-line gets up and rolling and develops some internal chemistry ahead of the season.

“They’re playing quite a few of them there,” Gundy said. “It’s a big number of transfers that came in there, mature guys. So you gotta evaluate them, and in most cases, we should be able to get to it to a two-deep. You know, when I looked at the schedule, you’d think at those positions you’d be able to get to it to a two-deep around the 20th of August. That way it gives you a week to practice and get ready to start the season.”

3. ‘We Have to Be Able to Run the Ball’

That offensive line talk transitions nicely into OSU’s run game.

The Cowboys ran for just 1,341 yards last season — the fewest they’ve ran for in a year since 2001. That came with the returning Doak Walker winner in Ollie Gordon manning the Pokes’ backfield, but since teams were so keyed on Gordon and the OSU pass game didn’t provide much relief, it made moving the rock on the ground a tough task.

The Cowboys might not have a running back as good as Gordon on this season’s roster, but the running back room is deep. Rodney Fields showed flashes as a true freshman last season, and Trent Howland ran for 5.6 yards a carry on his 41 attempts. The Cowboys also added Freddie Brock, who ran for 819 yards on 5.4 yards a carry at Georgia State last season, and Kalib Hicks, a redshirt sophomore Oklahoma transfer who was one of the stars of the Cowboys’ spring game.

“We have to be able to run the ball,” Gundy said. “We’ve always rushed the football. In years that you have success, you rush the football. So, we’re gonna work hard and run the football. And fortunately, as of right now, we have a number of guys that we’re comfortable with that we feel like can rush the football in a game.”

4. On Tackling

To put it lightly, the Cowboys’ defense wasn’t very good last year.

A significant piece of that comes down to tackling. Gundy was asked Saturday if he expects his group to tackle better in 2025. Gundy pointed that last season’s tackling wasn’t helped by the fact that Collin Oliver and Nick Martin went down with injuries, forcing guys who might be a little undersized to play more than anticipated.

How much tackling goes on in practice has always been a debate among football coaches, and Gundy said this NIL era adds another wrinkle to that debate.

“Like Coach (Bill) Parcells said one time: ‘Don’t expect to tackle good in the game if you don’t tackle in practice, and don’t expect your players to play hard in the game if you don’t practice hard,'” Gundy said. “I don’t think there’s any more truth to that than anything that’s ever been said. But now you’re tackling guys that are making a million dollars a year. Kind of want those guys to get out there and play. I mean, that’s really a part of what we do. Now, if you never thought about it, we never thought about it that way, but now there’s guys getting tackled out there, they’re making a bunch of money, and you’re like, a lot of money is invested in those guys. Need to get them out there and play. 

“So we address tackling. We practice it. I do believe this, been watching it for a long, long time — I think that the best tackling teams are going to be the most athletic teams and teams that would be in the middle from an athletic standpoint … the time that we spend teaching it and working on it in a manner than can actually help them on game day is going to be very, very important, and we’re doing that.”

5. Who Are OSU’s Best Players?

With a roster filled with newcomers, it’s hard for anyone — including the head coach — to say who will standout for the Cowboys at just about every position this year.

Gundy was asked simply who is best players are now that he’s a week in fall camp.

“Not sure,” Gundy said. “I don’t know that we know. …

“You’re back to a major transition of total number of people. You don’t necessarily know who your best players are. Not like you’re coming back with a guy like Ollie (Gordon) or Spencer (Sanders) or Marcel Ateman or any of those guys.”